Experience of Crisis If you have an eating disorder then you experience a crisis when you perceive, real or not, that the presence of a constant, reliable, important and nourishing something or someone leaving you. Your feeling of being adrift and alone in a vast emptiness with nothing to hold on to and where no one can reach you or even know where you are is unbearable. Regardless of what eating disorder you have you will feel the urge to do what works for you during periods of real or perceived loss.
Reaction Depending on the severity of your disorder and the severity of the loss, real or remembered, you may binge on food or exercise or go into starvation mode.
Doors can open for you if you knock or simply turn the handle.
Here you can find articles that may answer your questions and support you in your personal recovery work.
You'll also find a series of inspirations and affirmation that may help you stay on your healing path.
Please remember, helping yourself does not mean going it alone. Helping yourself means discovering what what you can do to support your own recovery. That includes how to recognize opportunity and reach out for what supports your health and personal development.
When you help yourself you are looking to people as well as books, websites and classes, who are in a position to offer you genuine recovery help on your journey to healing.
Open new doors to find your recovery path.
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I love it when science catches up with ancient wisdom and makes wisdom "evidence based." This brain function information is so very important for eating disorder recovery.
Brain Function Research Findings
The research findings are not just about the aging brain. They also applies to brains that have gotten stuck in rigid thinking and have been deprived of nourishment on every level. Every person who has struggled with an eating disorder can give themselves a recovery boost by honoring and nourishing the physicality of their brain. And that means eating enough nourishing food and giving yourself nourishing mind experiences.
To keep your mind functioning well, to bring up to speed a rigid and limited mind set, to break the "spell" of outmoded regimented thinking or obsessive thoughts, wisdom of the East has told us for thousands of years, go to beginner mind.
Beginner Mind
Beginner mind? Yes. It doesn't mean to become a child. It means to start fresh with no acquired knowledge and let yourself develop. Your development will probably occur in new ways and lead you to new ways of thinking, relating, problem solving and creating.
If you are a dancer and want to be a better dancer, learn to sculpt. If you are a writer and want to be a better writer, learn to dance. Start anything at all where you have to learn from the beginning awkward stages and you will improve your brain function and your mind's ability to think and create.
The article in the New York Times, "How to Train the Aging Brain" spells the process out nicely and in easy to understand detail.
(mind)...stretching is exactly what scientists say best keeps a brain in tune: get out of the comfort zone to push and nourish your brain. Do anything from learning a foreign language to taking a different route to work.
How To Grow Your Brain and Stretch Your Mind
Examples that are easy to bring into your life:
Brush your teeth with your other hand.
Flip your mouse to your non-dominant hand
Switch your kitchen drawers around so dishes, pots and pans and silverware are in different places
Hold your phone with your other hand
More Challenging:
Draw with your non-dominant hand
Write with your non dominant hand
More challenging:
Take a class in something you are interested in but know nothing about
Learn math
Study the geography of where you live or where you were born
Even More Challenging:
Go to a lecture or event where you know in advance you disagree with the major premise
Read an article or book all the way through where you disagree with what the writer is saying
Grow:
Without anger, accusations, name calling or glittering generalities, write a clear, thoughtful and honest comment on blog posts, youtube showings, website articles, newspaper articles in which you disagree and present your position.
Give your brain cells the opportunity to stretch and grow. They will help you stretch and grow into eating disorder recovery - a very nice place to be.
Please share your experience with mind stretching!
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Exercise 1
At least three times a day – upon rising, mid day and before going to sleep say aloud
three times or more:
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Coping with the pain and turmoil in a life governed by an eating disorder can tempt you into making to do lists. You want positive change in your life. Why not just make a list of what you want to change, and follow your own directions in an orderly manner? A "To Do" list can seem like your solution. Can it work, or is it a set up for failure?
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Your Triumphant Journey through overeating to freedom will introduce you to many new feelings, ideas and opportunities. Here are listed some forms of support, help, inspiration, guidance and possible sources of joy and new friends which you can choose to access.
Some of these suggestions are obvious in that they relate directly to overeating. Others may surprise you since they relate to causes of overeating which may remain unknown to you. Still others relate to developing strength to meet your challenges. Others yet, relate to nourishing unknown wells of creativity and sources of joy within you waiting to be realized.
Experiment with these areas. Let yourself be surprised at the benefits you might reap. Give yourself, not one, but lots of opportunities to heal, grow and be happy in this life.
1. Read books and articles about overeating. They can increase your understanding of your behavior and your history with food.
2. Listen to relaxing audio tapes. They can help you internally soothe yourself.
3. Keep a journal. Writing your thoughts, feelings, reactions, dreams and fantasies can help bring unknown aspects of yourself to your attention.
4. Build and maintain contact with kind and supportive people. This can help you gain new perspectives about yourself. You can begin to learn what you have to offer others, and how you can have more positive relationships in your life.
Programs such as Overeaters Anonymous and Al-Anon can introduce you to people who understand your struggle with overeating and too much self sacrifice.
5. Other 12 step programs may be helpful to you. When you hear people describe feelings and histories similar to your own you may be free to feel or know something that has been lost to your conscious awareness.
6. Meet regularly with a psychotherapist who understands the underlying issues of eating disorders. This can be helpful as your history unfolds and your secrets emerge.
7. Explore your relationship with your body. Give yourself the opportunity to release the tensions and emotions your body has been carrying for years. Give yourself the opportunity to discover what joy you can feel as your body becomes more strong and flexible.
- Take a dance class.
- Participate in a sport.
- Do yoga on a regular basis.
- Do some kind of aerobics exercise regularly.
8. Explore the creative arts. Give your newly emerging feelings and ideas opportunity for expression. You may not be able to say in words what these new feelings are. But you may be able to paint them or sculpt them or dance to them.
Take a class in anything creative:
- painting
- sculpting
- dance
- gardening
- flower arranging
- home or office design
- web page design
9. Take on a learning project where you are a total beginner. Start to learn a skill in which you have no previous training or background. Putting yourself in the position of being a beginner, being kind and supportive to yourself as you are awkward and open, will give you appreciation for what you can learn and become.
It will also teach you the value of being kind to yourself as your new skills develop and become proficient over time. Patience and kindness for yourself over time is very important for a successful Triumphant Journey.
10. Read personal affirmations out loud several times every morning. Read them out loud to your furniture, garden and pets. Read them out loud to your face in the mirror.
Pick one or more from the Affirmations Lists [1]and [2] and consistently read them every morning for 30 days. After 30 days, add, subtract or change your choices. Then read your new choices out loud every morning for 30 days.
Pick the statements that you want to be true for you. You can't make a mistake in which you choose or how many you choose. This is a way to nourish your deep self in precisely the way you need in the moment.
You may be spending a great deal of time, money, emotional grief, numbness and energy in isolation because of your food related behavior. How much energy you put toward the forms of help listed in this section depends on how ready and willing you are to respect and work toward a better life.
You may be willing but only ready to do a little for yourself right now. That's okay. That's your beginning and beginning is what counts.
You can choose any, all, or a combinations of these options. There need not be any competition here. Each of these avenues help empower, inform, support, encourage and allow you to become strong enough to know and