Inspiration
EDRS is proud to present our Annual Love Warrior's.
A love warrior is a non professional who is in recovery,
and spreading the news of healing...
Love Warrior 2008
Lauren Sowell produced a dinner/raffle fundraiser through a collaboration between her school and the community. She earned money that she donated to a deserving young women to help finance her recovery work. Thanks Lauren, You are a Love Warrior!
Love Warrior 2007
Lindsey performed a one woman play at Sonoma State's Ives Hall on Saturday March 3rd 2007, as part of EDRS's free offerings in honor of Eating Disorders Awareness Week. The moving performance was about Lindsey's recovery journey. Her message was of recovery, through self love. It was a magical performance. Lives were changed this day, one audience member committed to going back to residential treatment because of the loving message she received from the show. The audience applauded her decision for life. Many others spoke of feeling more self love and acceptance, others decided to go to therapy, there was laughter and tears. All who attended were moved by the power of the message. Thank You Lindsey for your moving message. You are our first Love Warrior.
Recovery Is…
Looking in the mirror and liking what you see
Knowing that life is not about weight, numbers, or the size that you wear
About taking risks
Knowing that life is about love, friendship, happiness and peace
Asking for and accepting help
Living life, enjoying every moment and doing what you love
Having faith
Trusting your body and its wisdom
Believing that life is unfolding just like it is supposed to be and that everything happens for a reason
Remembering to slow down and breathe
Celebrating your successes
Treasuring your existence and valuing yourself
Continuing forward in the fight against your eating disorder when you have grown tired and want to give up
Never forgetting to have fun
Holding on to those you love and telling them how much you care
Enjoying wonderful, pleasurable things
Remembering that life is a gift not to be taken for granted
Learning who you are
Respecting the amazing body you were given
Using your voice
Believing in yourself
Feeling your feelings
Following your dreams
Speaking your truth
A sometimes difficult, often wonderful, life altering journey
For me this is recovery
Do you want me to tell you something really subversive?
Love is everything it’s cracked up to be.
That’s why people are so cynical about it…
It really is worth fighting for, being brave for,
risking everything for. And the trouble is,
If you don’t risk anything, you’re risking even more.
Erica Jong
The following inspirational quotes will have a brief reflection by
Michelle Minero, MFT
Nobody can make you feel inferior without your consent. - Elanor Roosevelt
Reflection: This statement holds the key to recovery from an eating disorder. A hallmark of an active eating disorder is a constant barrage of self critical thoughts. Once a person is able to distinguish the eating disorders voice from their own, they are able to be aware of the thoughts, consciously stop them, and replace them with encouraging, and self loving statements.
A Native American grandfather was talking to his grandson about how he felt about a tragedy.
He said, 'I feel as if I have two wolves fighting in my heart.
One wolf is the vengeful, angry, violent one. The other wolf is the loving, compassionate one.
The grandson asked him, 'Which wolf will win the fight in your heart?'
The grandfather answered, 'The one I feed.'
- Native American story
Reflection: This is a good teaching story for the use of DBT (Dialectical Behavioral Therapy). The ability to be mindful of what we put our attention to, which "wolf we feed" impacts the way we feel, and the actions we take.
As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth,
so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind.
To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again.
To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over
the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.
- Henry David Thoreau
Reflection:This quote by Thoreau is supported by current research of the brain. We are coming to understand that thoughts are electrical impulses that do in fact create neural pathways in the brain. The more we think a thought, the smoother the synapses fire...one gift of recovery is the freedom from rumination about food and body, and an increased ability to remember our positive inner qualities.
The Moment of Contact
Take a deep breath and sing your song, and hear your music,
kiss yourself in the mirror each time your eyes meet your eyes,
tell yourself how Tantalizing, Marvelous, Voluptuous,
Sumptuous, Divine, and Juicy you are!
You may not believe it,
but it's no matter,
the act is the thing
the moment of contact
with yourself.
- Michelle Elena Minero
Reflection: When a person is able to look into their eyes in the mirror and is beginning to like what they see, self love is replacing self condemnation. In the early stages of recovery a person may not yet believe they are deserving of love or affection. Coming into contact with themselves, by looking into their eyes, allows contact with the inner self. Working from the inside out is recovery based.
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
- Martin Luther King, Jr.
Reflection: At EDRS we are committed to speaking our truth. The current epidemic numbers of people suffering from eating disorders is unacceptable. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of all the mental disorders combined. You can help by speaking up when someone makes a fat joke, or a friend tells you they need to go on a diet. Each of us has a responsibility to make a difference in our own attitudes about our bodies, and those of others. Size acceptance and diversity may be the most important prejudice to address.
A Time Of Turquoise
We have traveled among thunder -
between chaos and creation.
From a dark wanting
we enter now into
a time of turquoise.
- Judith Mountain Leaf Volborth
Reflection: This poem reflects wonderfully the process from eating disorder to recovery. From a dark wanting describes the darkness of the desires of the eating disorder. Anorexia wants its victim to starve to death, and promises strength, control, and confidence. Bulimia builds a intense craving for foods its prisoner is not supposed to want, yet can not deny herself, until the pain is too overwhelming to permit herself to keep it. We now enter into a time of turquoise. When I ask my clients to think of a place of healing, turquoise water many times is the focus of their sacred, healing place. Recovery is like entering into a time of turquoise, where a person can feel her feelings, speak her truth, and is able to find peace through beautiful imagery, leaving the dark wanting in her memories.