For A Young Widow, CrossFit Is More Than Just a Workout

Not everyone’s route to recovery looks the same, and sometimes, the path we take to get there leads to unlikely places.

Just two years into marriage, Samantha lost her husband to cancer. CrossFit became an unexpected source of healing for her.

“What I love about CrossFit is that it is constantly an opportunity to surprise yourself that you can do it and that you can find strength to get through something,” she shares.

There is great value in leaning on others during our healing process. There is also incredible meaning in discovering self-reliance, and sometimes, that comes with being willing to look for healing in places we would not expect to find it.

Like Samantha, we may surprise ourselves by discovering that we possess the strength we need to carry on.

Video Transcript

Samantha Smith: What I love about CrossFit is that it is constantly an opportunity to surprise yourself that you can do it and that you can find strength to get through something. But more so, the draw for me initially was that it was truly the only hour of the day that I wasn’t thinking about Andrew, that I wasn’t constantly sad.

Because I was so focused on the physical pain and so focused on what it was going to take to get through the next hour, that it really allowed me to shut off my brain and just find some rest in that. So ironically, CrossFit gave me rest. So it’s been quite a parallel with my life, and it’s just become a really great outlet and joy for me.