Can a “Practice” Help You Recover from an Eating Disorder?
June 28th, 2009
The sad truth is that only 32% of all people who have had eating disorder treatment are still in recovery after one year. Many people spend thousands of dollars and months of their lives on treatment and still don’t recover. As soon as one of those pesky, high-risk situations comes along, the person has a setback and soon is in full relapse. Conversations with former patients highlight the difficulties they experience after treatment.
There are a number of strategies that can help prevent relapse, but one of the most successful is to develop a spiritual practice. Spiritual practice can provide a rock-solid foundation for recovery.
In order to make a change completely and forever in our lives, we need to practice and practice for the change to happen. Developing a strong sense of spirituality involves not just having an idea or belief of what that spirituality might be, but experiencing in your everyday life a way of being and an inner activity that helps you connect with you higher self. Having a spiritual practice gives us an experience of peace and connection.
There are many ways to develop a spiritual practice. It can be through prayer, attending church, meditation, yoga, singing, writing poetry, walking in nature, or studying with a master. It’s about space, stillness, and developing our own divine nature. We learn to let go of thoughts, relationships, and beliefs that are no longer of use to us. We recognize others on a spiritual path and appreciate our interconnectedness within the universe.
Through spiritual practice we arrive at the place where our bodies, our hearts, and our minds become infinitely precious to us. We have something much more powerful than an eating disorder to help us live life.
