Relaxation: Important For Both Body and Mind

There’s no escaping the occasional stressful situation but when stress is a regular companion, it takes its toll on our bodies and our minds. Studies show that stress is a major contributor to many health issues so it’s important that we learn to relax for our own good.

When we are stressed our system is on high alert. Our bodies respond with adrenaline. Our nerves send messages to every organ in the body. Our heart rate increases. Breathing becomes shallow and fast. Our blood pressure goes up. Eventually, damage is done.

There are many benefits to learning to relax…


The Following Can Be Improved With Regular Relaxation:

• Blood pressure
• Risk of stroke
• Muscle blood flow
• Heart rate
• Breathing rate
• Muscle tension
• Immunity
• Memory
• Asthma, emphysema, COAD
• Skin (acne, eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis, etc)
• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Tension headaches and migraines
• Fibromyalgia
• Raynaud’s syndrome
• Diabetes
• Herpes simplex
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Chronic pain

Other Benefits Include:

• Emotional
• Levels emotions
• Elevates mood
• Improves outlook
• Improves decision making
• Improves sleep
• Helps clear skin (acne, eczema, dermatitis, psoriasis, etc)
• Helps relieve depression and anxiety
• Energizes
• Lowers cortisol levels

This is why relaxation is extremely important for the health of both body and mind.

There are many ways to relax and what works best will depend on each individual. Some will find more relief from a non-physical relaxation technique while others will benefit most from a more physical approach. The most important thing is that you do not allow what is stressing you to enter your mind when you take time to relax.


Here are some non-physical ways to help you relax:

• Lie down in a quiet room (or play soft music), close your eyes, clear your mind, and only think pleasant thoughts.
• Take a long, hot bath in a quiet room. Light a candle or two.
• Meditate
• Breathing techniques/exercises
• Visualization
• Sleep
• Aromatherapy

Here are some physical ways to help you relax:

• Yoga
• Tai chi
• Walk
• Sex
• Bike ride
• Jog
• Laugh and play

In addition to taking time to relax is learning to manage stress. The first step is identifying the cause. The second step is learning to deal with that cause in a productive way.

• Ask for help when you need it.
• Talk out your problems with a trusted friend or therapist.
• Learn to say “no” so you don’t become overwhelmed
• Prioritize
• Let go of what cannot be changed
• Be proactive. Address what you can before they become (more) stressful
• Schedule time to deal with difficult issues and only deal with them on those days (such as finances).

Schedule time to relax. Learn to relax in times of stress.
With all that we deal with on a day to day basis it is so important that we take care of ourselves.


Would you like to share your favorite stress remedy? Please share them in the comment section below. 

photo source:http://www.flickr.com/photos/yasinhasan/4431896656/in/photostream

Eating Disorders News and Views: May 18, 2012

  Eating Disorders in Men: An Interview With Dr. Roberto Olivardia
Huff Post Healthy Living

Dr. Roberto Olivardia is a clinical instructor of psychology at Harvard Medical School and assistant psychologist at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Mass. He maintains a private psychotherapy practice in Arlington, Mass., where he specializes in the treatment of body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), and compulsive skin-picking. He also specializes in the treatment of eating disorders in boys and men. Dr. Olivardia is a co-author of The Adonis Complex, a book which details the various manifestations of body image problems in men, including eating disorders, BDD, steroid use, and cosmetic surgery.

What inspired you to specialize in eating disorders in men?
Read EDs In Men in full.


Brain Reward Systems Of Obese Women Different From Those Of Women With Anorexia: Study
Huffington Post

The brain reward systems of women with anorexia may work differently from those of women who are obese, a new study suggests.

Researchers from the University of Colorado School of Medicine found that women who are anorexic have sensitized brain reward circuits, while women who are obese have desensitized brain reward circuits.
Read Brain Reward System in full.


Tyra Banks applauds Vogue decision to nix too-thin models; Mag to ban models under 16 who appear to have eating disorders
Daily News

The model turned talk-show host is praising Vogue magazine for its recent pledge to stop using too skinny models or girls who appear to suffering from an eating disorder.

The fashion tome will reportedly no longer feature models under the age of 16.

Banks called Vogue’s decision “the beginning of something huge."

In an open letter to The Daily Beast, Banks talked about her own struggles to keep her weight down to a size 4 and the unhealthy things women did to keep thin.
Read Tyra Banks in full.


Is your daughter or son trying to hide anorexia?
The Mirror

When a child or teenager feels they’re being controlled by the people around them, they use anorexia to seize control back.

I was deeply saddened recently to read that anorexia had claimed the life of Charlotte Seddon, a lovely girl of 17 and a star student who had everything to live for.

Yes, it’s a salutary story. She first stopped eating when she was 12.

Like many anorexics, she was bright and devious enough to fool her parents that she was eating (despite profound weight loss).

Anorexics cleverly cover their tracks spreading crumbs, leaving buttery knives on the table, false traces of toast uneaten and consigned to the bin when no one is looking.
Read Hiding in full.


Dukan Diet guru struck off medical register after saying children who lose weight should be given extra marks at school
Daily Mail

A diet guru whose fans include the Duchess of Cambridge's mother has been struck off the medical register in France after being accused of misadvising teenagers.

Pierre Dukan, 70, asked to be removed from the doctors’ list at his own request because he was facing disciplinary action.

The nutritionist had used a book to propose ideal weights for 17 and 18 year-old school pupils, giving them extra exam marks if they kept to them.
Read Diet Guru in full.


Bournemouth charity I*Eat bridges anorexia divide
BBC News Dorset

There are more than 200 new cases of anorexia and bulimia in Dorset every year. The youngest patient in the county is just 10 years old.

But this could be just the tip of the iceberg.

Health professionals estimate there could be as many as 1,500 people with eating disorders in the county, many of whom do not come forward for fear of becoming stigmatised.

I*Eat in Bournemouth is a charity that aims to bridge the gap and help vulnerable people get their lives back on track - people like Vicky Field.
Read I*Eat in full. 
Find I*Eat Org here. 


Birmingham TB victim Alina Sarag 'given bulimia warning'
BBC News Birmingham & Black Country

A 15-year-old girl died of tuberculosis (TB) after being told she may have bulimia during appointments with health professionals, an inquest has heard.

A GP allegedly advised Alina Sarag, who attended Birmingham's Golden Hillock School, that her physical deterioration was due to mental health problems.

Alina was treated for TB after being diagnosed with the disease in 2009, Birmingham Coroner's Court heard.

She appeared to recover from the condition, but died in January 2011.
Read TB Victim in full.


Healthbeat Report: Uncontrollable Overeating
ABC News

When healthcare professionals diagnose mental illness, they usually turn to the diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders or DSM. This so-called bible of psychiatry is undergoing a major and somewhat controversial overhaul. Already under the category of eating disorders are anorexia and bulimia. Now something called binge eating disorder may join the list as its own diagnosis.

So when is eating too much a true illness? Experts say there are telling signs.

The stories of binge eating patients are similar. Embarrassed, ashamed, they would eat at times till it hurt.
Read Uncontrollable Overeating in full.


Mirror, mirror: Palo Alto JCC event looks at media’s role in negative body image
J.Weekly

Sydney Calander is so accustomed to hearing her women friends tear down their own appearances that she hardly notices it anymore.

“Honestly? It’s been like that ever since I can remember,” says Calander, 20, a junior at Pitzer College in Southern California. “Around the time I turned 12 or so, I became aware of all my friends getting really critical about their bodies, the way they looked — how they felt they had to look in order to be loved, or to attract a partner.”

As a student at San Francisco’s Jewish Community High School of the Bay, Calander made sure not to let her own similar thoughts spiral into negative behavior.
Read Negative Body Image in full. 


Could airbrushing ban curb desire to be thin?
Express and Star

We have a love-hate relationship with food – and both extremes of consumption come with a massive health warning.

A young woman who almost died in a four-year battle with anorexia that plunged her weight to four and a half stone has now launched a campaign to ban airbrushed images showing super-slim celebrities in glossy magazines.

Rachael Johnston, who is now aged 20 and a “healthy” size eight, wants children to be protected from the kind of images she says led to her eating disorder.

On the one hand, we want to stop the obesity epidemic that is making many of us – and our children – so unhealthy.

But on the other we don’t want to drive youngsters to extreme dieting.
Read Airbrushing in full. 


Diagnosing a public health problem: Photoshop
Philly.com

Why is it that the fatter America gets, the more unrealistically thin our ideal of what people should look like becomes? It's not just a perplexing paradox. It poses a threat to the public’s health: our nation’s obesity crisis may eventually be coupled with anorexia and bulimia crises as well.

As noted in my post last week, America is in the midst of an obesity era. Thirty-seven percent of adults and 17 percent of kids are obese, and no one is particularly happy about it. All the while, Americans are bombarded with digitally manipulated (a.k.a. “photoshopped”) images of models that are impossibly thin and blemish free.

As highlighted by recent stories by the New York Times and BBC, young women in the U.S. and abroad have began to protest the photoshopped female form and the notion that they should strive for a body that — by virtue of skeletal constraints — is literally unobtainable.
Read Photoshop in full.


Eating disorders increase risk of dying prematurely, large study shows
Examiner

A disease of vanity? Think again. Although this stereotype of eating disorders continues among the public and even some mental health professionals, new research confirms that eating disorders are serious —and lethal. Jaana T. Suokas, MD., presented findings from a new, large scale study at the prestigious American Psychiatric Association Conference held in Philadelphia yesterday.
Read Increased Risk in full.


Research Study for Moms of Anorexic Boys
Laura's Soap Box

Are you the Mother of a Son who has received inpatient treatment for Anorexia Nervosa?

If so, please consider participating in this important study, which seeks to explore and document the psychological and social caregiving experiences of these mothers.
To date, there have not been any published research studies that have focused exclusively on parents of sons with anorexia.
Read Research Study in full.


all sources linked above

Recovery Quote Of The Week: May 14, 2012

There is something beautiful about all scars of whatever nature. A scar means the hurt is over; the wound is closed and healed, done with.

Harry Crews

See sidebar menu for more Recovery Quotes of the Week and Inspirational Quotes

See more recovery images from Weighing The Facts Facebook page

Like Weighing The Facts on facebook.

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Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing you all a very Happy Mother's Day!

picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/29290711@N04/3910341997/in/photostream/

Be Yourself: Inspirational Recovery Quotes

To thine own self be true.
Shakespeare

You have to leave the city of your comfort and go into the wilderness of your intuition. What you'll discover will be wonderful. What you'll discover will be yourself.
Alan Alda

The hardest challenge is to be yourself in a world where everyone is trying to make you be somebody else.
E. E. Cummings

Always be a first-rate version of yourself, instead of a second-rate version of somebody else.
Judy Garland

You must have control of the authorship of your own destiny. The pen that writes your life story must be held in your own hand.
Irene C. Kassorla

I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.
Mahatma Gandhi

The boughs of no two trees ever have the same arrangement. Nature always produces individuals; She never produces classes.
Lydia Maria Child

There is just one life for each of us: our own.
Euripides

Be yourself. Everyone else is already taken.
Unknown

If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away.
Henry David Thoreau

Is life not a hundred times too short for us to stifle ourselves.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Why are you trying so hard to fit in, when you’re born to stand out?
Oliver James

The hardest battle you're ever going to fight is the battle to be just you.
Leo Buscaglia

Be who you are and say what you feel, because those who mind don't matter and those who matter don't mind.
Dr. Seuss

It is not in the stars to hold our destiny but in ourselves.
William Shakespeare

Like the sky opens after a rainy day we must open to ourselves.... Learn to love yourself for who you are and open so the world can see you shine.
James Poland

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

When one is pretending the entire body revolts.
Anaïs Nin

A wise man never loses anything if he has himself.
Michel de Montaigne

The strongest force in the universe is a human being living consistently with his identity.
Tony Robbins

Ride the energy of your own unique spirit.
Gabrielle Roth

Your reputation is in the hands of others. That's what a reputation is. You can't control that. The only thing you can control is your character.
Dr. Wayne W. Dyer

Almost all absurdity of conduct arises from the imitation of those whom we cannot resemble.
Samuel Johnson

All the mistakes I make arise from forsaking my own station and trying to see the object from another person's point of view.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

At bottom every man knows well enough that he is a unique being, only once on this earth; and by no extraordinary chance will such a marvelously picturesque piece of diversity in unity as he is, ever be put together a second time.
Friedrich Nietzsche

Never be bullied into silence. Never allow yourself to be made a victim. Accept no one's definition of your life; define yourself.
Harvey Fierstein

How many cares one loses when one decides not to be something but to be someone.
Coco Chanel

Do you want to be a power in the world? Then be yourself.
Fortune Cookie

All the knowledge I possess everyone else can acquire, but my heart is all my own.
Johann von Goethe

About all you can do in life is be who you are. Some people will love you for you.
Most will love you for what you can do for them, and some won’t like you at all.
Rita Mae Brown

We are so accustomed to disguise ourselves to others that in the end we become disguised to ourselves.
François Duc de La Rochefoucauld

It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
E. E. Cummings

I think of life itself now as a wonderful play that I've written for myself, and so my purpose is to have the utmost fun playing my part.
Shirley MacLaine

All my life I had been looking for something, and everywhere I turned someone tried to tell me what it was. I accepted their answers too, though they were often in contradiction and even self-contradictory. I was naïve. I was looking for myself and asking everyone except myself questions, which I, and only I, could answer. It took me a long time and much painful boomeranging of my expectations to achieve a realization everyone else appears to have been born with: that I am nobody but myself.
Ralph Ellison

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. You must first be who you really are, then do what you need to do, in order to have what you want.
Margaret Young

Don’t you ever let a soul in the world tell you that you cant be exactly who you are.
Lady Gaga

Know thyself.
Thales

To be nobody but yourself in a world which is doing its best, night and day, to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle which any human being can fight; and never stop fighting.
E. E. Cummings

If I didn't define myself for myself, I would be crunched into other people's fantasies for me and eaten alive.
Audre Lorde

Your time is limited so don't waste it living someone else's life.
Steve Jobs

Learn to... be what you are, and learn to resign with a good grace all that you are not.
Henri Frederic Amiel

Your work is to discover your world and then with all your heart give yourself to it.
Buddha

God has given you one face, and you make yourself another.
William Shakespeare
It is not only fine feathers that make fine birds.
Aesop

Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation.
Oscar Wilde

Every time you don't follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness.
Shakti Gawain

No creature is fully itself till it is, like the dandelion, opened in the bloom of pure relationship to the sun, the entire living cosmos.
D.H. Lawrence

The most exhausting thing in life is being insincere.
Anne Morrow Lindbergh

He who trims himself to suit everyone will soon whittle himself away.
Raymond Hull

Once conform, once do what others do because they do it, and a kind of lethargy steals over all the finer senses of the soul.
Michel Eyquem de Montaigne

Let the world know you as you are, not as you think you should be, because sooner or later, if you are posing, you will forget the pose, and then where are you?
Fanny Brice

Live your life as an exclamation, not an explanation.
Unknown

Nothing great has ever been achieved except by those who dared believe something inside them was superior to circumstances.
Bruce Barton

We are betrayed by what is false within.
George Meredith

The great majority of us are required to live a life of constant duplicity. Your health is bound to be affected if, day after day, you say the opposite of what you feel, if you grovel before what you dislike, and rejoice at what brings you nothing but misfortune.
Boris Pasternak

One must know oneself. If this does not serve to discover truth, it at least serves as a rule of life and there is nothing better.
Blaise Pascal

Is it sufficient that you have learned to drive the car, or shall you look and see what is under the hood? Most people go through life without ever knowing.
June Singer

If God had wanted me otherwise, He would have created me otherwise.
Johann von Goethe

You were born an original. Don't die a copy.
John Mason

It is better to be hated for what you are than to be loved for something you are not. Andre Gide

Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau


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Recovery Quote Of The Week: May 2, 2012

Clouds come floating into my life, no longer to carry rain or usher storm, but to add color to my sunset sky.
Rabindranath Tagore



*See sidebar menus for more Recovery Quotes of the Week and Inspirational Recovery Quotes

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7 Ways To Lift Your Spirits in 5 Minutes Or Less

Need an emotional (and even physical) lift? You only need a few minutes to make a big difference in how you feel.

7 Ways To Lift Your Spirits In 5 Minutes Or Less


Breathe

Sit up straight, shoulders back but relaxed. Clear your mind. Close your eyes. Relax. Take a slow breath in through your nose. Slowly exhale through your mouth, completely pushing the air out of your lungs until you can’t exhale any more. Take another slow, deep breath through your nose. This time completely fills your lungs letting your chest and tummy expand. Exhale slowly. Repeat. Keep a relaxed rhythm to your breathing.

Benefits include:

• Releases tension
• Elevates mood
• Oxygenates the blood
• Strengthens the lungs
• Increases Energy
• Strengthens internal muscles and stomach muscles
• Releases endorphins
• Release of toxins by increasing the functionality of the lymphatic system

Hum

Hum in a deep tone that resonates in your chest. Hum a happy, light tune. Either, or… the vibrations of humming are very similar to a meditative chant. Like chanting, the sound waves and vibrations are both soothing and beneficial.

Benefits include:

• Relieves stress
• Relieves tension
• Improves Sinusitis
• Slows breathing
• Lowers Blood Pressure
• Relaxes facial, neck muscles, and shoulder muscles
• Improves the parasympathetic system

Smile

Not feeling particularly happy at the moment? Smile anyway. Even a forced smile causes positive physical and emotional responses. Smile at others. It will make you and them feel better. Think of the amazing chain reaction you could cause simply by lifting the corners of your mouth.

Benefits include:

• Release of endorphins
• Lowers blood pressure
• Increases Serotonin
• Increases lifespan

More benefits of smiling


Stretch

Take time to stretch before jumping out of bed and starting your day. Get up from your office chair and stretch those muscles once in a while. Stretching feels great and is great for you.

Benefits include:

• Improved circulation
• Improved flexibility
• Lowers Blood Pressure
• Helps joint and muscle injury recovery
• Increases Energy
• Relieves stress and tension
• Increases feeling of well-being
• Improves posture

Doodle

Remember when you were little and the teacher would put on a record and you were told to just draw along with the tune? Take pen (or pencil) to paper and let your creativity out. Doodle to something you hum and double the benefits.

Benefits include:

• Improved memory and retention of information
• Improved focus
• Decreases stress
• Decreases tension
• Increased creativity

Sing

You don’t need to be able to carry a tune to benefit from singing. Lucky for me, and anyone graced with a similar set of vocal chords, singing off key is just as healthy for you as singing like a professional. You don’t even need to sing a song. Try singing sounds like short a or e.

Benefits include:

• Energizes
• Releases endorphins
• Exercises the lungs
• Deeper breathing
• Increases Circulation
• Lessens muscle tension
• Relieves stress
• Exercises vocal chords
• Elevates mood
• Stimulates the pineal gland
• Stimulates thyroid function

Daydream

Let your imagination take over for a few minutes. Close your eyes and let some positive imagery take the wheel.

Benefits include:

• Increased creativity
• Lowers blood pressure
• Relives stress
• Improves memory
• Improves concentration

picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/shareski/211532550/in/photostream/

Relapse: An Eating Disorders Poem

Relapse

I drove you away. You’ve returned to define my body, my soul;

anywhere I go you follow, burrowed deep within a pocket of my genes.

Stop pretending to be my friend, I am your captive, helplessly watching

you force me to be lite as I am surrounded by darkness.

Trapped in this self-imposed desert of malnutrition

I return to the god damn scale; my hands shaking,

hair falling out, heart wanting to give way.

What have you done? Why must you strike again?

The doctors say I need more: calories, rest, peace.

Doctors are not what I need, with their facts and figures:

I know the equation, I’ve seen the answer.

I don’t want the fancy treatments,

just someone (other than you) to hold my hand.

By: Genevieve Morrow


See sidebar menu for more ED and Body Image Writings and Poetry

Share your Eating Disorders and Body Image Poetry and Writings on Weighing The Facts


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Why You Should Add Meditation To Your Recovery Arsenal

Meditation has been around for ..well, ever ... just about. Where and when it originated isn't clearly documented (as far as I am aware) but it can be found in many, many cultures and throughout history.


I have meditated since I was a young teen. I was first introduced to the idea when I started doing yoga, inspired by a book I picked up at a neighborhood yard sale. Though I struggled at first, with what felt impossible at the time due to my ever-present thoughts, learning to clear my mind… it soon became easier and easier to accomplish. I found myself amazed by how different I felt afterward and surprised to see how much time had actually passed as I sat quietly meditating in my room for what felt like no more than 10 or 15 minutes.

Over the years I abandoned the practice, picking it up again when stress, anxiety, or worry took over, reminding me that I could feel better if I meditated. I had an on again/off again relationship with meditating for years.

Though I had experienced nothing but positive (and often amazing) results from meditation, I don’t think that I truly understood how powerful it was until years later when I found myself sitting in my cardiologist’s office, as an adult, with a medical issue. I was wired up to monitors in an attempt to figure out why my heart rate had become so dangerously fast. There I sat, machines beeping and registering each beat of my heart, my blood pressure, and my respiration. I was scared. The thoughts of how my children and my husband would cope if something happened to me weren’t improving the situation. For a few minutes I was alone as the doctor left the room to retrieve more supplies and that’s when meditation came to mind, again.

I closed my eyes, slowed my breathing, cleared my mind and began. I let go of my thoughts, concerns, and fears. My body and my mind relaxed. It didn’t take long for the beeping of the machines to slow. I opened my eyes to peek at the monitors and saw my heart rate had already dropped to almost normal but began to rise again as I stopped meditating. I closed my eyes again and let the sounds of the machines become a barely noticeable low, dull hum in the background. I concentrated on my breathing and let go of everything else. In those few minutes I had managed to lower my blood pressure and my heart rate and though they rose again when I stopped, they remained lower than when I had arrived. That was all I needed to bring meditation back into my life.


What is Meditation? Wikipedia defines it as follows:

Meditation is any form of a family of practices in which practitioners train their minds or self-induce a mode of consciousness to realize some benefit.[Meditation is generally an inwardly oriented, personal practice, which individuals do by themselves. Prayer beads or other ritual objects are commonly used during meditation. Meditation may involve invoking or cultivating a feeling or internal state, such as compassion, or attending to a specific focal point. The term can refer to the state itself, as well as to practices or techniques employed to cultivate the state.
There are dozens of specific styles of meditation practice;[3] the word meditation may carry different meanings in different contexts. Meditation has been practiced since antiquity as a component of numerous religious traditions and beliefs.  wikipedia

 The benefits of meditation are many. Here are a few;


Physical Benefits:

• Increases energy and strength
• Improves airflow to lungs
• Decreases/cures headaches
• Helps lessen pain (including chronic pain)
• Lowers blood pressure
• Increases blood flow
• Helps balance the endocrine system
• Relaxes the nervous system
• Changes brain electrical activity for the better
• Improves heart function and reduces work load of the heart
• Lowers heart rate
• Increases production of endorphins
• Increases serotonin levels, improving mood and feelings of pleasure
• Decreases muscle tension
• Better, more restorative sleep
• Improves the immune system
• Slows brain aging
• Lowers blood sugar levels in diabetics
• Reduces free radicals (which cause tissue damage, disease, and aging)
• Lowers cholesterol
• Decreases chronological age
• Increases DHEAS 
• Increases circulation

Mental and Emotional Benefits:

• Helps build confidence
• Helps balance communication between both brain hemispheres
• Increases activity in the left pre-frontal cortex resulting in positive, happy emotions
• Calms and soothes
• Reduces anxiety
• Improves depression
• Decreases restless thoughts and worry
• Improves tolerance
• Creates/Improves positive emotions
• Helps improve perspective
• Helps with OCD
• Improves worth performance
• Increases attention span/focus
• Lessens feelings of worry
• Reduces stress and helps improve ability to manage stress
• Relaxes the mind and the body
• Increases feelings of happiness
• Increases patience
• Improved learning ability
• Decreases moodiness
• Improves emotional stability
• Improves concentration
• Improves memory

In addition, studies have shown that meditation helps recovery from eating disorders and addiction. 


How do you Meditate?

There are many different types/styles/techniques of meditation. The best way to choose one for yourself is to do a little research and experiment until you find the one that feels right to you. Don't be afraid and don't give up if you don't find what works best for you right away. It's out there and worth looking for.

Give it a try. Give it some time. Practice. You'll be glad you did.


picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/htb/13775085/in/photostream/

Eating Disorders News and Views: April 24, 2012

The following News and Views presented do not necessarily reflect the opinion or beliefs of Weighing The Facts.
Warning: Some articles may be triggering.

Internet Crackdown on Pro-anorexia Sites

Two years ago, when Madeleine Bowman began treatment for anorexia, she stopped looking at a pro-anorexia website that for years had served as her community and her source for ideas to nurture her secret illness.

But on Tuesday she was curious and decided to take a look. Fortunately, her login had expired.

Bowman 26, of New York, is in recovery from a decade-long battle with anorexia, she said.

She'd stumbled upon the website in eighth grade, after googling "eating disorders." Bowman had been skipping meals to lose weight and she wanted to find out if she was anorexic. She then visited the site often to find new ways to hide her condition from friends and family.

Given the many social aggregators that spread information to wider and wider audiences, Bowman says that today it would be even easier for someone to find their way to a pro-anorexia site.

That might not be the case for much longer.
Read Internet Crackdown in full.


Self-Harm Banned by Instagram

Instagram, the popular online photo-sharing service that was recently bought by Facebook for US$1 billion, is banning images and accounts that condone "self-harm" behavior such as eating disorders, cutting oneself, or committing suicide.

In a blog post Friday, the company said the following:

Going forward, we won't allow accounts, images, or hashtags dedicated to glorifying, promoting, or encouraging self-harm. Should users come across content of that nature, we recommend flagging the photo or flagging the user as a "Terms of Service" violation for our Support team to review.

It is important to note that this guideline does not extend to accounts created to constructively discuss, or document personal experiences that show any form of self-harm where the intention is recovery or open discussion. While we strongly encourage people to seek help for themselves or loved ones who are suffering, we understand the importance of communication as a form of support, in order to create awareness and to assist in recovery.
Read Banned in full.


Family of Padiham victim (17) warn other families of signs of anorexia

THE family of a talented and caring Padiham teenager who died battling anorexia have called for more to be done to raise awareness and help youngsters with the disease.

Charlotte Rose Seddon (17), a straight A student, died suddenly at home in Balliol Close 12 days after leaving the Priory, Altrincham, following four months of treatment. She weighed just 6st.

An inquest into her death at Burnley Coroner’s Court heard Charlotte’s heart failed after becoming small due to a lack of nutrients.

Pathologist Dr Jane Edwards, who carried out the post-mortem examination, said there would have been no symptoms or warning, despite Charlotte having regular health checks.
Read Warn Other Families in full.


K 06 Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorder

Feeding and Eating Conditions Not Elsewhere Classified

These Conditions should be considered only if the individual has a feeding or eating disturbance judged to be of clinical significance that does not meet the criteria for any of the Feeding and Eating Disorders described above. The Conditions are described briefly; detailed criteria are not provided pending additional research. Although a diagnostic hierarchy (“trumping”) is not explicitly described, only a single condition should be assigned to an individual reflecting the description that best fits the individual's symptoms.

Sufficient data are not available at present to justify designating these Conditions’ as Disorders. However, these Conditions may be associated with levels of distress and/or impairment similar to those associated with the recognized Feeding and Eating Disorders, and may require intensive clinical intervention.
Read Other Specified in full.


Study: 16 Percent Increase in Men with Eating Disorders

New data from the NHS shows a shocking rise in the number of men with eating disorders (ED’s). Over the last year, there has been a 16% increase in the number of men and boys admitted to the hospital for eating disorders. While this is a huge jump, it may only hint at the true number of men suffering from an ED.

By its very nature, disordered eating is a secretive and guilty practice. Sufferers develop an unhealthy relationship with food over time and often go to great lengths to hide the symptoms of their condition. In particular, men have a difficult time admitting they have a problem because of the stigma that still surrounds eating disorders. Conditions such as anorexia and bulimia are often seen as a women’s disease and may be labeled “unmanly”.
Read 16% Increase in full. 


Image is everything: Unfortunately, that's the case in our society

Half the girls in this country between the ages of 11 and 13 believe they are fat.

That startling statistic comes from The Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders in Philadelphia and echoes what others say about the way girls think about food and their bodies.

Some young women go on fad diets or exercise binges at a time in their lives when they should be enjoying childhood and succeeding in school. Instead, they are overly preoccupied with their appearance — or better said, what they think they should look like.
Read Half The Girls in full.


Instagram, Pinterest latest to ban 'thinspo,' other 'self-harm' content

Many online communities have seen issues with "thispo" or "thinspiration" content, promotion anorexia or bulemia, and Instagram, Pintarest, and Tumblr are among services which have responded by banning "self-harm content," with Instagram the latest.

Blogging service Tumblr made its move in February, saying that while it is ”deeply committed to supporting and defending our users’ freedom of speech, [but] we do draw some limits.”
Read Latest to Ban in full

Binge Eating Disorder Continues to Rise Among Men

About 8 million men and women suffer from Binge Eating Disorder (BED), which is nearly three times the amount of those affected by Anorexia and Bulimia. With as many men affected by BED as women, The Eating Disorder Center of Denver (EDCD) aims to offer a treatment program that is accommodating and effective for both genders.

A newly recognized condition, those suffering from BED eat more than normal meal portions, feel a loss of control when eating and do not purge after binging.

Men are traditionally underrepresented in clinical trials for BED that gauge the effectiveness of treatments and are often overlooked when developing treatment programs, according to Dr. Tamara Pryor, EDCD clinical director.
Read BED Continues to Rise in full.


Demi Lovato: Bullies Sparked Bulimia

Demi Lovato's bulimia was sparked by school bullies who branded her 'fat'.

The 20-year-old former Disney star - who was admitted to rehab in 2010 for help with an eating disorder, self-harm and depression - believes her problems started at the tender age of 12.

Talking about her tormentors, she said: 'They called me a whore and told me I was fat and ugly. I shouldn't have listened, but I took it to heart and it hurt. I thought maybe I didn't have friends because I was too fat.'
Read Demi Lovato Bullies in full.


Anorexia May Be Caused By Brain Abnormality

London, April 22 (ANI): A new study has suggested that anorexia may be triggered by a defect in the brain, offering new hope that the potentially deadly eating disorder can be treated.

The pioneering research, carried out on anorexics as young as eight and using powerful new brain-imaging techniques, could lead to different treatments.

Anorexia is defined as a body weight at least 15 per cent below that expected, the Daily Express reported.

"We believe subtle problems in early brain development make patients susceptible to anorexia. We need to re-examine other mental health problems," said Psychologist Dr Ian Frampton of Exeter University, one of two researchers leading the study.
Read Anorexia Brain in full.


Pro-Anorexia 'Thinspiration' Photos Shouldn't Be Banned from Social Media

First, they came for the thinspiration pictures.

Internet censors are always agitating to ban one thing or another, and it's rarely the same thing twice. Instead, there's a revolving carousel of images that are deemed in succession to be beyond even the online pale. Each one seems to present a plausible occasion for, this once, curtailing free speech. The king wearing a pig snout. A swastika. Naked children.

Right now it's semi-naked women that the distressed classes want to cover up -- the very images on which the entirety of Western visual culture is founded.

This time, the anxiety about graven images has nothing to do with how they might arouse desire in men. We're afraid of what's known as " thinspiration," it seems, because glamorous photos of very skinny women, together with admiring captions, might arouse self-loathing in women, and thereby inspire self-mortification, and in particular anorexia.
Read Shouldn't Be Banned in full.


Scots man reveals his battle with anorexia as number of sufferers rise 

JONATHAN Hill has a year to start eating or he could die.
That is the stark warning he was given by doctors trying to help him overcome anorexia.
And he is an example of a worrying trend, with a rising number of males fighting the disorder which is usually associated with young women.
Jonathan, 29, has battled an eating disorder since he was 12.
His weight is currently six and a half stone – he used to be as low as four and a half – and hopes he is doing enough to see his fourth decade.
“I’ve accepted I’ll always have this illness. I won’t get better,” said Jonathan.
Read Scots Man in full.

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Recovery Quote Of The Week: April 23, 2012

Incredible change happens in your life when you decide to take control of what you do have power over instead of craving control over what you don't.
Steve Maraboli


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In Case: Eating Disorders Poetry

In case nobody’s told you, and in case you haven’t heard.
I’m trapped inside this limbo, teetering on the verge.
In case I get too scared, and in case I lose all nerve.
In case I lose myself trying to erase all of my curves.

In case one day I vanish, disappear into the air.
In case the day arrives as if I was never there.
In case one day this plan works, and no longer can you see.
In case one day I finish in erasing all of me.

In case I cannot beat this, and this letter’s all you find.
In case one day ed wins in taking hold of heart and mind.
In case one day I cannot fight, for the war is far too great.
In case I can no longer hide from this, my hopeless fate

And when the day “in cases” come and I am ash upon the wind.
The eulogy they speak for me won’t talk of fat or thin.
Now the rhythmic words in which I write may read like fairy tales.
But know I gave both life and limb for the numbers on a scale

By  Erin M. Akers


Be Featured on Weighing The Facts: Share your eating disorders and body image poetry and writings on Weighing The Facts


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Recovery Quote Of The Week: April 16, 2012

Those who seek growth, embrace life and learn from the journey.
Unknown


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Eating Disorders Poetry: Untitled

I lie.
I lie about what I’m doing, where I’m going, and what I just ate.

I steal.
I steal food when I can’t starve myself any longer, the scale that I’m prohibited to use, and my mom’s trust, which she thinks is so strong.

I hide.
I hide my discoloring nails, my dirty deeds, and my shrinking body.

I believe.
I believe that I’m ugly, that I’m not skinny enough, and that everyone hates me.

I regret.
I regret that I’ve betrayed the ones who love me the most, that I’ve harmed my body in ways unimaginable, and that I’ve stopped caring about the most important things in life.

I’m trying.
I’m trying to get better, to resist temptation, and to learn to love myself. 

by:Jasmine Pickering

 
Share your Eating Disorders/Body Image Poetry and Writings on Weighing The Facts

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picsource:http://www.flickr.com/photos/mediafury/4055659192/in/photostream/

Recovery Quote Of The Week: March 24, 2012

Without hard work, nothing grows but weeds.
Gordon B. Hinckley

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Finding Support For Recovery From An Eating Disorder

From groups to one-on-one, there are free resources available for eating disorder recovery support both online and off.
 
Below you will find links to the resource pages, support group listings, and forums of the following sites and organizations:


Eating Disorders Anonymous

Food Addicts Anonymous

Overeaters Anonymous

Anorexics and Bulimics Anonymous 

Bulimia.com

The National Association of Males with Eating Disorders

Mentor Connect

National Eating Disorders Association

EDReferral.com

Eating Disorders Help: Hotlines, Websites, Organizations

Something Fishy

We Bite Back

Eating Disorder Hope: Support Groups By State 

You can also contact these resources and inquire about support groups they may have or know of. 

Several Eating Disorder Treatment Centers also offer support groups. Contact one in your area and inquire about them. 

*If you know of any resources for Eating Disorder Recovery not listed above, please email me at mrsmenopausal@yahoo.com and let me know. I will add them to the list. 
Thank you.


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An Irish Blessing: Happy St. Patrick's Day!

An Old Irish Blessing 

 May love and laughter light your days,
and warm your heart and home.
May good and faithful friends be yours,
wherever you may roam.
May peace and plenty bless your world
with joy that long endures.
May all life's passing seasons
bring the best to you and yours!


The luck of the Irish to each and every one of you. 
Happy St. Patrick's Day!  
Mrs.M


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Progress: Eating Disorders Poetry

warning: Poem may be triggering

PROGRESS

Brain dying

Skin freezing

Lips lying

Heart seizing

Hair falling

Body aching

Ana calling

I’m breaking

Voice shrieking

Insides tearing

Tears streaking

Soul baring

Ana slowing

Intense grieving

People knowing

No deceiving

Brain healing

Smile forming

Heart feeling

Skin warming

Ana whining

Body loving

Hair shining

I’m recovering

Written by: Jessica of Periwinkle Paradise

*Check out Jessica's recovery / awareness jewelery,  Periwinkle Paradise, on Etsy.

Jessica says: 10% of the purchase price of ALL Periwinkle AND Dragonfly items AND Art pieces will be donated to NEDA - the National Eating Disorders Association - the largest National non-profit for eating disorder awareness. I look forward to raising awareness about eating disorders and helping those in need through this line of Periwinkle/Dragonfly Pieces and Recovery Art and to sharing these and all of my other pieces of jewelry with you!

Please see sidebar menu for more eating disorders and body image poetry and writings.

Be featured on Weighing The Facts


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The Journey: Inspirational Recovery Quotes

The journey between what you once were and who you are now becoming is where the dance of life really takes place.
Barbara DeAngelis

One of the most important things that I have learned in my 57 years is that life is all about choices. On every journey you take, you face choices. At every fork in the road, you make a choice. And it is those decisions that shape our lives.
Mike DeWine

It's pretty hard to get what you want when you're busy doing and being what you don't want.
Cheryl Janecky

Life is what you make of it. Always has been, always will be.
Grandma Moses

Press forward. Do not stop, do not linger in your journey, but strive for the mark set before you.
George Whitefield

Sooner or later we must realize there is no station, no one place to arrive at once and for all. The true joy of life is the trip.
Robert J. Hastings

I believe that life is a journey, often difficult and sometimes incredibly cruel, but we are well equipped for it if only we tap into our talents and gifts and allow them to blossom.
Les Brown

Rowing harder doesn't help if the boat is headed in the wrong direction.
Kenichi Ohmae

Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will-whatever we may think.
Lawrence Durrell

The road of life twists and turns and no two directions are ever the same. Yet our lessons come from the journey, not the destination.
Don Williams

To get through the hardest journey we need take only one step at a time, but we must keep on stepping.
Chinese Proverb

We are not human beings on a spiritual journey. We are spiritual beings on a human journey.
Stephen Covey

Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let your soul take you where you long to be…Close your eyes, let your spirit start to soar, and you’ll live as you’ve never lived before.
Erich Fromm

Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

No one else can speak the words on your lips. Drench yourself in words unspoken. Live your life with arms wide open. Today is where your book begins. The rest is still unwritten.
Natasha Bedingfield

There are many paths but only one journey.
Naomi Judd

Life is a journey that must be traveled no matter how bad the roads and accommodations.
Oliver Goldsmith

Peace is a journey of a thousand miles and it must be taken one step at a time.
Lyndon B. Johnson

Too often we are so preoccupied with the destination, we forget the journey.
Unknown

Heroes take journeys, confront dragons, and discover the treasure of their true selves.
Carol Pearson

Understand that the right to choose your own path is a sacred privilege. Use it. Dwell in possibility.
Oprah Winfrey

The benefits of the accomplished journey cannot be weighed in terms of perfect moments, but in terms of how this journey affects and changes our character.
Ella Maillart

Do the difficult things while they are easy and do the great things while they are small. A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
Lao Tzu

It may be when we no longer know what to do, we have come to our real work, and that when we no longer know which way to go, we have begun our real journey.
Wendell Berry

Sometimes it is better to begin the journey, to get under way, then it is to sit back and wait until such time that you're convinced that all conditions are perfect and that there'll be no surprises along the route.
John Engler

The longest journey is the journey inwards. Of him who has chosen his destiny, Who has started upon his quest for the source of his being.
Dag Hammarskjold

Life's a journey, not a destination.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

We must embrace pain and burn it as fuel for our journey.
Kenji Miyazawa

For a long time it had seemed to me that life was about to begin-real life. But there was always some obstacle in the way, something to be gotten through first, some unfinished business, time still to be served, a debt to be paid. Then life would begin. At last it dawned on me that these obstacles were my life.
Alfred D’Souza 

Be willing to be a beginner every single morning.
Meister Eckhart

Realize that from the start, every activity that comprises the journey has value and the ability to teach you something.
Bill Toomey

The good life is a process, not a state of being. It is a direction, not a destination.
Carl Rogers

An excuse becomes an obstacle in your journey to success when it is made in place of your best effort or when it is used as the object of the blame.
Bo Bennett

I think essentially the meaning of life is probably the journey and not really any one thing or an outcome or a result.
Charisma Carpenter

It's a life's journey of finding ourselves, finding our power, and living for yourself, not for everyone else.
Mariska Hargitay

If my ship sails from sight, it doesn't mean my journey ends, it simply means the river bends.
Enoch Powell

The journey is my home.
Muriel Rukeyser

Simplicity is making the journey of this life with just baggage enough.
Charles Dudley Warner

It has never been, and never will be easy work! But the road that is built in hope is more pleasant to the traveler than the road built in despair, even though they both lead to the same destination.
Marion Zimmer Bradley

Never make your home in a place. Make a home for yourself inside your own head. You'll find what you need to furnish it - memory, friends you can trust, love of learning, and other such things. That way it will go with you wherever you journey.
Tad Williams

Seek out that particular mental attribute which makes you feel most deeply and vitally alive, along with which comes the inner voice which says, ‘This is the real me,’ and when you have found that attitude, follow it.
William James

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

Whatever you do, you need courage. Whatever course you decide upon, there is always someone to tell you that you are wrong. There are always difficulties arising that tempt you to believe your critics are right. To map out a course of action and follow it to an end requires some of the same courage that a soldier needs. Peace has its victories, but it takes brave men and women to win them.
Ralph Waldo Emerson

So it's been kind of a long road, but it was a good journey altogether.
Sidney Poitier

It is always our own self that we find at the end of the journey. The sooner we face that self, the better.
Ella Maillart

A person often meets his destiny on the road he took to avoid it.
Jean de la Fontaine

The process of letting go is like taking a journey to the center of your being.
Darren L. Johnson

Do not let your fire go out, spark by irreplaceable spark, in the hopeless swamps of the approximate, the not-quite, the not-yet, the not-at-all. Do not let the hero in your soul perish, in lonely frustration for the life you deserved, but have never been able to reach. Check your road and the nature of your battle. The world you desired can be won. It exists, it is real, it is possible, it is yours.
Ayn Rand

Thank God for the journey.
James Brown

It's not an easy journey, to get to a place where you forgive people. But it is such a powerful place, because it frees you.
Tyler Perry

Come dress yourself in love, let the journey begin.
Francesca da Rimini

Does this path have a heart? If it does, the path is good; if it doesn’t, it is of no use.
Carlos Castaneda

For me, exploration is about that journey to the interior, into your own heart. I'm always wondering, how will I act at my moment of truth? Will I rise up and do what's right, even if every fiber of my being is telling me otherwise?
Ann Bancroft

Each song is a lifetime, it begins and ends, and there's a journey taken within the songs.
Leif Garrett

It is good to have an end to journey toward, but it is the journey that matters in the end.
Ursula K. Le Guin

We advance on our journey only when we face our goal, when we are confident and believe we are going to win out.
Orison Swett Marden

Success is a journey, not a destination. The doing is often more important than the outcome.
Arthur Ashe

At no time are we ever in such complete possession of a journey, down to its last nook and cranny, as when we are busy with preparations for it.
Yukio Mishima

The big secret in life is that there is no big secret. Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.
Oprah Winfrey

A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.
Lao Tzu

It's easy to say young people should believe in themselves, but the number one thing is recognizing that it's a journey, that you have to build confidence in yourself.
Andrew Shue

But even if I'm left high and dry at the end of this wild journey, just taking it is a great feeling.
Olivia Wilde

Every day is a journey, and the journey itself is home.
Matsuo Basho

If all difficulties were known at the outset of a long journey, most of us would never start out at all.
Dan Rather

We are at our very best, and we are happiest, when we are fully engaged in work we enjoy on the journey toward the goal we've established for ourselves. It gives meaning to our time off and comfort to our sleep. It makes everything else in life so wonderful, so worthwhile.
Earl Nightingale

I like someone who embraces life; who wants to be on a long journey but has no particular plan or destination in mind… an adventurous man, open to the concept of living life in the moment.
Jill Hennessy

It helps, I think, to consider ourselves on a very long journey: the main thing is to keep to the faith, to endure, to help each other when we stumble or tire, to weep and press on.
Mary Richards

When you have completed 95 percent of your journey, you are only halfway there.
Japanese Proverb

Does the road wind up-hill all the way? Yes, to the very end. Will the day's journey take the whole long day? From morn to night, my friend.
Grantland Rice

It's a journey; it's a fight everyday.
Peter Hobson

The spiritual path - is simply the journey of living our lives. Everyone is on a spiritual path; most people just don't know it.
Marianne Williamson

Life to me is a journey - you never know what may be your next destination.
David Russell

We don't receive wisdom; we must discover it for ourselves after a journey that no one can take for us or spare us.
Marcel Proust

Every journey into the past is complicated by delusions, false memories, false namings of real events.
Adrienne Rich

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I – I took the one less traveled by, and that has made all the difference.
Robert Frost

I think illness is a family journey, no matter what the outcome. Everybody has to be allowed to process it and mourn and deal with it in their own way.
Marcia Wallace

In that I found being able to talk to my family about my feelings, praying for strength and realizing that our lives have a deep purpose and the journey of our lives is to find out what that is and express it, was the only way I could have gotten through it.
Marlo Thomas

It requires greater courage to preserve inner freedom, to move on in one's inward journey into new realms, than to stand defiantly for outer freedom.
Rollo May

Success is not a place at which one arrives but rather the spirit with which one undertakes and continues the journey.
Alex Noble

Life is short and we have never too much time for gladdening the hearts of those who are travelling the dark journey with us. Oh be swift to love, make haste to be kind.
Henri Frederic Amiel

Each one of us has a fire in our heart for something. It’s our goal in life to find it and keep it lit.
Mary Lou Retton

What I know for sure is that your life is a multipart series of all your experiences- and each experience is created by your thoughts, intentions, and actions to teach you what you need to know. Your life is a journey of learning to love yourself first and then extending that love to others in every encounter.
Oprah Winfrey



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