A poem on ED Recovery by Kristen Brunello

In this bonus episode/teaser for the start of a new season, Kristen Brunello, host of EDRS, discusses where she has been for the past year and a half and what she has learned during 12 weeks of quarantine.

Topics Include:

- Yoga

- Depression/Anxiety

- Creativity

- Listening

- Doing the work

- Asking for help

“I think my recovery now is talking about it. That’s how I deal with it. That’s how I keep it real. I put it out there. I own it. This is part of me. I don’t have any regrets.” – Karli

Karli is a fitness professional who puts her experiences with anorexia out in the open in order to help others heal. While Karli did see some outpatient treatment professionals, none of them seemed to work for her, because as she says, “nothing works if you’re still lying to yourself.” In her story she tells about her struggle with anorexia and how learning about the physical body and nutrition helped her in her recovery. In our conversation, Karli and I talk about why she believes someone is always in recovery, the mental and physical effects of an eating disorder, relationships in recovery, and how her ED made her a stronger person.

Full List of Conversation Topics:

- Why she believes we are always “recovering” from an eating disorder

- Mental and Physical effects of an eating disorder

- How her eating disorder made her manipulative

- When people you love “call you out”

- Relationships in recovery

- How her eating disorder made her a stronger person

- Definitions of health

Resources:

- Accept Recovery: https://alwaysabeing.com/ecourse/

“What’s interesting is that the commitment and fire that was present during both eating disorders is the same commitment and fire that helped me overcome them. I refused to settle to be unhappy and feel tethered to these disorders, and it feels surreal to look back and realize how far I’ve come.” – Sam

Sam is a life coach and a yoga teacher who has overcome a struggle with several eating disorders, including orthorexia. In her story, Sam reads two eerily similar  journal entries written several years apart. What they both have in common? The last sentence which says, “I want to be me again”. In our conversation, Sam and I talk more about orthorexia and how it is portrayed in the media and on social media. We also talk about yoga and the benefits of having hard conversations with people that we love.

Full list of Conversation Topics: 

- Orthorexia

- Social Media and Orthorexia

- Yoga & Self-Inquiry in recovery

- Community and its effect on Recovery

- The benefit of having “hard conversations with people”

- Personality traits in the development of an ED

- Anxiety and yoga

Resources:

- Sam’s Website - www.samantharoller.com

- Sam’s IG Handle: @yogawithsam

- Coby Kozlowski - www.cobyk.com

- The Kripalu Center for Yoga & Health - www.kripalu.org

- Ana Forrest - www.forrestyoga.com

- Jim Rohn - www.jimrohn.com

- Nonviolent Communication - www.nonviolentcommunication.com

- Accept Recovery 8 Day E-Course - www.alwaysabeing.com/ecourse

“A lot of times the struggle of recovery is like this huge mountain you need to climb. And you’ve fallen so far that the peak of the mountain looks a century away. Understand that you don’t need to find the path. There are Sherpas. There are people who will guide you. You don’t have to do it alone. Even if the people around you don’t understand, there are people who are out there that do” – JG

In my conversation with Janine, she and I talk more about being a recovery role model, how to find motivation to heal when the people around you don’t understand your struggle, having a relationship with how your body looks, positive affirmations and more.

Full List of Conversation Topics:

- Being a recovery role model

- Loneliness

- Vulnerability, sharing, and connection

- Tips for loved ones of people with eating disorders

- How to find motivation to heal your ED when the people in your life don’t understand

- How to have patience for people in your life who don’t understand your ED

- Choice in recovery

- Having a relationship with how your body looks

- Reasons for exercising other than weight loss

- Recovery pets

- Affirmations

Resources:

- The Renfrew Center: www.renfrewcenter.com

- "I Am: A Life-changing Guide to Creating the Future You Desire" by Janine Naomi Grant - https://www.amazon.com/Am-Life-changing-Creating-Future-Desire/dp/1546666036

- Accept Recovery 8-Day E-Course - www.alwaysabeing.com/ecourse

“A lot of times the struggle of recovery is like this huge mountain you need to climb. And you’ve fallen so far that the peak of the mountain looks a century away. Understand that you don’t need to find the path. There are Sherpas. There are people who will guide you. You don’t have to do it alone. Even if the people around you don’t understand, there are people who are out there that do” – Janine

Janine and I were in residential treatment together in 2007. As the first person that I knew who was doing well in her recovery, she was someone that I looked up to. Janine currently lives in Colorado Springs where she works as the Director of Strategic Partnerships for Abundant, a leadership mastermind that supports sales professionals in their growth. Her mission is to help others experience the brightest and most authentic version of the light within themselves. In her story she talks about the feeling of loneliness and how it contributed to her eating disorder. She also talks about how having a recovery pet, being in a sales position, and starting to live life on HER terms helped her in recovery. Janine says her eating disorder gave her the invitation to learn more about what makes her happy and that sharing her story helps her to create deeper connections with other people.

“I remember being frustrated because it seemed like people would have ‘Aha moments’ and recovery would be so easy for them after that. It wasn’t like that for me. Recovery for me took a long time. Get support, don’t give up, recovery can happen for you” – Sarah

In my conversation with Sarah, she and I talk more about eating disorders and identity, spirituality and meditation, body image, how to deal with friends who diet, and more.

Full List of Conversation Topics:

- ED symptoms as external validation

- Identity – “Who am I?”

- Spirituality & Meditation

- Body Image/Phobia

- How to deal with having friends and family members who diet/detox/hate their bodies

- Eating Disorder Recovery Coaching

Resources:

- Sarah’s Website: www.sarahrzemieniak.com

- Sarah's Book Recommendations: https://sarahrzemieniak.com/favourite-books/

- Sarah’s Blog – https://sarahrzemieniak.com/blog/

- SahajMarg - http://www.sahajmarg.org/seeker/practice

- Quarter-Life Calling - http://www.cobyk.com/leadership/quarter-life-calling/

- Health at Every Size - http://haescommunity.com

- Accept Recovery E-Course - https://alwaysabeing.com/ecourse/

“I remember being frustrated because it seemed like people would have ‘Aha moments’ and recovery would be so easy for them after that. It wasn’t like that for me. Recovery for me took a long time. Get support, don’t give up, recovery can happen for you” – Sarah

Sarah is a fully recovered eating disorder recovery coach who was certified through the Carolyn Costin Institute. She lives in Victoria British Columbia and prior to being a coach in private practice, she was a dietitian working with individuals with eating disorders. Sarah’s story tells of her long struggle with an eating disorder and how finding a meditation and spiritual practice that resonated with her was a significant factor in her recovery.

Resources:

- Sarah’s Website: www.sarahrzemieniak.com

- Book Recommendations: https://sarahrzemieniak.com/favourite-books/

Kristen’s meditation teacher Lorin Roche once said to her, “there is a part of you that is not broken.” When she heard this she felt like she had been punched in the stomach and stabbed in the heart and was immediately brought to tears; it hurt so badly because it was exactly what she needed to hear. In this Meditation Bit, Kristen reads 3 meditations from Lorin’s book “The Radiance Sutras” which is a translation of the tantric text the Bhairavan Tantra. Two of the three meditations discuss how you can use your pain and wounds as portals into the divine and healing. 

Resources:

- Lorin Roche: www.lorinroche.com

- The Radiance Sutras: 112 Gateways to the Yoga of Wonder & Delight: www.radiancesutras.com

Amanda is 20 years old and aspires to help those with eating disorders one day. In her story she tells about her struggles and relapses with anorexia and depression and shares a lot of treatment tools that she found helpful in her recovery. In our conversation, she and I talk about our experiences with residential treatment, coping skills and motivation in recovery, blind weights, relationships, and more.

Full List of Conversation Topics:

- Center for Discovery & Residential Treatment

- Recovery as a full-time job

- Coping skills for recovery

- Motivation to get better

- Negative vs Positive Self-talk

- Relief-band and its effect on treatment

- Weighing and blind weights

- ED, Recovery, & Relationships

Resources:

- IG Handle: HealthyIsTheNewSkinny

- Center for Discovery: https://centerfordiscovery.com

- Center for Discovery Scholarship: http://discoveryscholarshipprogram.com

- Reliefband: https://www.reliefband.com

- The Mental Illness Happy Hour Podcast: http://mentalpod.com

- Mentally Yours Podcast: https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/mentally-yours/id1227701964?mt=2

- Healthy is the New Skinny: Your Guide to Self-Love in a “Picture Perfect” World by Katie H. Willcox: http://www.katiehwillcox.com/mybook/

- Pound for Pound: A story of one woman’s recovery and the shelter dogs who loved her back to life by Shannon Kopp: http://shannonkopp.com/books/pound-for-pound/

- Amanda’s Blog: https://beautifulusrecovery.wordpress.com

- Accept Recovery 8-Day E-Course: https://alwaysabeing.com/ecourse/