I found the book quite informative and I definitely learned some new things from it. What bothered me about this was how repetitive some things were. Besides that it was an ok read and I definitely don't regret reading this book. I listened to the audiobook of this, which is narrated by the author, and really enjoyed this format. It was engaging, interesting, educational, honest and at times, quite funny. The author has been through a lot and she never sugar coated things or pretended they were easier than they were. But, it also wasn’t a sob story. She found the perfect balance between talking about challenges and hard times, and giving hope for the future.

Even while Bella was still a young child, she was very anxious. Everything scared her – from surreal pieces of art to specific songs to the noises generated from cars. Her stomach, as well as her chest, usually hurt with worry. When she attended school parties, she would get a strong sense of fear; something would just feel wrong. The stories of Bella and Sara’s are inspirational; however, they bring about a disturbing question as well: If running is really great, then what is the reason why more of us aren’t doing it?Think of current research from Stanford University, whereby some participants took a long nature walk, whereas the other participants strolled through an urban surrounding. The researchers discovered that the participants who walked in nature used less time thinking about their sad or negative thoughts. She had an insight during those early jogs. Whenever she ran, she became less sad, and her mind got quieter. For those few minutes of physical workout, she wasn’t thinking about her divorce or her husband dating other people. As a matter of fact, she wasn’t thinking about it that much at all. After years of her brain tying itself up in knots with frightening, intrusive feelings, this quietness was a big relief.

Now that she knows of these entire advantages, Bella attempts to run in nature as much as possible as she can. On one occasion, after a bad week where a close friend of hers had passed away, Bella jogged along the beautiful Irish coastline. Hit by the wind and seagulls for company, her morbid feelings of grief disappeared from her mind.

This book was ok. I'm generally not that much of an nonfiction reader so I guess me not being the biggest fan of this memoir isn't all that surprising. Chapter 5 – Working out in nature offers your mental health an additional boost –a thing Bella personally felt.

When she hit 30 that year, she remembers thinking everything felt different. “I started running and continued seeing the therapist … all the worries and panic and irrational thoughts and not being able to get out of bed went away. I was able to live on my own for the first time and travel and do all the things I couldn’t do in my 20s. It felt like a new lease of life. I felt like a human being and not like a sad, empty shell pretending to be a human being which is what my 20s felt like”. Anxious even as a very small child, I had let my worries fester, take control, and dominate my life. Mental health problems had stunted my own growth, leaving me too scared to take on challenges. I quit things when they got hard. I turned down opportunities that would push me, or give me independence. I preferred being small. She was very nervous to visit a gym or a park; therefore, she discovered a private alleyway near her home instead. She simply succeeded to run for just three minutes that evening she started, and she did more of walking in between. However, later on; she discovered something extraordinary: she hadn’t cried for a complete quarter of an hour. MyHome.ie (Opens in new window) • Top 1000 • The Gloss (Opens in new window) • Recruit Ireland (Opens in new window) • Irish Times Training (Opens in new window) Podcasts and music help They distract me when I get bored, or tired. More importantly, at the beginning, they made my brain concentrate on something other than worry.I found this book so helpful! As someone who suffers from anxiety and is a (very) amateur runner, this book helped me better understand how running can help quiet my brain chatter. I found the honesty about mental health really refreshing and learned a lot about other forms of anxiety. It also inspired me to get out and run on days when I really didn’t want to! Well, it has more to do with a hormone known as cortisol. Cortisol is a stress hormone you’re your body produces when its fight or flight response is activated. Scientists have discovered that when you workout, your cortisol levels reduce, making you feel less stressed later. Five years since that first run, Bella is a confirmed runner for life. “I hope I’ll carry on running until my knees nally give out. Running is a life-long love for me now.” I’ve now discovered the author has more of a runners journal with practical guides which is probably more like the book I actually wanted so I’ll try this.