This was going around Tumblr in the last few weeks. It encouraged me and reminded me of how important this is. What really spoke to me was the things listed. They weren’t huge goals. They weren’t nirvana situations. They were, instead, everyday little things. Grateful things, appreciative things. Things that you could instantly relate to and could achieve.
It is a very good idea and one that focuses you on the present and the future. Far too much of recovery is spent looking back, being caught in the past memories, past behaviours and fighting (exhaustingly and daily) the past. This is the nature of the ED illness and it wants to keep you looking back. It’s all about positive thinking as opposed to negative thinking. Let’s face it, ED’s are all about negative thinking so the more you can find things that help you learn to be positive is essential.
Recovery is about the present and the future. It is new not old and often it isn’t celebrated enough. Nor is enough notice or appreciation given for the small but critical moves forward. Even your therapist can brush over your achievements and focus back on old and past behaviours. Sometimes you just need a session that celebrates your moves forward, what you next move forward could be, how you feel about that.
Some of Sophie’s best good things about recovery were the small things. How good it is to eat strawberries again, how great it was to have her hair not fall out, how lovely it was to feel warm, how good food tasted, how wonderful it was to have people around her that helped her fight.
Other’s were big things: to be back at school, to be able to study, to not have weekly appointments, to have a life and future again.
Her celebrations helped to keep her focussed on the present and the future. Helped her fight back against the anorexic voice in her head. It wasn’t easy and many times the voice was stronger. But by writing down her ‘good things’ she could read them and remind herself any time she needed. Her mind was full enough with her voice, anorexic voice, therapist voices, family voices etc. By writing them down she could always cut across the voices and get out of her overwhelmed mind.
So the challenge for my readers this week is the same (if you struggle to find five, find three):
List 5 good things about recovery
