What does recovery look like?

Hello my friends! I hope you are enjoying your weekend so far and finding some time to relax because it’s so important for us to make this a priority.! Whether it be taking a nap, watching a movie, spending time with family and friends, or journaling. Whatever brings you peace and serenity.

At Be Me we are dedicated to raising awareness of eating disorders and having open and honest discussions about ED and all that encompasses. I encourage you to use your voice and express yourself in the comments section after each blog post. I love hearing from my readers (whether they be emails, telephone calls, or commenting). Be Me is striving for an interactive, safe and supportive community where you can interact with one another online.  One way to be involved is through commenting and sharing your thoughts. They are so important to us! So please keep them coming!

Something we focus on a lot is recovery. We do this because we believe recovery is possible! Although I’ve been in recovery for nearly 10 years now, sometimes I wonder what recovery looks like. Do you too?

Lately, I’ve found myself slipping a bit in my affirmation practices. When I first began my recovery process, affirmations were pasted all around my house. On my bathroom mirror, on my refrigerator door, on the dashboard in my car, on my computer screen, etc. I’ll admit that my recent move across country forced me to pack my things up, yet my affirmations were not hanging before the packing process began. I’ll admit to being a little busy with finishing up my work and preparing for my move which can be a bit stressful. There was a lot going on and there are times were it is easy to feel as though things are a little out of control. It is at these times, that the pesky little ED voice, loves to come in and pretend that there is magic way to feel in control of my life. Yes, by engaging in destructive ED behaviors.

In the past, I had fallen for his evil lies and believed that I could regain control of life, when it felt a little out of control, by focusing on a “diet, food, weight, exercise, etc”. However, it wasn’t soon that the vicious cycle spiraled out of control. The irony of this “magic solution” that ED tries selling me, is that I am never in control, ED is. So even though I believe by placing focus and energy on controlling these aspects of my life…it is a lie. These destructive ED behaviors control ME. And it isn’t before long that my life is even more out of control than it had been before.

With this said, I can remember that recovery is supposed to look like this: I heard the pesky ED voice when I was in a vulnerable place in life. When my anxiety was high about my plans and there were times my life felt a bit out of control because of waiting for answers, I did not listen to that pesky voice. It had been awhile since I heard it and I chose not to give into it. Instead, I chose to do things that I do in order to remain healthy and in recovery. I called a trusted friend and spoke about my anxieties, I prayed to my higher power, I took a walk with my pup and practiced deep breathing, I journaled about my anxiety in the unknown. I chose to act in health and recovery ways, and not listen to ED. In recovery, you find ways to counteract ED.

Recovery is different for all of us, but the one thing that I always remember is how much happier and healthier I am now. And I will never let ED take that away again. You better believe those affirmation cards are hanging all around my new home now. It is a tool that helped me get to recovery and helps me stay in recovery. If you want to know more on making your own affirmation cards, let me know, I’d be happy to share some of my ideas : )

As Always my friends…

Always Be YOU,

Jenn B.