July 27, 2025 — Lawrence Sharrett, M.Ed, M.Div., MSc
Running & Resilience
Today was my first time to train on the actual route of the Authentic Athens Marathon. There are markers at each kilometer throughout the 42 km route from the town of Marathon all the way to Panathenaic Stadium in the center of Athens.
Running is one of my favorite things to do to take care of myself physically and mentally.
Something I have noticed: When my running stops, something is out of balance.
Something else I have noticed: The motivation to run can come from several places. Maybe it’s from painful life experiences. Maybe it’s anger from present life experiences and injustices in the world. If we’re fortunate, maybe it’s from a place of joy and wellness. Most often, it’s a combination of those, as well as some other factors.
This dynamic plays out across interests and professions, so it’s worth our reflection for any part of our lives. For example, the motivation to work hard at anything comes from resourceful or other sources of motivation. Understanding some of these factors personally can benefit a person’s “why” for life.
In my journey, I have also found some reflective questions about stress and resilience to be a useful tool to consider the correlation between running and resilience, between running and stress, or between [enter wellness practice] and resilience/stress.
An honest and careful reflection about this chart and the correlation between our stress and our resilience or our resilience and our “running” [your favorites] will greatly benefit a person who is feeling out of balance. Oftentimes, a person will go deeper if the person authentically processes some of this with a trusted professional; nonetheless, progress essentially is an experience that stems from the responsible initiative of the individual.
Wishing us all success as we find our best ways of taking care of ourselves.
For those in people-helping professions, or for leaders seeking to make positive systemic changes, the ongoing discovery of these truths, amidst the changing seasons of life, will help us be more grounded so that we can better serve others and so that we can better add our “drop of water” to the ocean of injustices in this world.
For more information or to schedule a consultation, email me at: sharrettcounseling@gmail.com
