💪 Broken, the Gym, and Me: Sweating, Laughing, and Feeling Seen

Jun 8, 2021
2 min read

Updated: 7 days ago

💪 Broken, the Gym, and Me: Sweating, Laughing, and Feeling Seen

As I started back into my gym routine, I decided to bring a friend — not a real, sweaty workout partner (those people scare me), but Jenny Lawson’s Broken (in the Best Possible Way) on Audible.

There I was, pedaling away on a stationary bike, sweating like a champ, while laughing at the absurd, raw, and painfully relatable moments of Jenny’s life. If anyone was watching, they probably thought I was losing it — grinning one minute, sniffling the next.

But honestly? It was perfect.

🧠 Broken but Still Moving

Autoimmune diseases, random body aches, and the whole grab bag of mental and emotional crap that comes with life — I’ve got my share. Add anxiety, depression, or the occasional WTF is wrong with me? spiral, and you’ve got a full workout before you even hit the gym.

Listening to Broken felt like hearing from a friend who gets it — one who doesn’t sugarcoat the hard stuff but still manages to make you laugh so hard you forget for a moment that you’re struggling.

Jenny Lawson — aka The Bloggess — has this wild, wonderful ability to make weirdness feel like home. Every time I dive into one of her books, I’m either working out or traveling, because apparently, that’s the only way I can sit still long enough to listen. Reading requires staying in one place and being calm… and yeah, that’s not my skill set.

☀️ “Dogs Won’t Go Blind Staring at the Eclipse?”

That’s the kind of random brilliance that makes her books magic. Her brain wanders — mine does too. Maybe yours does. And somewhere in the chaos, we find comfort.

The humor, the heartbreak, the awkward moments — it’s all there. And somehow, in her mess, I see my own. Only hers is better edited and way funnier.

💬 If You Need a Friend

If you live with anxiety, depression, chronic illness, or just feel like life sometimes throws too much at once, Broken is the kind of book that wraps you in a hug and says, “You’re not alone, you magnificent disaster.”

We crave understanding — not pity. And this book gives that in spades. You’ll feel seen. You’ll feel understood. And you’ll probably laugh out loud in public.

So yeah — buy the book, listen to the audiobook, or do both. It’s therapy with bonus snort-laughs.

🌧️ I Feel It in My Bones

As I left the gym, sweaty and smiling, the sky was gray, thick with the promise of rain that hadn’t come yet. And I felt that — deep in my bones.

That’s how healing feels sometimes. You can sense it coming before it arrives. You move your body. You laugh at someone else’s chaos. And you remember — being broken doesn’t mean you’re done. It just means you’re still becoming.