“I struggled in a real way with mental health in my mid to late twenties. I had just run too hard. Far too hard. I felt like I put in too much and I wasn’t paying enough attention or being kind enough to myself. It all kind of came crashing down in a big hurry and I just had a lot of anxiety and depression in my late twenties. I had to sort of rethink how I approach things. Diet was a huge part of it. Movement was a huge part of it. And I think just discovering what was going on in myself was a big part of it. It was also a time where I had a lot of family and work things that weren’t going the right way. All of a sudden I was in a spot where I didn’t get out of bed for a month. The doctors didn’t diagnose me. They thought maybe it was Lyme’s or different things. It was all in my mental health that I needed some real work. Rethinking how I was approaching life and food became a much bigger focus of mine. Also, this idea of being more kind and being more gentle on myself, even in my workouts. I would push myself so hard that I was just like killing myself and I realized that I don’t feel good and if I can integrate something more gentle, it’s more sustainable and my body found it more effective. I learned so much. I had a whole number of things going. I had a support group of people. I had a counselor that I saw. At the same time, even though I didn’t want to get out of bed some days, I helped start this garden. I felt this drive to do it. It was at the same time I was finding it difficult to even want to move out of bed, but I knew this was important in my life, so a group of 6 of us started this garden. It was a very challenging time in my life. I have a whole different perspective now. You know, you move through these challenging times in your life and you kind of awaken to a new self through that process and I’m sort of in that place right now.”