Olya stayed in Kyiv. She didn’t evacuate, and in the first days friends came to stay — some for a night, some for longer — and so they lived together for months: nine people in a two-room apartment, a dog, and a broken lift.
She needed to find resources somewhere. She thought about what she could do outside in winter, without any equipment — and arrived at the simplest answer: running.
“WHEN YOU RUN, BREATHING SWITCHES ON AUTOMATICALLY. I CAN’T BREATHE LIKE THAT IN ANY OTHER SITUATION. EVEN WHEN I SIT AND DO BREATHING EXERCISES — THEY DON’T WORK. BUT HERE IT JUST COMES ON ITS OWN.”
Once she was running along the Dnipro and suddenly breathed so deeply that months of stress she hadn’t even noticed simply left her body — and she understood that this was what relief felt like.
Every morning, before everything else began, she put on her running shoes and went out — reclaiming one hour for herself. Just hers. No alerts, no responsibility for others. Just breathing and movement.
“This is my therapist. When I know something has built up inside — I just put on my shoes and go.”
Project: Healing Land.Voices Voice: Olya Location: Kyiv, Ukraine
