Writing Healing Your Hungry Heart

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Category: Healing Resources

Writing Healing Your Hungry Heart was an amazing journey for me.

For those of you who are not writers, please know that writing a book is not about sitting down and writing a book.  Some of it is, of course.  But much of is writing a few paragraphs and then questioning those words. 

Is that true?

Is that a fair statement?

Is this too simple for a complex experience?

Do I need to say more before and after these paragraphs so the women I have in mind will understand and, perhaps identify?

Am I leaving out material I think is too private to present? 

Is that fair?

Can I present disturbing material in a respectful way that encourages the reader? 

And so many more questions.

So writing HHH involved long walks with my terrier, Winston, while I explained my struggles to him and the trees and the sky. It involved my building a rock garden so I could see what I felt through the actions of my body and catch the meaningful issue.  This might not make sense. How can building a rock garden relate to eating disorder recovery and writing a book?

In making that rock garden my greatest challenge was creating a graceful bridge between one major section and the other. Once I worked that out with sweat and heavy lifting in service of my creative eye and internal sense of balance I realized that creating balance and transition was my stumbling place in HHH.  That's when I went back to work knowing I needed a "Recovery Check-In" chapter.

I wanted to give my readers a rest and a chance to rally what you learned so you would be more prepared for the challenges ahead.

It's a necessary chapter that honors your process with kindness and clarity while creating a bridge between one recovery phase and another. That chapter wasn't in my original book outline. But I wasn't following the outline in a rigid way.  I was far more committed to honoring you as I kept you in mind with every word. That did present writing challenges, but the reader is more important than the outline. Do you agree?

Reviewing my own journey through bulimia to recovery, hearing the voices of women telling me their stories over the years, seeing their faces, remembering their fury, shame, fear, courage, determination, tentative steps toward their true selves and their joy in emerging into a lighter, happier and more free life could not leave me unchanged.

Now my task is to create talks and seminars for women who want to go more deeply into HHH and who want healing and understanding companionship while working through their recovery steps. I can do that based on the material in the my book.
But I think I need to add more. Women living with an eating disorder want to stop those behaviors and escape that labyrinthian prison that affects every aspect of their lives. Unlike a book, which is me talking to you, a seminar allows you to talk to me and each other. I think the seminars need to address vision making. I think we need to challenge the limited vision of a mind restricted to eating disorder thinking and play with possibilities that go far beyond living with no eating disorder episodes. I'm thinking not of fantasy visions but of practical, joyous visions that can become the reality of your life.
I don't know if I can make such seminars happen.  But it's going to be fun trying. What do you think of this idea?

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