Run Towards Healing
Feb 12, 2026
Run Toward It
I used to think I was brave because I could run.
Not in the physical sense, I’ve never been the kind of person chasing finish lines or medals, that’s my husband, and he’s good at it! But I was a runner in a different way. When things felt overwhelming, when conflict surfaced, when emotions rose higher than I knew how to manage, I ran.
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I ran from hard conversations. I ran from disappointment. I ran from my own pain.
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Avoidance can feel like protection when you’re young. It feels safer to shut down than to speak up. It feels easier to stay busy than to sit still with what hurts. And for a while, I convinced myself that distancing, minimizing, or pretending was strength.
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But maturing has a way of revealing what coping mechanisms actually cost us.
Over time, I began to recognize the danger in running away from hard things. Avoiding pain doesn’t erase it, it buries it. And buried pain has a way of resurfacing; in impatience, defensiveness, anxiety, strained rela...
