Eating Disorder Recovery Garden: Let’s GROW Together!
Eating Disorder Recovery: The Garden Metaphor
I am an avid gardener, and first fell in love with gardening when I was a little girl. I thought that it was such a miracle that a few seeds planted in the ground would later sprout into seedlings, and then become big plants! In the case of cucumbers, I was fascinated how long the plants would become, and the how little cucumbers would grow out from the vines. I adored being able to pick a cucumber and then munch into its crisp flesh, noting a slight bitterness which I truly enjoyed. Whether cucumbers, cherry tomatoes, black raspberries, rhubarb stalks (dipped in a bit of sugar) – these are all fond memories from my childhood at harvest time. From clearing space for a garden, to planting seeds, to watering and fertilizing the seedlings, to weeding the garden, to ongoing care for the plants, to the ultimate harvest – how is gardening like eating disorder recovery? Let’s explore this metaphor together.
Eating Disorder Recovery: Clearing Space for Your Garden
This is the beginning stage of eating disorder recovery – making a commitment to recovery, making a decision to seek help in recovery, making a conscious choice to explore a New Life, free from eating disorder thoughts and behaviors. You may not know what freedom from ED (eating disorder) will be like – all you may sense is that it has to be better that the pain and isolation of ED. At first, ED may seem like a “best friend,” and ED may seem like it “works” for you. But eventually, those of us now in recovery realize that ED is our “worst enemy,” and that ED does NOT “work” – in fact, we realize that ED it slowly (or sometimes quickly) killing us. We know that it’s time to let ED go – and EDIT™ Certified Professionals are trained in the EDIT™ Process as way to safely enter into this New Life of Freedom. Let’s get your Garden of Recovery Growing!
Eating Disorder Recovery: Planting Your Seeds of Recovery
During my own journey of recovery from Anorexia, Bulimia, and Binge Eating Disorder, I learned five key principles which guided me to live in Freedom from ED! When I honored my Call to become a Counselor and help other overcome eating disorders, I began teaching these five principles to my clients. Eventually, other professionals started asking me to train them in “my method.” I started calling my method Eating Disorder Intuitive Therapy (EDIT)™ – and now there are hundreds of EDIT™ Certified Professionals around the world! Here are the five EDIT™ Principles, which I offer to YOU as seeds of YOUR eating disorder recovery:
1. Love Your Self – Your WHOLE Self, Body-Mind-Heart Soul
2. Be True To Your Self – Trust INTUITION as your Guide
3. Express Your Self – Heal Underlying Issues in Safe Ways
4. Give To Your Self – Nurture from Within, Soul-Heart, Mind-Body
5. Believe In Your Self – Enjoy Ongoing Recovery and Lasting Freedom!
Eating Disorder Recovery: Tending to Your Recovery Garden
Tending to your garden means providing sunlight, water, and fertilizer so that your seedlings can emerge and grow in healthy ways. Similarly, YOU need to nurture your Self by practicing the five EDIT™ Principles in your own life. You will notice that weeds also start to surface – in our garden metaphor, these are ED thoughts, and when you observe these “weeds in your mind,” gently yet firmly say, “NO! You do not belong here!” and imagine you are pulling a weed from your recovery garden (or, go out and pull a REAL weed)! This needs to be a DAILY practice – often an hourly practice, or even a minute-by-minute practice. One THOUGHT at a time. Grow what you INTEND to grow. Get those weeds outta there! I continue to practice these five EDIT™ Principles in my everyday life, and this is how I say free from ED. YOU can, too! EDIT™ Certified Professionals are here to guide you in your eating disorder recovery garden grown process.
Eating Disorder Recovery: Harvesting Your Recovery Garden
Thought my many years in recovery, I allow myself to PAUSE and enjoy the “fruits of my labor.” I breathe, and smile, and “take it all in” – enjoying “food for my hungry soul.” Like growing a garden, recovery can be a lot of work at times. But the work is worth it, because YOU are worth it! Because of my commitment to eating disorder recovery, a New Life opened up for me. I have been an Eating Disorder Treatment Specialist for 25+ years, and and honored my Call to train professionals in my EDIT™ Method and have been doing so for 18+ years. I have written two books (finishing my third book now), and I have given workshops and motivational speeches internationally. This is not “work” to me – this is my PASSION! I live in my own rustic home, in the mountains just outside of Denver, Colorado, and all of this (and more yet to unfold) are my WILDEST DREAMS come true. In eating disorder recovery, YOUR WILDEST DREAMS are possible for YOU, too!
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Is part of your DREAM to be a guide for others in their eating disorder recovery? Here are TWO WAYS to get started:
1. WORKSHOP: Growing a Recovery Garden – CLICK & LEARN MORE
2. Become EDIT™ Certified – CLICK & BEGIN TODAY
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Article may be reprinted with the author bio below.
©2021 by Dr. Dorie McCubbrey. Dr. Dorie is a Certified Eating Disorder Specialist who is passionate about training professionals to effectively guide clients in recovery from eating disorders. She is the President of the EDIT™ Training Institute LLC, which provides training and certification in her method of Eating Disorder Intuitive Therapy (EDIT)™. She also provides sessions for clients who struggle with these issues, either in person or by phone/video. Learn more at: https://www.editcertified.com
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Want more that this “taste” of EDIT™? Dr. Dorie is passionate about her method of Eating Disorder Intuitive Therapy (EDIT)™ to help people overcome eating disorders and addictions. She provides customized programs for people in recovery from eating disorders and who struggle with weight issues, and EDIT™ eating disorder training and certification for coaches and clinicians worldwide. CONTACT DR. DORIE – GET CERTIFIED