The Most Important Day

Hi all,
As promised, here is the Ralph Marston piece we used to close last night's meeting.

The Most Important Day...
This is the most important day in your life. Because this is the day that you are now living.

If your life is headed in an undesirable direction, this is the day you can change it. If there are dreams you are longing to fulfill, this is the day you can follow them.

This day, right now, is the day when you can put to use all the knowledge, experience and wisdom you've accumulated. On this very day, you can do the things you've been meaning to do and connect with the people you've been meaning to see.

On this day, you have a world full of choices. On this day, there are more possibilities than ever before.

Of all the days you've ever lived, and of all the days to come, this is the one special day that now matters the most. For it is on this very day that you can now think and speak and act and love and live.

Give yourself a quiet, peaceful moment, and grasp the immense value that is now yours on this very day. Then step forward and fill it with beautiful life.

-- Ralph Marston

The Children We Once Were...A Reminder from Baby Jonah

Hi all,

So last Thursday I became the proud auntie of this beautiful baby boy!!!!! His name is Jonah. It's been a longer time for some of us, but...isn't it hard to believe we were all babies once? This just reminds me of something I learned from one of our group members a couple of sessions ago...

M. told this really cool story. She carried a picture of herself as a little girl in her wallet and when she was having a hard time taking care of/nurturing herself, she would look at the picture of herself from when she was a little girl and do whatever it was she needed to do to stay healthy… for the little girl she once was. Even taking the little girl by the hand to take her to the supermarket to buy her food…it was pretty touching….really grabbed my heart….

Next time you are having a hard time taking care of yourself, and struggling with food, if you can't do it for you, try doing it for the child you once were...

See you this Sunday (7:00PM) at our usual meeting place Flamingo Road Church. Room 127.

Peace, Hope and Love,

Lily

PS: Welcome to the world baby Jonah! This post is for you...thanks for the great reminder!

Great Book: Life Without ED by Jenni Schaefer

Hi everyone,

As I mentioned last night at the meeting, I am reading Life Without ED by Jenni Shaefer. I know several of you have already. It is such an awesome book! I just wanted to share some good ideas from the book on this post, but hey! No substitute for reading it on your own if you haven't already!!!!

Here is one cool thing I have learned from Jenni (author) so far: One of the keys to recovery is that we have to learn to Distinguish between our eating disorder voice (Ed, our negative mind) and our healthy (genuine) voice. We also have to learn to Disagree AND most importantly Disobey Ed.

There is an excellent journaling exercise that asks you to answer these two questions every morning:

"1. What does Ed (my eating disorder) want me to do today?

2. What do I need to do today to be in recovery?"

This journal exercise makes for a great way to start separating ourselves from ED!

Life without Ed is a great read! Jenni's story is inspiring and real, plus the book has lots of ideas/activities (like the journal exercise above). I give it five stars so far!

Til next time,

Lily

The Scale by Kensington

I ran into this analogy on a recovery website and thought it was cool...

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The Scale

Scales only have the power which we bestow upon them.

In reality, a scale is just a small household item made of metal & springs & dials.

A scale is a toaster is a blender is an electric toothbrush is a weed whacker.

Imagine if I said, "My self-worth is determined by the toaster."Sounds pretty weird, eh?

Or "I'm not good enough, the lawnmower said so!"

Or "I have to check with the blender to see if I like myself today."

The power only comes in when we choose to hand all of ours over to an inanimate object...

source: Kensington - Administrator, Something Fishy, http://www.something-fishy.org/

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Where do we get our value, our sense of worth? If we are getting it from the scale, the mirror, from the clothes we wear, the house we live in, the car we drive, etc....we might as well ask the blender!

It is an important part of recovery and of our life journey to find out...Our value does not depend on things external. We are all unique, gifted and talented in our own way. There is no one in the world like us...

I see potential in you when we meet on Sundays...I also see courage (just coming to group is corageous!!), strength, hope, empathy, tender-heartedness, openness, determination, perseverance...

We all have value and potential...Don't ask the blender!

Peace, Hope and Love,

Lily

Exquisite Joy by Ralph Marston

Hi all,
As promised, here is the inspirational piece we used to close our last meeting. Thanks Nikki for introducing us to Ralph Marston, he is great! ~ Lily



Exquisite Joy
What if your dreams have already come true and you don't even know it because you're so busy chasing what the world says you must have?

What if the things you thought you needed in order to be happy, you do not really need at all?
All around you are opportunities for exquisite joy.

Are you too busy to see them?
Are you so consumed with striving for success that you're unable to appreciate the massive abundance that is already yours?
Have you placed so many conditions on happiness that you don't ever have time to actually experience it?

Take a slow, sweet, deep breath and remember how very blessed you are.

Allow life's real and ever-present beauty to touch you and to remind you of who you truly are.

Stop obsessing so much on keeping score and getting ahead.
Focus instead on creating real and lasting value from each moment you are given.

There is so very much that you can do.
Count your many blessings, and as you do they will grow more profound.

~ Ralph Marston