How Spirituality (however you define it) Can Help Binge Eating Disorder Recovery
Since I was a little girl, spirituality has always been a big part of my life. It has morphed and evolved over the years. I’ve grown and changed and learned how some of my former spiritual beliefs were oppressive and repressive to living my authentic self.
I’ve Learned to Open Up and Embrace My Faith
Now that I’ve learned how to open up myself to a broader view of spirituality and let go of the elitism and limitations of some spiritual views, I’ve moved into a larger world of spiritual change and growth, which has both empowered and grounded me. Living in San Diego, California helped my eating disorder recovery because not only did I find an eating disorder therapist in San Diego who really knew her stuff, but I also felt connected spiritually to the ocean and to nature around me. Walking on the beach in California soothes my soul. Cultivating my spiritual self in San Diego accelerated my binge eating recovery. Wherever you live, whether it be in Colorado, Chicago, Atlanta, NYC, or London, you can recover from binge eating disorder completely by tapping into spirituality, however, you define it.
What Does Spirituality Mean to You?
It’s important to ask yourself how you define spirituality. Get a piece of paper, write “What does spirituality mean to me?” at the top, and then list a bunch of words without thinking about it too much. Then go back and circle the words that resonate with you the most. You’ve then got a beginning of an answer to what spirituality means to you! You may even be surprised by the combination of words you’ve generated. There may be positive words, and there may be not-so-positive words.
Next,
The next step is to take another piece of paper and write at the top, “What do I want spirituality to mean to me?” Again, without overthinking it, write down a list of words, some of which will come from the first list.
Why this activity helped my spiritual journey?
The reason I had you do this activity is that often we have a bit of baggage when it comes to our perceptions of spirituality. For me, it was growing up religious. the positive aspects of that were that it introduced me to spirituality at a very young age. The negative is that it was a very narrow, elitist view of spirituality, so I had a lot to work through over the years. One of the most helpful things I did is to figure out what beliefs soothed my soul, filled me with love, and lifted my spirit.
How Spirituality Helps Binge Eating Recovery?
I remember vividly when I first moved to San Diego, California, and I was just beginning my binge eating recovery journey. I was walking our dachshund, Max, and I sat on a bench while he was sniffing at the bushes around me. I was feeling so much doubt about my spirituality that I was struggling with some depression, in addition to binge eating. I was looking down at the ground, tears dripping off my face, when I looked up, saw the bright blue clouds, heard the birds chirping, and smelled fragrant flowers. I then asked myself, “What do I want to believe? What do I need to believe?” The thought immediately came into my head, “I want to believe that there is a God/Higher Power and that this entity loves and fully accepts me.” So I did.
What Did This Self-Reflection Do?
My nervous system immediately relaxed, and a burden was lifted. From that time on, I had no doubts. Plus, my perspective of God/Higher Power (sometimes I call them “Universe”) has broadened even more to the point at which they encompass all faiths, all belief systems, and all corners of the known and unknown universe. it’s pretty awesome to connect with that power.
Spirituality was a huge part of my recovery!
Spirituality helped me with my binge eating recovery because when I felt as if a recovery step felt just too big for me, I would surrender it to God or to the Universe. I’d say, “Okay, I don’t have the bandwidth to get to a point of body neutrality because I struggle so much with body shame. So God/Universe, you’ll have to take care of it. I surrender my body, as well as my body image, to you.” It brought GREAT relief, and guess what? It helped me first attain body neutrality and then body positivity and now…body LOVE!!!
This is the first step for binge eating recovery I recommend!
I encourage therapy and binge eating coaching clients to practice this step, and it really calms their nervous systems immediately, and then it helps get them to where they want to be! Even if you don’t have a spiritual bent, you can surrender what you’re struggling with to nature, to Batman, to Lizzo, to Mother Earth, to whatever or whoever works best for you. Just the practice of doing that shifts your perspective on the struggle, help you feel less alone, and makes it easier for you to reach out to others around you.
Soothing the Spiritual Self
Many of my clients come to me with spiritual wounds. It can mean that they have experienced spiritual or religious abuse from clergy, leaders, or organizations. It can also mean that they held a belief that they internalized, which led them to feel, at their core, that they are bad…or even evil. The religious organization in which I grew up, unfortunately, had a doctrine that taught that humans are inherently bad folx and that we needed to turn away from our inherently evil, human natures. I, unfortunately, internalized that teaching at a deep level. It also tapped into my perfectionistic nature, so I NEVER felt as though I was worthy of love and acceptance. It was a really crappy way to grow up. It’s also a crappy way to live your life as an adult.
Binge Eating Recovery and Mindfulness
It wasn’t until I doubled down on my binge disorder recovery journey and embraced mindfulness that I began to understand that yes, I am loveable, exactly who I am. It isn’t dependent upon my behaviors, my appearance, or my work performance. It’s not even dependent upon my health, my age, my gender, or my ability to be active (I have chronic back pain, so that was a big one). Leaning into the belief that God/Universe loves every cell in my body helped me love every cell in my body…even the cells that trigger pain. Resting in that love and relaxing my nervous system into full self-acceptance transformed the way I thought about myself, which helped me recover completely. Now that’s radical.
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Binge Eating Recovery Course
*The INEVITABLE BINGE EATING RECOVERY PROGRAM is online binge eating education and private virtual group support via a Facebook Group. The aim of this course is to help people reduce and eliminate any type of distressed eating, such as binge eating or binge/purge behaviors via education, behavioral changes, and mindset shifts. The INEVITABLE BINGE EATING RECOVERY COURSE is not a clinical eating disorder therapy or eating disorder treatment programs and is not intended to serve as such. In them, Dr. Marianne Miller works from her role as a binge-eating coach, not as a binge-eating therapist.
Binge Eating Recovery Coaching
**The ELITE BINGE EATING RECOVERY METHOD is virtual binge eating education and LIVE virtual coaching support. The goal of this program is to help people stop any type of distressed eating, such as binge eating or binge/purge behaviors via education, behavioral changes, and mindset shifts. The ELITE BINGE EATING RECOVERY METHOD is not a clinical eating disorder therapy or eating disorder treatment programs and is not intended to serve as such. In them, Dr. Marianne Miller works from her role as a binge-eating coach, not as a binge-eating therapist.