Snow: The Value Of Listening To Your Heart

Snow
The value of listening to your heart.... ...rather than an eating disordered head.

If I hadn’t ignored my head then I wouldn’t have seen the snow, shimmering and sparkling in the early morning sunlight.

And if I had, as it commanded, stuck to the weekly regime and gone swimming; then I would have missed being the first to walk through the unmarked snowfall, spraying glitter in my wake and leaving a dance of footprints behind me.

If I had given in to the demand to justify and earn every mouthful, then I would have been lapping up and down an empty pool while the sun was working its magic over the snowswept fields; and, against the diamond white backdrop, the colours and shadows became breathtaking.

And, if I had listened to my often overpowering head – rather than my often overpowered heart; then I might not have noticed how beautiful the world can be, and how much fun there is in the smallest pleasures –

Like a twirling whirling flake of snow.

Written by: Finding Melissa

She says: "An eating disorder is a gradual erosion. It’s a chip chip chipping away. A slow, insidious takeover that removes all traces of an individual, erases all suggestion of an identity, dominates thoughts, actions, feelings….and articulates one devastating message: 'without me, you are nothing'…..It is a lie. You’ve just got a bit lost along the way.

Be sure to visit Melissa's wonderful site: Finding Melissa

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picture source:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/katmere/ / CC BY 2.0

Eating Disorder Recovery Quotes: Forgiveness

Whether it's the wrongs we have done (to others or ourselves), or the wrongs that others have committed against us, forgiveness is necessary in order to move forward with our lives, to be happy, and to recover.

Forgiveness is a gift we give ourselves. It's not a magic eraser, or a way to excuse or justify offending behavior (or to allow it to continue). It's a way of letting go of our anger, resentment, embarrassment, and pain. It empowers us, allowing us to regain peace and begin healing.

Forgiveness isn't always easy. It's usually very challenging. It takes practice, just like any other worthwhile skill.

________

Many people are afraid to forgive because they feel they must remember the wrong or they will not learn from it. The opposite is true. Through forgiveness, the wrong is released from its emotional stranglehold on us so that we can learn from it. Through the power and intelligence of the heart, the release of forgiveness brings expanded intelligence to work with the situation more effectively.
~David McArthur & Bruce McArthur

When you hold resentment toward another, you are bound to that person or condition by an emotional link that is stronger than steel. Forgiveness is the only way to dissolve that link and get free.
~Catherine Ponder

Forgiveness is giving up the possibility of a better past.
~Unknown

Forgive or Relive.
~Unknown

It is very easy to forgive others their mistakes; it takes more grit and gumption to forgive them for having witnessed your own.
~Jessamyn West

To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover that the prisoner was you.
~Lewis B. Smedes

We achieve inner health only through forgiveness - the forgiveness not only of others but also of ourselves.
~ Joshua Loth Liebman

Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.
~Mark Twain

There is no love without forgiveness, and there is no forgiveness without love.
~Bryant H. McGill

To forgive is the highest, most beautiful form of love. In return, you will receive untold peace and happiness.
~Robert Muller

Sincere forgiveness isn't colored with expectations that the other person apologize or change. Don't worry whether or not they finally understand you. Love them and release them. Life feeds back truth to people in its own way and time.
~Sara Paddison

Always forgive your enemies - nothing annoys them so much.
~Oscar Wilde

When a deep injury is done us, we never recover until we forgive.
~Alan Paton

Life is an adventure in forgiveness.
~Norman Cousins

Forgiveness is the giving, and so the receiving, of life.
~George MacDonald

Forgiveness is the economy of the heart... forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.
~Hannah Moore

People find it far easier to forgive others for being wrong than for being right.
~JK Rowling

Most of us can forgive and forget; we just don't want the other person to forget that we forgave.
~Ivern Ball

Forgiveness means that you've decided not to let it keep festering inside even if it only comes up once in awhile.
~Doc Childre and Howard Martin

Never forget the three powerful resources you always have available to you: love, prayer, and forgiveness.
~ H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future.
~Paul Boese

Forgiveness means letting go of the past.
~Gerald Jampolsky

Without forgiveness, there's no future.
~Desmond Tutu

True forgiveness is not an action after the fact, it is an attitude with which you enter each moment.
~David Ridge

Forgiveness is a funny thing. It warms the heart and cools the sting.
~William Arthur Ward

We are full of weakness and errors; let us mutually pardon each other our follies.
~Voltaire

Anger makes us smaller, while forgiveness forces you to grow beyond what you were.
~Cherie Carter Scott

He who cannot forgive breaks the bridge over which he himself must pass.
~George Herbert

Resentment is like a glass of poison that a man drinks; then he sits down and waits for his enemy to die.
~George Herbert

Forgiveness is me giving up my right to hurt you for hurting me.
~Anonymous

Never does the human soul appear so strong as when it forgoes revenge, and dares forgive an injury.
~E. H. Chapin

Forgiveness is choosing to love. It is the first skill of self-giving love.
~Mahatma Gandhi

Forgiveness is a virtue of the brave.
~Indira Gandhi

The ineffable joy of forgiving and being forgiven forms an ecstasy that might well arouse the envy of the gods.
~Elbert Hubbard

*more Recovery Quotes and Quotes of the Week can be found in the sidebar drop down menus.

original picture source:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/adebond1/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0