Chasing sunrises, navigating loss, finding a path forward

Truthfully, I’ve been wanting to get to know today’s podcast guest—Jennifer Symons—for some time now. Jennifer, 37, and I live in the same area, in Michigan’s northern lower peninsula. We’re also both passionate about spending time in nature and believe deeply in the power of moving our bodies—Jennifer is a runner, hiker, walker and triathlete—and what it means for our mental health. She also shares gorgeous moments from her outdoor adventures on her Instagram account; if you’re not already following her at Run Leelanau, I highly recommend you start. And yet, for all the time we’ve known of each other, we’ve never met in person. Hopefully that changes soon—we made some plans for this. But in the meantime, I am just so grateful to have the opportunity to sit with her and have this conversation I invite you all to listen to by clicking on the play button above or by downloading using your favorite podcast app. In this latest episode of the occasional Moving Through podcast, Jennifer and I talk about mental health, grief and loss, how she continues to move through the experience of losing her dad in the last year, what the other side of her divorce looks like, her newer love of combining swimming, biking and running—she has some big races on her calendar this year—and so much more. “I don’t have any sadness about being divorced anymore. I’m really happy to be on my own. I get to be my own person and I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to learn about myself throughout that marriage … but to kind of take that growth to the next level now that I’m not in that marriage.” I can’t wait for you all to meet and get to know Jennifer, a mental health clinician who is dedicated to helping raise awareness of better mental health through her involvement in the organization Still I Run. We talk about this Michigan-based, nationally recognized organization during the episode and you can learn more about it by listening to this previous podcast conversation I had with Still I Run founder Sasha Wolff below. Still I Run is the nation’s first nonprofit dedicated to promoting the benefits of running for mental health. Thank you for reading and listening. If something you hear in this conversation resonates with you, I’d love to hear from you! Another way to let me know you’re liking these kinds of conversations: please tap the ❤️ button below—this also helps others find Moving Through and I would love nothing more than to grow and strengthen this community. And if you’d like to support my work here—and have access to the full archive of essays, interviews and resources—please consider upgrading your subscription. My goal is to connect with as many of you as possible and keep growing this community, which means I’m sharing, for now, my new posts and episodes with all subscribers. Your financial support, if you’re able to give it, helps me do this. I’ll be back here again soon—one more week until my UK writing retreat and I look forward to sharing with you all!! Until next time, Heather Get full access to Moving Through at movingthrough.substack.com/subscribe