Recovery and change used to look very complicated to me. 
Binge eating, bulimia, depression, anxiety, body dysmorphia, low self-esteem, obsessive thoughts…they were all different in my mind. All very unique, each requiring their own brand of specialized attention.
And recovery from any of them was a gamble; a better-get-lucky, roll of the dice. I thought you had to find “right” professional with the “right” approach and have the “right” kind of connection with them. Then, if you were one of the lucky ones, they might help you to recover in the “right” way from the very specific thing you’re trying to recover from. Recovery didn’t seem up to me or rooted in anything that I currently had available to me—it was something I had to buy and sacrifice for.
My mind massively overcomplicated it.
As it turns out, recovery is actually quite simple. It’s not always easy and it rarely happens overnight, but it’s not complex and specialized—it is simple and there are aspects that are very universal.
What we are all recovering from is addiction to our own thinking. We take our own thoughts very, very seriously. We forget that just because we think or feel something, doesn’t make it true or helpful.
We buy our own stories, get caught up in our own painful lies, and fear our own safe, temporary emotions.
We are innocent in this. It’s simply that there is a ton of misunderstanding out there about the human experience. It looks and feels so serious and true, like something we can control, manipulate, and change. It looks like certain outcomes make for a happy life and other outcomes don’t, so no wonder we all run around trying to secure the “right” outcomes.
It looks like it’s on us to crack the code on life and get what we want. That’s why we start interfering with the way ourselves and our lives naturally work. In the innocent excitement of meeting our goals, and in the innocent, very human pursuit of feeling peaceful and content, we retreat to our minds to figure it all out. If we can just think, look, feel and be a particular way, all will be well.
But that never, ever ultimately works. It might work for a very short time, but it never works long term. It is never, ever the actual path to contentment or a nice life.
Recovery is about recovering the common sense way of naturally being that we knew as children. The way we lived in the world and simply let our common sense and innate wisdom guide us through life. We did what felt fun, for as long as it felt good, and then we rested.
It was incredibly simple before we started putting our opinionated minds in charge of our lives.
The good news is that you have not lost that common sense so it’s easier to “recover” than it may seem. You simply need to be reminded and pointed back toward the supportive nature of life itself and the amazing resourcefulness that is alive and well within you right now.
