Fighting Goliath

  A Day Outside My Comfort Zone             I am mindful about my anxieties in a public place or when I drive my car. Anxieties keep me from having a productive day. It is easy for me to just be inside my apartment where I do not have to worry about people talking about me in public. Inside my apartment I do not feel that someone is going to hurt me. However, I have found some ways for me to let my guard down and escape the comfort zone of my apartment.             I talked to my dad the night before and told him I had an early hair appointment. He suggested I go for breakfast after the appointment. My immediate thought was, “No way.” I remembered the stress of feeling like I had to keep the conversation going at my barber shop so that my barber and the other customers would not think I had some kind of issue going on. That stress would be enough for the day. No, I woul...

 The Hammer: Something to Ignore  Schizophrenia Bulletin, Volume 44, Issue 3, May 2018, Page 468, https://doi.org/10.1093/schbul/sbv222   I try to walk every day. Occasionally I clean up the trash on the side of the road. You never know what you are going to find. Today I didn’t take a bag to put the trash in, because I felt the sidewalk would be clean from the last time I picked up the trash. However, while walking along today, I found a hammer. I picked up the hammer and held onto it for a moment thinking: There are a few school bus stops on this road. There is a high school a couple of blocks away. I kept walking with the hammer thinking that I didn’t want one of the kids to get hurt by the hammer. Sometimes I feel like Boo Radley, the character in Too Kill a Mocking Bird, who was a recluse. I don’t like feeling this way, so I try to be friendly to my neighbors saying, hi to them and smiling. I continued walking with the hammer in my hand to the intersection and back l...