We recently connected with Nita Sweeney and have shared our conversation below.

Nita, thanks for joining us, excited to have you contributing your stories and insights. Let’s jump right into how you came up with the idea?

While discussing my next book idea with my editor at Mango Publishing, Brenda Knight, she asked about the short, movement meditation videos I’d begun to post on social media. “What about a book centered around those?” My first book, Depression Hates a Moving Target, had been a running and mental health memoir. I hoped the next book would center on mindfulness meditation. But we didn’t want to lose the “movement’ audience. Hence, Make Every Move a Meditation: Mindful Movement for Mental Health, Well-Being, and Insight was born.

I’d been meditating for more than twenty-five years at that point and taught meditation in various formats for nearly as long. And, when I began running in middle age, I quickly realized I could meditate while I ran, doubling the benefits. The combination offered the physical, emotional, and cognitive benefits of both movement and meditation. It wasn’t quite rocket fuel, but close.

Because I have struggled with mental health challenges for most of my life, it breaks my heart when I see others who haven’t found the full toolkit for managing the symptoms. I knew I had to share what I’d learned.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your background and context?

I’m the award-winning author of three books about running, meditation, mental health, writing, and dogs. I publish the monthly ezine, Write Now Columbus. I’m also a mental health advocate, certified meditation teacher, ultramarathoner, wife and dog mom.

I look good on paper so it’s important for me to show people what’s behind the diplomas and awards. Behind the scenes, I write, run, meditate, spend time with my husband and our dog, see a therapist, and still take medications although far fewer than before I combined meditation and running. I want to help others, but I spend a lot of time and energy doing my best to stay on the planet. When I can, I share the tools I’ve learned.

Followers think of me as that bipolar woman from Ohio who loves unicorns and meditates while running insanely long distances, often with her dog.

What do you think is the goal or mission that drives your creative journey?

While I claim the title “mental health advocate,” my own mental health still challenges me. This makes it important for me to be real, vulnerable, authentic. That’s my mission. I don’t know any magic spells or cure-all methods. I only know what works for me on any given day. I aim to share that with others while honoring that each of us is “an experiment of one.” I can’t tell you what will work for you, but I will encourage you to try things, odd things, things you’re certain won’t work, until you find the tools that do.

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

As I type this, I’m recovering from a fluke “cardiac episode.” My husband contracted food poisoning, got very sick and dehydrated. He eventually passed out. When I called 911, something happened to me which caused a heart phenomenon called “broken heart syndrome.” Gratefully, my husband is fine and I am expected to fully recover in three to nine months.

In the meantime, however, I cannot use one of my primary mental health tools. I cannot run.

As a result, I’ve had to redouble my efforts in other areas. That means therapy more often, many more pages of writing practice, more hours of meditation, and awareness of the negative stories I tell myself. It also requires acceptance followed by action (which sometimes means a very long nap). While 2020 ruined the word “pivot” for many of us, that’s exactly what I’m forced to do right now. And that’s why I always need more than one mental health tool in my kit. I never know when I will have to rely on a different tool.

Call that resilience or call it learning from my past mistakes, but that’s where life has taken me.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://nitasweeney.com
• Instagram: https://instagram.com/nitasweeney
• Facebook: https://facebook.com/groups/mindmoodandmovement
• Linkedin: https://linkedin.com/in/nitasweeney
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/nitasweeney
• Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCucD_U0uPtRTHvyryeU2_1Q
• Other: https://tiktok.com/@nitasweeney Free Meditation Myths Infographic: https://nitasweeney.com/meditation-myths/

Image Credits
Ed Sweeney, Wesley Carroll