Cultivating Resilience

Cultivating resilience provides a continual strength and flexibility to tolerate emotional and psychological pain while developing new personal growth and lasting positive internal changes.

Methods are many and varied. The methods that are helpful are the methods that resonate with the individual.

Examples include:
Developing personal and helpful rituals as simple as a daily morning walk or evening journal writing. Lighting a candle and being silent and alone for five full minutes.

Develop curiosity.

Develop knowledge and trust in the ongoing power of the life force in living beings.

Experience art and expand appreciation of perspectives different from those that are familiar.

Set aside time to self reflect.

Details: Category: Cultivating Resilience

Barack Obama crawling with Ella Rhodes Overcoming eating disorders includes love, smiles and encouragement.

Smiles of encouragement are essential in building self-respect, self-worth and self-confidence. Eating disorder thinking sets up a cascade of self-doubts, insecurities and anxieties. You feel worthless despite what others may say to support you.

You know in your heart that you have tricked others into believing you are competent, confident and have value. You need compliments, so you know your false facade of worth is intact while you feel worthless to yourself.

Details: Category: Cultivating Resilience

Yes, the benefits of losing friends become clear as you move into more health and personal power.

Benefits of Losing Friends

“Want to go to a bar tonight, drink and pick up guys?” She hasn’t gotten that invitation in a long time. She hasn’t gotten a call or seen that person for a long time.

When a person is seriously ill with her eating disorder, many people are attracted to her and maintain a relationship with her as she lives and responds in life with her eating disorder intact. They are attracted to the needy, people-pleasing, high-risk-taking person who rarely says no. She's fun. She doesn't show her secret pain. She goes along to get along.

Being in recovery and in harmony with her true self attracts more healthy relationships and sends a wave of user repellent into the crowd around her.

Details: Category: Cultivating Resilience

Anxiety and Stress during a Pandemic

We are not living in ordinary times. Anxiety grows. Our reasonable adaptations for stress may not serve us well when stressors comes every day and sometimes ever hour. We suffer emotionally when the stability of our economics, our politics, our relationships, our health, our physical safety and the safety of those we love is continually threatened. Finding balance and reasonableness can be difficult or impossible.

Details: Category: Cultivating Resilience

foodandfeelings2 People living with troubling eating patterns are all individuals with different vulnerabilities and strengths. You may need to hear many voices speaking to healing and recovery before you hear the voice that touches you and awakens you to your eating disorder recovery path.

I'm happy to introduce you to the voice of Karen R. Koenig, LCSW, M.Ed. author of The Food and Feelings Workbook, who shares her thoughts about learning skills for recognizing and coping well with your emotions. It's my pleasure to welcome Karen as a guest author blogger on Eating Disorder Recovery for Women.

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