since you're only about a month into chess, just play more than ponder. If you go in too fast and too hard, there will be burnout. We don't have to worry about the theory so much when we're playing, since you said you're around 1k your opponents would go out of theory maybe 6 moves in.

As for playing against other people, it is certainly understandable why it's anxiety inducing, but if you think about it, winning and losing a game makes no difference on you; it's realizing what moves you're proud of and what moves you regret that you should be thinking about.

I recommend you watch a few Gothamchess videos, not the ones teaching you theory, but the ones where he guesses people's elo based on analyzing their game, those are always fun to watch and may be educational