Headlines and Hashtags

Recovery is a funny thing.

When we first start out, we bolt out of the gate. We’re sprinting ahead at full speed. YEAH! I can do this!

It’s full speed ahead, tackling this fear food. Then that fear food. We’re meeting calorie goals and increasing supplements week after week.

And, aside from the usual freak out or melt down, things are going swimmingly.

But after a while, the excitement of recovery begins to fade, and recovery becomes more mechanic. We’re just plodding along. One foot after the other.

And this can play tricks on our minds. Because we can feel that since we’re not having “mountain top” experiences anymore — like that first day where you hit 3000 calories, or the day where you tackle a huge fear food, or you make a breakthrough at therapy, etc, etc, etc. – we think that since we’re not hitting huge milestones anymore, that we’re not truly making progress, or that we’re not recovering “good enough” or “strong enough.”

That thought process, my friends, is a lie from the pit of hell. And it comes from ED.

Here’s the truth:

The work you are doing is tremendously difficult, and you’re a freakin’ rock star.

Your journey of recovery is absolutely inspiring, and just because you’re not having mountain top “highs” anymore does not in any way devalue the hard work that you’re doing each and every day.

I recently started doing yoga, surprise, surprise. And this thought came to me as I was in Mountain Pose.

Yes, Mountain Pose. The silly beginner’s pose where you look like you’re just standing up with your hands above your head.

That pose is a lot like those times in recovery.

To the eye, Mountain Pose looks incredibly easy. It looks like: OK, this chick is just standing up straight. Big frickin’ whoop.

But in actuality, Mountain Pose is a very active pose – you just can’t see it. In the pose, you’re flexing every muscle of your body. You’re pushing through the ground with every toe, you’re flexing your quads, clenching your buns, tucking in your tail bone, tightening your core, drawing your shoulders down and back, pressing your elbows together, lengthening your spine, and reaching to Heaven with every joint in your fingers. You are working hard. If I stay in that pose for long enough, I actually start to sweat.

But to the eye, it just looks like you’re just standing up straight. No one can see the hard work that is taking place below the surface.

That is recovery.

The work that you’re doing – the little things that you do every single day – those are hard freaking work. But they’re easily missed and easily forgotten about, just because they’re not “Headlines” or “Hashtags” like #PintParty, #FearFoodChallenge or #RecoveryWin.

Here’s my invitation to you:

Celebrate you.

Celebrate your recovery.

Because whether you’ve been in recovery for 5 minutes, 5 days, 5 months, 5 years, or 5 decades — you chose life. You made the decision to reclaim your life and you chose recovery. And the things that you have to do everyday to stay in recovery – the little things that no one sees but that you deal with every day (like, fighting bad body image, fighting urges to purge, choosing to be gentle with yourself, choosing to silence ED) those things cannot be captured in an Instagram photo. They cannot be seen with the naked eye. To everyone else, it just looks like Mountain Pose. But to you — you know how incredibly difficult it really is.

So I invite you to just celebrate it.

Seriously. Because you are incredible. And strong. And courageous. And a warrior. And that deserves to be rejoiced in. YOU deserve to be rejoiced in.

So let’s have a great week, Warriors.

xx