My name is Aspen, and I have bipolar disorder. I wanted this front and center because it is about embracing this part of me, the journey I had to take to get there and now helping others. I did not truly understand nor fully suffer from the stigma of having bipolar disorder until I was evicted because of it. I will share more of this story as it is a story of survival, truly finding and more importantly understanding myself and figuring out what will actually work for me having the mental health challenges that I do and leaping into the deep end by starting a business.

As I went from being homeless and terrified to homefree and happy, I tried very hard to follow my wonderful therapist’s advice to find ways to practice self-care and self-soothing. I want to share what helped me.

One is a low-cost subscription service that contains content that helps with mood regulation and meditation especially in times of intense distress as I found myself in. It will also have tips on how to live in a very small space as I still currently reside in the back of my Bronco and most importantly I want to share how it is that I went from not being able to process any of what happened to me to figuring out how to free myself from the shackles of shame and worthlessness, so I could right the kayak and enjoy the waves. Shame exists because you can’t talk about something for fear of how it will be received. The first step in being able to overcome it is having an internal dialogue about it, but those words are incredibly hard to find. So please take mine and think of them as being the equivalent of an extra paddler in the canoe with you as you bravely face the waves yourself.

The other is providing items that I found along my voyage that I truly enjoy and that have helped me. At the moment, it's a few items that I’m able to share now that I hope inspire others to come up with their own ideas. Because my car is my home I enjoy decorating it, and I do it with bumper stickers. The ones I will offer will be inspired by my time on the road and water as my Bronco and I set out on an adventure to find me.

As you will see from the subscription content, I found being by water to be extremely calming and as I started to embrace who I really am I realized that life is not straightforward and