Dear Bella (letter #2)

I've said it before.

I see eating disorder recovery as a journey, a discovery, a stepping stone along the way to becoming a fully integrated person. I see the women who go through this process as extremely bold and beautiful individuals.

I see them embodying the word BELLA.

For me, BELLA conjures up an image of hope and strength and bravery. It symbolically represents the audacious soul who is saying goodbye to her eating disorder, discovering once again who she is, and moving delightfully forward with her life.     Today I would like to write that beautiful woman a second open letter . . .    

Dear Bella,

How are you doing today, dear?

The last time I wrote, I asked you to begin envisioning your eating disorder as a valuable life lesson. To mine the precious pieces that enabled growth, the specific challenges that provided substance and meaning. I trust that you were able to look at your experience in a new way, as a profile of courage and strength.

And now I would like you to concentrate on the present. You have found your own healthy rhythm of eating intuitively and exercising joyfully. You are engaging in daily self-care habits that feel right for you. You have successfully parted with the physical behaviors that have brought you down in the past.

Yes, I know. I know there are still times when the strength and the courage seem so far out of your grasp. When the old behaviors beckon to you, call your name. But look at how far you have come! Celebrate the progress you have made, the powerful momentum you have gained. Concentrate on these moments, these hours, these days, these months. And keep honoring your body, listening to its cues and its wisdom.

You may yet be clinging to one last thread of your eating disorder. Nevertheless, I believe you are ready for the next step. Ready to venture out on your own, without the heavy burden you've been carrying. Without the voices in your head, frantically whispering those old stories, those old falsehoods. Without the grief that envelops you and threatens to pull you back to the precipice. It's time to say a final goodbye. Goodbye to anorexia, goodbye to bulimia, goodbye to binge eating. Forever.

To initiate the process, to ignite this new way of thinking and feeling and being, Bella, I'd like you to reflect on a few questions.

1. What emotions are conjured up, come to the surface immediately, when I ask you to say goodbye to your eating disorder in its entirety?

2. When you think about your life without your eating disorder, what image of yourself comes up? Do you remember who you once were, who you will become again?

3. Are you living in emotional captivity? Is it time to forgive yourself, to heal yourself, to expand your domain and live beyond the confines of your eating disorder?

4. Are you willing to reclaim your true self, to embrace the essence of your soul? Can you imagine your ideal new world, the world you are entitled to, the world that is waiting for you right around the corner from your eating-disordered thoughts?

Change, hope, discovery. Yes, Bella, it is time.

You are beautiful.

Love, April     Whether you have personally struggled with one, or whether you know someone who has, you can see how much eating disorders have permeated our society. And you are most likely familiar with the destruction they can leave in their wake.

I would like to concentrate here, however, on reconstruction. On the reconstruction and transformation of lives once consumed by eating disorders.     Please, if you've been there, tell me your story of perseverance and grit. Tell me how you've welcomed sunshine into a once very dark place.     Forget your perfect offering There is a crack, a crack in everything That's how the light gets in. (Leonard Cohen)     *******     Find out more about how I can help facilitate this life-changing journey home in my free e-book. Feel metaphorically weightless.   [maxbutton id="1"]