Recovery Using Self-Love: The First Step Towards Healing

by | Apr 27, 2020

Crucial to your recovery is learning how to love and accept yourself again. The link between eating disorders and low self-esteem is a high and dangerous one. Until you learn to love yourself during recovery, you will always have that negative voice in your head telling you that you aren’t skinny enough or that you are failing at another diet. You cannot make positive changes in your recovery journey if you are coming from a place of hate because you will never treat your body the way it wants to be treated if you are coming from that place. I know it is hard when you have let your negative self-talk dominate your mind and thought patterns for so long, but it is critical to start loving yourself right now, today. Coming from a loving perspective when approaching health will transform your life!

The false sense of self

Eating disorders come from a false sense of self. This sense of self is not useful. It can be because of things that happened in your childhood, or past relationships but it is not you at the core. Once you differentiate yourself from your past traumas and hurt, then you can begin to heal. When you have this false sense of self, you will always be your biggest critic. You will never be skinny enough, you will be disconnected from your body cues, have minimal self-care, use food to change mood, and have general intense self-criticism. A lot of times this false sense of self is also in the light of people pleasing.

Why the sense of self is lost

Eating disorders typically begin with a diet, because the ED mind is looking to society’s standards and opinions of others that is based off media and marketing influences. The eating disorder is just a manifestation of how to control body through rigid demands of weight, exercise patterns, and food habits. Meanwhile, while you are trying to achieve impossible standards, the eating disorder mind is simultaneously and intensely criticizing your body saying it isn’t good enough. These thoughts become a pattern, which become your life, and the appearance of low self-esteem is the first sign of the prevalence of unhealthy mental behaviors. Fixing the false sense of self and coming back into a place of self-love is by far the most essential piece of recovery, and true recovery is not really even possible without self-acceptance.

How to return to your true self through self-love

We want to get you to a place where you are nurturing to your body image, aware of your feelings and needs, and can implement healthy coping strategies. Until you see yourself as beautiful and healthy, you will naturally do everything in your power to have your reality align with your thoughts. Your subconscious wants you to be right so it has a bias to make your thoughts come into reality. So, if you are constantly thinking that you are not good enough or skinny enough, you will continue to attract experiences into your life that reaffirm this situation. Pushing aside the beauty standards of the media and marketing efforts is key in becoming responsible for YOUR personal health. Usually if you are at a breaking point with your eating disorder, you have by now realized that you are not listening to your intuition and internal hunger cues anymore. This is sad for me to see in my clients as a therapist, because using your intuition is critical to maintaining good mental and physical health. So, this is what I work towards getting you on the path of healing for. It is a process, and gaining higher self-esteem won’t come overnight, but I promise it will be a lasting investment that you are working on. We will work towards reframing a new perspective with both life and your body!

Seek out the Care & Support you Deserve

I am an intuitive and holistic therapist and dietitian, so I take a full mind, body, and spirit approach to your recovery. You have your own intuitive therapist inside of you, which I work to reconnect you with. Pledge to start now to take manageable steps towards better health and freeing yourself from disordered eating. Schedule your first appointment with me today and learn how to love your body again. Loving your body will get you so much farther than hating it will.

Xoxo,

Amy

Talk with a registered dietitian to help develop a personalized and flexible plan that is best for you.   

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