Almost everything worthwhile that I’ve done in my life has required quite a large time investment. Right now, most of us have more time than we know what to do with.
Honestly though, an excess of time doesn’t always feel good, especially when it’s kind of forced upon us like it has been with this worldwide “stay at home” initiative. Many of us feel ripped out of our routine, left with unfinished business at the office, or frustrations with the fact that some of our personal, “at home” struggles are surfacing with a vengeance now that we’re stuck at home. For those of us who are trying to spend less time with certain activities, the boredom and frustration can make the temptations even stronger, perhaps even creating fear.
A few weeks ago, I shared a post about how teaching myself the guitar helped me recover from my eating disorder. Learning new music skills helped fill the void in my brain space as I was trying to transition away from thinking about food all the time. The excitement of a new hobby that engaged my heart, my mind, my body, and even my spirit (when I was playing worship songs) gave me a positive motivation — adding something — rather than focusing only on negative — removing something — efforts.
If you’re feeling less than optimistic about the stay at home order, try turning it into something positive by planting the seeds for something that can grow into a huge positive over the next weeks and months. Try out a new hobby, pick up your guitar again, bring out the watercolor paints, start writing poetry, open your online business, start a blog….the ideas are endless!
More Ideas For You…
To get started blogging:
Check out this post, with a guided tutorial for getting started with WordPress. It teaches you the technical aspects of getting your own “dot com” and also offers a systematic approach for figuring out what to write about, if you don’t know yet!
Bake a Cake
This is still my all-time favorite cake recipe. I mean, come on…it has almost a whole package of Oreos!
Play Board Games
I shared in this post about some of my favorite board games that I’ve been playing with friends and family. Many of them even work well for just two players. Three cheers for the fact that Amazon is still open!
When I was struggling in my relationship with food and exercise as an adult, there were times that I wished someone would step in and stop me, because I didn’t feel like I could make myself do what I knew I needed to do in order to be free.
The big trigger for me to finally make a change was a trip abroad. It jarred me out of my routine and put me in such an unfamiliar setting that I couldn’t keep up my old habits if I tried. I fought against it at first, but finally surrendering, in very real ways, saved my life.
Could this quarantine be the trigger for you to finally change your relationship with food, your body, and exercise? Healing takes time, and two weeks (or longer) could be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for to start taking steps towards healing.
A rest from exercise. Dedicated time to focus on learning about intuitive eating. Avoiding mirrors, wearing stretchy clothes to let your body just be a body. Practicing grace.
Don’t miss this opportunity.
A note to my friends in recovery…
I totally get that this time is hard. Being pulled out of the routine that give structure and comfort to recovery can feel terrifying. But the world isn’t ending, life as you know it isn’t going to explode, and there is so much hope for tomorrow…which means that recovery is still worth it. And hey, if “that thing” that you’ve been meaning to do for a while but haven’t gotten around to doing for you was taking a break from exercise, or really putting in the effort to learn intuitive eating, now is the time.
If you need a little more encouragement, check out some of these posts…
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