How Eating Disorder Recovery Affirmations Foster Healing and Positive Change
If your goal is to heal your relationship with food and with your body, then a change in how you think and speak to yourself throughout the day is a good place to start. The question is, “how do we move from negative to positive self-talk?” Do we simply flip a switch, or “try hard”? If only it was that easy…If only the change we’re seeking would rise unaided from within ourselves, then achieving our goals and life in general would be so much easier. Instead, take a deep breath and open yourself up to a little bit of help from a voice that isn’t your own.
Imagine someone who knows you well—all the good, all the bad—looks at you and tells you they love you. How does that feel? It feels good, doesn’t it? Better than good. It lifts you. It moves you away from fear and anxiety, and fixes you in place of joy and peace that cannot be taken from you.
Hearing that you’re loved, that you’re enough, this experience has the power to change you. It has the power to replace the negative voices rattling around and clouding your days and weeks with the feeling of belonging and being worthy of happiness, laughter and love.
In this article, we’re excited to introduce you to our Affirmation resources for individuals interested in receiving help with eating disorders and intuitive eating. Affirmations are long and short positive statements said out loud that take the experience of receiving a positive message from someone else and put it into your voice. In the same way that a positive voice from outside ourselves can lift us up and change us in the moment, these personal daily affirmations transform our unhelpful and negative thoughts into words of encouragement and peace. With the help of daily affirmations, our hope is not only that your inner dialogue about food and your body will change but also that your habits, behaviors, and relationship with food will be transformed.
Research has shown this to be true because our brains have the ability to “rewire” themselves through consistent and transformative habit adjustments. This is referred to as neuroplasticity; the brain’s ability to physiologically change over time by remapping and reorganizing the way its neural networks fire and grow together. In simpler terms, new mental behavior and habit adjustments can actually make a physical change to your brain. This evidence-based scientific research demonstrates the possibility of transforming your negative self-talk into a positive, constructive and encouraging inner dialogue through the use of daily affirmations (1).
Changing the ways in which we relate to food and to our bodies isn’t simple—it takes time. And a change in the way we speak to ourselves and respond to our thoughts takes time as well. We recommend that you make use of daily affirmations for at least 2-4 weeks before assessing whether or not you’ve experienced any progress. With time and help healing can become a reality for you and the people you love.
