This new NASA image of our sun is like an inspirational mandala, particularly designed for you to help you in healing from your eating disorder. It shows us the fiery wonder of our personal star.

It's a mass of seething explosions, yet it holds its shape and position in space.  It consists of powerful forces that could destroy anything of mere human creation yet is the source of life for all of us on this planet.

You also contain inner seething fires.  If you have an eating disorder you

will binge or binge and purge to stop those feelings. Or you will starve to make yourself incapable of feeling. Or, you will be unable to contain your passions and explode on the people around you wounding or destroying relationships. Yet your inner passions are the source of your inspirations that make living worthwhile.

Baltasar Gracian says in his 8th maxim:

"Even when passion affects your person, don't let it affect your position, least of all when the position is an important one. This is a wise way to avoid trouble and a shortcut to the esteem of others."

Easy for him to say! Please remember that this is not a feat to accomplish through will power and control. It's a way of being in the world that you develop over time with specific practices that strengthen your ability to feel while stabilizing your position in space at the same time.

In the beginning you need help.  Look at the picture.  Look at the intensity of those fires.  You have an eating disorder because these feelings are unbearable. In recovery your feelings don't go away.  You become more capable and more developed so you can feel them and maintain your equilibrium.

If you are in the throes of an eating disorder right now you might think that recovery means you have to be tough enough to feel that passionate anquish forever.  But that's not what happens.  You become more whole so you can draw on your inner fires to create a life that is deeply meaningful to you.

How this is done is what eating disorder healing work is all about. 

What is your experience with fiery passions?  When can you hold them? When are they overwhelming? How do you help yourself cope with them?