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I started running after a long battle with anxiety that began during a mission trip in 2011. I had an amazing opportunity to go to Salvador, Brazil, to serve the community.
When I first arrived, I was shown to my bunk for the next couple weeks. I had a small spot to put my belongings, and shared a bathroom with six others. There was no air conditioner, so the windows stayed open at all times. It wasn’t the safest neighborhood. There were bars on the windows, an electric fence surrounding the home, and a guard that stayed at the front door during the night. I was way out of my comfort zone.
Every morning a van dropped the volunteers off at their assigned location. I was with children at a local “daycare” that parents could take their children to for free.
We would bathe the children, feed them their only meal of the day, and pour as much laughter and fun into them as we could before sending them back home for the evening. I saw the tiny one-bedroom homes that they would go to with only dirt on the ground and no running water. But the silver lining was seeing their pure joy at the simplest things.
When I came home to America, I felt immense guilt for the lives of luxury most of us live in and take for granted.
My anxiety really took root shortly after this trip when we lost our first pregnancy with twins. I became so bogged down with anxiety that I literally did not want to move from the couch. It was a horrible cycle because I knew my feelings were irrational, yet I couldn’t stop them. I would ruminate on something tiny, and in my head make it a really big issue. I then would find myself crying and spending hours on the internet trying to figure out what was wrong with me.  I started running after a long battle with anxiety that began during a mission trip in 2011. I had an amazing opportunity to go to Salvador, Brazil, to serve the community.
When I first arrived, I was shown to my bunk for the next couple weeks. I had a small spot to put my belongings, and shared a bathroom with six others. There was no air conditioner, so the windows stayed open at all times. It wasn’t the safest neighborhood. There were bars on the windows, an electric fence surrounding the home, and a guard that stayed at the front door during the night. I was way out of my comfort zone.
Every morning a van dropped the volunteers off at their assigned location. I was with children at a local “daycare” that parents could take their children to for free.
We would bathe the children, feed them their only meal of the day, and pour as much laughter and fun into them as we could before sending them back home for the evening. I saw the tiny one-bedroom homes that they would go to with only dirt on the ground and no running water. But the silver lining was seeing their pure joy at the simplest things.
When I came home to America, I felt immense guilt for the lives of luxury most of us live in and take for granted.
My anxiety really took root shortly after this trip when we lost our first pregnancy with twins. I became so bogged down with anxiety that I literally did not want to move from the couch. It was a horrible cycle because I knew my feelings were irrational, yet I couldn’t stop them. I would ruminate on something tiny, and in my head make it a really big issue. I then would find myself crying and spending hours on the internet trying to figure out what was wrong with me. |
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| Grab the nearest bench and start strengthening, head to toe. |
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| Plus it's $100 off right now! |
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| And no—sustainability doesn't mean compromised performance. |
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| This condition can affect the joints—but it doesn’t have to stop you from chasing miles. |
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| Ultra-athlete Robbie Balenger aimed to see if he could run farther than a fully charged Tesla Model 3. The result was closer than you think. |
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The Latest from the RW Collection |
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