Topic Tuesday: Trust

“Trusting My Body” (By: Mackenzie Fox)

I wrote a blog post earlier about finding my body and that was what I dealt with a lot during recovery. The next step of that is learning to trust my body. I’ve struggled a lot to find a home in my body. Just as much as we are bombarded with diet ads and weight loss articles, there are a ton of self-help guides to love your body. Some of them are terrible and others are amazingly helpful but it leads me to question, why don’t we just trust in our bodies? Eating disorders are a mental disorder that do damage to the body. One of the best practices for me for when I succumb to a behavior of my eating disorder is to work on quieting my mind. To still my mind and my ego and listen to my body’s wisdom is a powerful tool for recovery. Our bodies are innately strong, full of life and want to help us have the best life we can. We just have to figure out how to trust it and love it.

For me, meditation has been the way to connect with my body and how I learned to listen to her. With every breath, I would feel my muscles tense and release, letting my mind imagine that I’m sending away all the self abuse and negativity. I allow my mind to just rest, free from the daily stressors and anxiety, and just tune in with what my body tells me. Sometimes I need a long time to unwind and other days, it is just a few deep breaths in and out but I let my body decide what she needs.

I’m now three years into recovery and staying tune with my body’s needs is just another ‘thing’ that I do. It isn’t a ‘second nature’ kind of act yet but I know it will be some day. For now, it’s a daily reminder that I’ve been given one body and I have to know and trust that she will not steer me wrong.

About the Author

Mackenzie Fox is a Nashville native who is happy to share her stories of her eating disorder and recovery in hopes that she can help others. She spends her days weight lifting, mentoring high school students as they prepare for college and spending time with her two cats, Tonks and Maleficent. She is a total cat lady and goof ball who wants to show people that there is absolutely an amazing life after an eating disorder.