Weighing The Facts

Joy is prayer - Joy is strength - Joy is love - Joy is a net of love by which you can catch souls.
Mother Teresa

Joy does not simply happen to us. We have to choose joy and keep choosing it every day.
Henri Nouwen

Allow yourself to trust joy and embrace it. You will find you dance with everything.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

The certain pathway to all things that you want is through the corridor of joy.
Abraham-Hicks

May your walls know joy; May every room hold laughter and every window open to great possibility.
Maryanne Radmacher-Hershey

Simplicity, clarity, singleness: these are the attributes that give our lives power and vividness and joy. Richard Halloway

Joy is a return to the deep harmony of body, mind, and spirit that was yours at birth and that can be yours again. That openness to love, that capacity for wholeness with the world around you, is still within you. Deepak Chopra

Joy is not in things; it is in us.
Richard Wagner

A joyful life is an individual creation that cannot be copied from a recipe. Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

Don't postpone joy until you have learned all of your lessons. Joy is your lesson.
Alan Cohen

Begin today. Declare out-loud to the universe that you are willing to let go of struggle and eager to learn through joy. Sarah Ban Breathnach

We are shaped by our thoughts, we become what we think. When the mind is pure, joy follows like a shadow that never leaves.
Buddha

Listen to the clues. The next time you feel real joy, stop and think. Pay attention. Because joy is the universe’s way of knocking on your mind’s door. Hello in there. Is anyone home? Can I leave a message? Yes? Good! The message is that you are happy, and that means that you are in touch with your purpose.
Steve Chandler

The sun does not shine for a few trees and flowers, but for the wide world’s joy. Henry Ward Beecher

My mind to me a kingdom is, such present joys I therein find, that it excels all other bliss.
Sir Edward Dyer

I am wealth. I am abundance. I am joy. David Cameron Gikandi

The closer you come to your core, the greater is your joy. Torkom Saraydarin

The walls we build around us to keep sadness out also keeps out the joy.
Jim Rohn

Increase your joy by doing the good you wish to have done to you. Daisaku Ikeda

We learn in our guts, not just in our brain, that a life of joy is not in seeking happiness, but in experiencing and simply being the circumstances of our life as they are; not in fulfilling personal wants, but in fulfilling the needs of life… Charlotte Jojo Beck

Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.
Greg Anderson

Joy is the infallible sign of the presence of God. Madeleine L'Engle

Whatever I do is done out of sheer joy; I drop my fruits like a ripe tree. What the general reader or the critic makes of them is not my concern. Henry Miller Joy, has no cost. Marianne Williamson We could never learn to be brave and patient, if there were only joy in the world. Helen Keller The joy of a spirit is the measure of its power. Ninon de Lenclos

To attract something that you want, become as joyful as you think that thing would make you. Martha Beck Your success and happiness lies in you. Resolve to keep happy, and your joy and you shall form an invincible host against difficulties. Helen Keller

When you recover or discover something that nourishes your soul and brings joy, care enough about yourself to make room for it in your life. Jean Shinoda Bolen The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. William Blake

Not what we have but what we enjoy, constitutes our abundance. Epicurus

One joy shatters a hundred griefs.
Chinese Proverb

You will find joy in overcoming obstacles. Helen Keller

The greatest gift you can give yourself is joy, not only because of the feeling that goes with it at the moment, but because of the magnificent experience it will draw to you. It will produce wonders in your life. Jack Boland I feel like a tiny bird with a big song! J.Van Amerongen Instead of asking 'How much damage will the work in question bring about?' why not ask 'How much good? How much joy?
Henry Miller

Joy is not the result of getting what you want; it is the way to get what you want. In the deepest sense, joy is what you want. Alan Cohen The only joy in the world is to begin. Cesare Pavese

Love, joy and peace cannot flourish until you have freed yourself from mind dominance. Eckhart Tolle Do not judge men by mere appearances; for the light laughter that bubbles on the lip often mantles over the depths of sadness, and the serious look may be the sober veil that covers a divine peace and joy. Edward Chapin Worry never robs tomorrow of its sorrow, it only saps today of its joy. Leo Buscaglia

Joy is what happens when we allow ourselves to recognize how good things really are.
Marianne Williamson

Only by joy and sorrow does a person know anything about themselves and their destiny. They learn what to do and what to avoid. Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe Participate joyfully in the sorrows of the world. We cannot cure the world of sorrows, but we can choose to live in joy. Joseph Campbell

The only true measure of success is the amount of joy we are feeling. Abraham-Hicks

All animals except man know that the principal business of life is to enjoy it. Samuel Butler

Sprinkle joy.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

Be a dynamo of irrepressible joy! Babaji The noblest pleasure is the joy of understanding. Leonardo da Vinci Learning to live in the present moment is part of the path to joy.
Sarah Ban Breathnach

With an eye made quiet by the power of harmony, and the deep power of joy, we see into the life of things. William Wordsworth

Health is the greatest possession. Contentment is the greatest treasure. Confidence is the greatest friend. Non-being is the greatest joy. Lao Tzu Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough. Emily Dickinson He who binds to himself a joy does the winged life destroy; But he who kisses the joy as it flies lives in eternity's sun rise. William Blake

He sendeth sun, he sendeth shower, alike they’re needed to the flower; and joys and tears alike are sent to give the soul its nourishment.
Sarah Flower Adams The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy in each other's life. Richard Bach

From joy springs all creation, by joy it is sustained, towards joy it proceeds, and unto joy it returns. Upanishads Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies. Erich Fromm

When you wish someone joy, you wish them peace, love, prosperity, happiness…all the good things. Maya Angelou
The greatest obstacle to connecting with our joy is resentment. Pema Chodron

When we are centered in joy, we attain our wisdom. Marianne Williamson

To awaken each morning with a smile brightening my face; to greet the day with reverence for the opportunities it contains; to approach my work with a clean mind; to hold ever before me, even in the doing of little things, the ultimate purpose toward which I am working; to meet men and women with laughter on my lips and love in my heart; to be gentle, kind, and courteous through all the hours; to approach the night with weariness that ever woos sleep and the joy that comes from work well done - this is how I desire to waste wisely my days. Thomas Dekker

We laugh to survive. Then, with joy we thrive. Mary Anne Radmacher



*See Sidebar Menu for more Recovery Quotes and Quotes of the Week. pic source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/supersonicphotos/4444746911/sizes/l/in/photostream/

Profile: Sam Thomas-Men Get Eating Disorders Too
The Mirror

Sam Thomas, founder and project leader at Men Get Eating Disorders Too, entered the TalkTalk Digital Heroes Award in 2010 with the aim of making more people area of the issue of eating disorders amongst men and be a port of call for those affected or worried by it. And like many of the best projects, it was one that was born from personal experience.

Sam got the idea for Men Get Eating Disorders Too from his own experience with bulimia, which he experienced during his time school: “I used to get bullied quite badly, and used to run out of lessons and hide in the boys’ toilets. I’d often binge and purge, but didn’t think too much of it; of course, as a thirteen-year-old you don’t think about eating disorders and you certainly haven’t heard of bulimia.
“When I did start looking for help, I struggled because I was male. Only once I had recovered did I think to myself ‘hang on a minute, if I was a female....
Read Men Get Eating Disorders Too in full

Sexualization of Young Children Linked to Eating Disorder Development
AOL Healthy Living

As early exposure to themes of sex becomes the norm, children of younger ages are expressing discontent with their physical appearance. Results from a recent survey suggest that children rank body image among the highest of their concerns, above both self-confidence and social life. Recent research also suggests that nearly 50 percent of females between ages 11 and 16 would consider cosmetic surgery to improve their appearance.

These findings have striking implications about the factors comprising young children's self-image and esteem. Eating disorders are now presenting in children as young as 6 years old, with dieting becoming more common among those under the age of 10.

Such ardent focus on physical appearance also comes in response to overly-sexualized messages from the media.
Read Sexualization of Young Children Linked To EDs in full

Mental Health: Eating Disorders
BBC News

Every year about 20 people in Britain die from anorexia - the eating disorder which compels them to deprive their bodies of food.

It is thought that about 165,000 Britons have some sort of eating disorder.
Most sufferers are female, although the latest evidence suggests about one in ten is now a male.
One person who developed anorexia at the relatively late age of 27 is Victoria Buchan, who lives near Grampound Road in mid Cornwall.

She admitted for a while she did her best to hide the anorexia from her doctor.
"There was always a response, always something I could hide behind," she said.
"Because of wearing baggy clothes they might not have seen I was losing weight."
Read Mental Health: Eating Disorders in full

Quick Hit: The Fat Femme’s Guide to Lovin’Summer
Happy Bodies

Aimee Fleck, a fantastic student at the Maryland Institute College of Art, made a little zine called The Fat Femme’s Guide to Loving Summer. Inside there are interviews with some really foxy ladies, instructions on how to make friendship bracelets, a recipe for beignets, new hairstyles to try, a playlist, and lots of suggestions for great summer fashion. It’s all beautifully, colorfully drawn and very well designed, plus sassy and fun. The zine is also getting plenty of tumblr love, which makes me really happy.
Read The Fat Femme's Guide in full

10 Questions To Ask Yourself About Anger
Hope Forward

By no means am I suggesting that the answers to the following questions are easy, readily available to you, or in any way obvious, though some may be. I think, rather, that they may serve as guide posts toward progress, relief, and insight. While anger is not always the culprit, it does often lurk underneath depression, anxiety, restlessness, discontent, or irritability. While certain angers are clear and apparent, others are more subtle. I think it pays to pay attention to them. Having anger does not mean that you are an angry person, that you have a temper; it just means that you have real feelings, some old, some new, and that tending to them may improve your life in many ways. How we feel anger, what we do with it, is usually based on a mix of genetic, hormonal, biochemical and socialcultural factors. Given that, we can ask ourselves the following questions in our quest to feel better.

1) How was anger expressed or suppressed in my family?

2) What are my earliest memories of feeling angry? With whom? For what? What other feelings do these memories bring up?
Read 10 Questions in full

Genetics Complicate Recovery From Eating Disorders
Psych Central

Sadly, people with eating disorders often face a long-term battle. Those with anorexia nervosa, for instance, are often severely underweight and have a high likelihood of dying from malnutrition.

Now, a new study sheds light on why some people have poor outcomes.

An international team of scientists has identified possible genetic variations that could influence a patient’s recovery from an eating disorder such as anorexia or bulimia. Researchers believe their findings may augment development of effective interventions for the most treatment-resistant patients with these disorders.
Read Genetics Complicate Recovery in full

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