Music credits and more information can be found here: https://wp.me/pdcjXL-6b Shawna Caspi's biography describes her as, “a singer, a poet, a painter, a fingerstyle guitar player,” and explains: After touring her last album relentlessly, Shawna took a break to rest, reflect, and focus on songwriting. It was in those moments of stillness and solitude that she confronted her own experience of burnout, anxiety, and struggle with self-worth. In working through the shadowy parts of herself, Shawna discovered more ways to practice gratitude and appreciate little victories. This process of slowing down and looking inward resulted in her most raw, honest, and personal writing. She strives to tell the truth, even when it’s uncomfortable, to empower listeners to come to terms with the parts of themselves and the world that they might find scary, and to look for hope in the dark. Shawna’s album comes out on August 27, but you can preorder the CD or the postcards with her beautiful artwork at shawnacaspi.com or through Bandcamp. Again, I’ve got a little left over from my chat with Shawna that I’ll share on the July 18 episode of my other show, Tell the Band to Go Home. Check that out at tellthebandtogohome.com Anxiety, like other mental illnesses, can be scary and isolating. These illnesses can be severely detrimental to a person’s wellbeing and quality of life, and can even be deadly. Luckily, there are a lot of treatments available, so these illnesses are manageable and you can make life a lot better by getting help. I always recommend starting with a visit to a doctor, but if your doctor isn’t being as helpful as you’d like or just gives you that list of strangers that you could call, find another doctor or reach out to an organization like The Canadian Mental Health Association (cmha.ca) or here in Manitoba we have a great organization called Anxiety Disorders Association of Manitoba (adam.mb.ca) but there are similar organizations in most areas.