Recovery Resources

In an effort to put something positive out into the universe, here is an image of an adorable seal cub:

Found on weheartit.com (uploaded by Paty Pegorin)

Knowing that this seal cub is out there makes everything feel a little bit better, doesn't it? (Being myself, though, I am of course now worrying about climate change and the melting ice caps . . . .)

In the spirit of yesterday's post on honesty (Satya) and asking for help in recovery, I want to share some recovery resources today. These are just a few of the articles, websites, blogs, podcasts, and videos that have helped me and motivated me in the recovery process. It's reassuring to have people to relate to and look up to in recovery . . . they can serve as reminders that, no matter how loud the inner Gollum is, recovery is not only possible but also totally worth it.

Podcasts

• Nourishing Minds Nutrition 
• Meg and Victoria are dietitians who focus on intuitive eating, health at every size, traditional foods, and hormone healing. They've both struggled with eating disorders, and in their podcast, they cover everything from exercise addiction to environmental sustainability. 
• Liveng Proof
• I found out about this podcast on the Nourishing Minds Nutrition podcast. Engrid is a personal trainer who dealt with disordered eating and exercise habits for years before discovering intuitive eating and mindful movement. Her show features episodes on the "pain body," femininity, sexual trauma, and holistic wellness, and her guests include psychoanalysts and chiropractors. 

YouTube

• A Case of the Jills
• Jill is a former marathoner who went through hypothalamic amenorrhea and exercise addiction, and her videos are insightful, honest, and moving. She answers questions primarily related to "detraining" and HA recovery, but for anyone who has a disordered relationship with exercise, I highly recommend her channel. 
• Follow the Intuition
• Elisa is the author of BrainwashED: Diet Induced Eating Disorders, and her YouTube channel features videos addressing issues about recovery from bulimia, anorexia, orthorexia, OSFED, and exercise addiction. Basically, she discusses everything, and her honesty and openness are encouraging and reassuring.
• MegsyRecovery
• Meg is an adorable newlywed who not only features her cute cat in her videos but also has videos from multiple stages of recovery. She answers viewer questions in each episode, and some of the episodes that helped me the most are the ones addressing "not feeling hungry" and the fear of "losing fitness." Meg also sometimes shares tips from her therapist.

Blogs and Websites

• A Life Without Anorexia
• Izzy now blogs at It's a Healthy Lifestyle, but her original anorexia recovery blog still has all its old posts up. She blogged throughout her recovery journey, so there are posts from every stage of recovery, which can be helpful for someone who's struggling to see the light at the end of the tunnel.
• Wholly Healed
• Jess is a Certified Eating Psychology Coach who specializes in "functional endocrinology." Her posts address many of the myths propagated by the media that are hurting women's hormonal health. Reading about how chronic cardio, fasting, and calorie restriction may actually do more harm than good really opened my eyes!
• RawRitta
• Ritta recovered from orthorexia and exercise addiction, and her caring personality and honest videos and blog posts are encouraging and reassuring. 

There are many other helpful resources out there, but these are some of the ones I return to the most often. What blogs/sites/videos/podcasts have been helpful for you?

<3 <3 <3 

Spring Cleaning, Bunny Yoga, and Meditating with a Cat

It actually feels like springtime today, and snow is in the forecast, so I've sort of given up on trying to figure out what's going on with the weather. I feel like Mother Nature is screaming at us that global warming is a serious issue. I mean, it's snowing in April. For this part of the world, that just isn't normal. It's a major warning sign that we need to start taking the environment seriously before the earth starts looking like it does in Bladerunner. (Speaking of which, we saw Bladerunner 2049 recently, and it was really good. So plan a movie night. And remember to recycle.)

We're cat-sitting right now, and one of the fuzzballs we're taking care of is an incredibly chill, relaxed little fellow who I'm looking to for zen-spiration. When I feel myself getting stressed out or needing to "control" everything, I try to remind myself of what this cat would do in my situation, and, even if I can't roll around on the floor, I can at least take a deep breath and center myself. Yoga has been helping with this, too. If you're anything like I am (Type A, worrier, etc.), chances are that your first attempts at yoga might leave you feeling a bit frustrated and seeking the immediate release of hardcore cardio, but for some of us, focusing on stillness, flexibility, and breathwork is way more beneficial than pushing through 100 burpees. Trust me. I've been the 100 burpees girl, and I'm still recovering from the long-term effects of overexertion. It's not worth it, friends!

Is it just me, or does spring make anyone else feel weirdly optimistic?  I put on a spring-y blouse and shorts today to do homework, prep for the class I'm going to start teaching soon, and clean the living room, and the thought of warm breezes and flowers has me all excited even though I've got a bit of a pollen allergy and really am not looking forward to the summertime humidity. I'm sending out positive wishes to everybody and hoping that everyone is having a loving Friday <3. Because of all the sadness and tragedy in the world, I want to share some more inspirational/happy thoughts today:

• This is the story of Ziki, a little boy in the DRC who was rescued from a life as a cobalt miner and now gets to go to school.

From CBS News

• This is a video about Heifer International, which helps farmers in Asia, Latin America, Africa, and the U.S. I listened to a podcast (link here) about Heifer and was inspired to find a video about it :).

• This is a song that we've had on repeat recently. I hope you like it, too! :) 

<3 

Frances

Link Loves and Must-Reads 4/20/17

School work has entered full on crazy mode.  The end of the year is always this way, with deadlines and exams and presentations and after-hours obligations, and I'm so so so grateful for every minute I have that's not booked by something. There's nothing quite like those ten minutes between when the alarm goes off and when I actually get out of bed in the morning, LOL.

• Affirmations Are Powerful by Julia Grigorian 
• I love Julia's blog (Drops of Jules), and this post on affirmations is something I've been going back to ever since I first read it. It's so easy to get caught up in worry trails and negative thinking patterns, but by being mindful of how we're talking to ourselves and perceiving our situations, we can really improve our overall mental health.  Julia's three-step affirmation process (acknowledging negativity, recognizing irrational thoughts, and empowering truth) is a very helpful tool, too.
• Meet This 7 Year-Old Syrian Girl Writing a Memoir About Life Under Siege by Kareem Shaheem
• This Book Riot article is about Bana, a seven year-old Syrian girl who has seen more suffering and hardship than many of us can imagine. And she's writing about it now. She. Is. Amazing.
• Among My Swan (Full Album) by Mazzy Star
• I have this on repeat right now.

<3 Frances

Link Loves and Must-Reads 3/10/17

In honor of whatever flu/stomach bug/bronchial infection is currently making rounds through school, I'm taking a sick day.  (In other words, I am ill.  Woohoo.)  But I've developed a new sort of love for tea.  If I could carry a tea kettle around with me at school and work, I seriously would do that.  Unfortunately, my backpack is already big enough to make me look ridiculous enough as it is.
Since I'm home, I have a little bit more time to do classwork and long-term projects, and I thought I'd take the opportunity to share some of the things I've had sitting here as links for the past two weeks.  Yay!

• What I Ate Wednesday: It's Unhealthy to Eat Only Healthy Food by Alexis Joseph
• This article from the Hummusapien is really refreshing given the current "all-or-nothing" attitude that the media is preaching when it comes to health and fitness and well-being.  It's awesome to make healthy choices so you can feel your best, but there's a big difference between taking caring of yourself and being obsessive.  Having a fixation on health can actually be really unhealthy.  This is something that's become more and more clear to me over the past few months.  That said, it can be difficult to identify what behaviors are healthy and which are obsessive because of al of the hardcore images of wellness that we're constantly being bombarded with.  Alexis's post is something I think everyone who struggles with balancing true health and happiness with obsession and anxiety needs to read because Alexis (an actual RD) has a very honest and un-obsessive attitude about taking care of herself.  Unlike the Photoshopped fitspo pics preaching two-hour workout sessions, green drink lunches, and dessert-less evenings, Alexis talks about how "[t]here is so much more to life than golden milk and smoothie bowls and toast covered with berries and almond milk yogurt." Thank you!!
• A Story of Bats, Agaves, and People by Kristen Lear
• I love Bat Conservation International and all it does to help take care of our little bat friends, and this story is awesome because it shows just how we can help people and animals at the same time.  YAY for environmental conservation efforts!  There's such a huge relationship between the health of the natural world and the health of the human one, and we often forget about this relationship when we're thinking about "progress" and "industrialization."  But true progress is about maintaining a balance with nature and respecting our ecosystems so that our world doesn't end in a sad spiral of global warming and pollution.  I mean, look at Bhutan....a carbon-negative country that measures progress based on GNH (Gross National Happiness). I think we have a lot to learn from Bhutan! (And from bats.)
• If social media is toxic for you . . . do these 4 things by Cassey Ho
• This sort of relates to the first article I linked to.  Looking around me, I realize just how many people (many of whom are very young) have fallen into the trap of comparison.  I'm definitely not immune to this myself. Even without a smart phone and all the apps that come with it (yup, I've got a little flip phone and LOVE IT), I'm definitely affected by comparison.  I'm so incredibly grateful every day for little things like hearing my hermit crabs playing in their houses or talking to my mum about work, but I also really love fashion magazines (guilty pleasure), and that usually leads to #comparisonproblems.  Social media is such a huge contributor to comparison because it inundates us with a Photoshopped version of reality.  Why, we wonder, is everyone so happy and glamorous and perfect all the time?  Well, here's the truth: they aren't!  Think of social media as a big filter.  People are only sharing what they WANT to share.  And for every Snapchat story of an epic vacation, there's something very sad going on in the world (i.e. deportation, famine, war, etc.).  Comparing ourselves to each other is such a waste of time. Should a blueberry compare itself to a banana?  NO.  Both fruits are totally awesome in totally different ways. 

<3 Frances

Link Loves and Must-Reads (and Hermit Crabs)

Bear, one of our sweet hermit crab babies, passed on this week :(.  We're going to give him a little burial today in our porch garden cemetery, and I already really miss just knowing that he is in the little terrarium in the living room. We've had many hermit crabs and hamsters over the years, with our apartment serving as a hospital and rehab home for all the smaller pets that get ill at the school my mum works at, and it's always heartbreaking when a pet passes on. I just hope that Bear is now in a happy place with his hermit crab spirit family.
This week's Link Loves and Must-Reads are from many different times and places, but I think they're all important and/or interesting in their own ways, covering everything from happiness to mindset to education.  Education is a topic I've been thinking about a lot lately because, while being a superhero and communciating with the spirit world writing, reading, and dancing are my favorite pastimes, my "daytime identities" include being a teacher and a student. I spend a lot of time in classrooms surrounded by children.  I think their circadian rhythms are on a totally different schedule from mine, though.  When I'm exhausted, they're ready to run an Iron Man or scale walls (the latter of which they've actually attempted).

• What Happy People Do Differently by Robert Biswas-Diener and Todd B. Kashdan
• We actually read this article for class, and it couldn't have been a more timely read.  A loved one of mine is currently going through a really hard time health-wise, and I'm praying for them to get better and also thinking a lot about one of the things we talked about the last time we saw each other--balance.  Balance is so important.  Anything to the extreme is detrimental, and even if we think that having control over all aspects of our lives is going to make us happy, IT ISN'T.  If you need any research to back this claim up, "What Happy People Do Differently" lays it out pretty fantastically. Intuitively, it doesn't really make sense that there are many times when discomfort and unpredictability shouldn't be avoided but rather embraced, but curiosity is directly linked to satisfaction and long-term growth. Curious now?  Yes, yes you are ;).
• Paralysis by Analysis (vlog) by Maddy Moon
• I've shared some of Maddy's work before, and I keep returning to her podcast, vlog series, and blog because of how inspiring and honest she is.  Her insights on body image, loving yourself, and being true to yourself are incredibly motivating if you're going through a hard time and trying to release limiting beliefs that are holding you back from really living your life (as opposed to just being afraid of it).  "Paralysis by analysis" is something I definitely deal with, and having Maddy tell me to snap out of it is very helpful.
• Beautiful Women Smile from the Soul by Brooklyn of No Sleep Till Peace
• This is a post by a Peace Corps volunteer working in Peru, and I love it because of how sweet it is. It's a real cheer-up that'll make you feel like there's still good in the world, no matter how dark things seem sometimes.
• Why we should all be reading aloud to children TEDTalk by Rebecca Bellingham
• Anyone who remembers being read to as a little kid, be it at home or in a class or even via a television program (Reading Rainbow, Sesame Street, etc.) will be able to relate to this TEDTalk.  It's really quite amazing to think that, of all the little kids I've known, very few have been unable to become engrossed in a book.  Read-alouds seem to be a universal sort of entertainment.  

<3 Frances

Link Loves and Must-Reads 1/26 (Plus a Beauty Mishap)

Last night I had a rather unfortunate incident with my right eyebrow.  To avoid getting into too much detail, let's just say that it's not entirely there anymore and that I'm incredibly grateful for my mum's touch-up skills.  #oops 

My little accident aside, though, here are [some of] today's Link Loves and Must-Reads . . . .

• Amy Rosoff Davis: Actress, Celebrity Trainer, Producer + So Much More... by Robin Shobin
• Amy Rosoff Davis is, as the title of this article suggests, a woman of many vocations, one of which is trainer for people like Selena Gomez and Emma Roberts.  What I like the most about her interview with Charlotte's Book, though, is her refreshing perspective on wellness.  Instead of preaching the "harder, faster, longer" dogma that so many of us are used to hearing nowadays, she talks about flexibility, doing something different every day based on how you feel, and having a "healthy relationship with your body and your mind" because "to obsess over any detail--that's not healthy." Thank you!!
• 10 Actions You Can Take Today to Reduce Your Carbon Footprint by Zoe Fox
• We can't keep denying the fact that humans are playing a major part in climate change, but we can do something about it.  It's actually really empowering to think that by reducing how much time you spend driving or by buying second-hand clothes you can make a difference for the sake of our sweet planet's health and well-being.
• The Pantry (Yes, Pantry) Products Nikki Reed Uses for Luminous Skin by Nikki Reed
• My "skintervention" is a continuing process, and I'm experimenting right now with yogurt masks, MSM, and Vitamin A because, more so than breakouts, my biggest issue right now is scarring. I'm even versing myself in special acne scar terminology.  I didn't know there were so many kinds of scars, and I'm hoping to get mine at least a little bit better because they've been around for a while and I'd love to part ways at some point.  I know I probably will never have 100% scar-free skin, and I'm okay with that, but if there's one thing I've learned form this skintervention process is that it's important to take action while you can. Anyway, I like this article by Nikki Reed because of her advice about all-natural, cruelty-free, chemical-free beauty hacks (eg. avocado in your hair and jojoba on your skin). With the current state of the planet (see my second Must-Read, lol), reducing the chemicals we put into the environment (and into ourselves!) is so crucial for everybody's health.  

Cyber hugs for your Thursday!

<3 Frances

Link Loves and Must-Reads 1/18

I'd told myself I'd write this on Monday (aka two days ago), but it just didn't happen.  Happy post- post- Martin Luther King, Jr. Day!  I spent most of the holiday running up and down a rainy street trying to locate an apartment building, doing work for school, and feeding pets.  One positive development from this weekend is that my hermit crab has stopped climbing upside-down on the roof of her little house. She's finally seemed to realize (hopefully) how dangerous that is. . . .

Hermit crab antics aside, though, here are some shares for the day:

• The Truth About Change by Heather Waxman
• I love Heather's kind, holistic approach to living and connecting with our inner "soul sisters" (or brothers, etc.).  Her post on change is full of so much truth, and it always makes me feel a bit better to consider how change isn't something to be fought but rather a force we can work with.
• This Superbug Is Resistant to All Antibiotics -- and Has Killed Its First American Victim by Tom Philpott
• Okay, this one is very sad and upsetting and scary, but I think it's important to read anyway because it gets into the conversation about antibiotic-resistant bacteria and their relationship to factory farming. Factory farms are a a major user of antibiotics, and they're also responsible for massive animal cruelty.  My prayers are with the family of the woman who died, and also with animals in factory farms all over the world.
• 5 Things I've Learned Living with 500 Plants by Summer Rayne Oakes 
•  We may not all be able to afford nice Brooklyn apartments filled with plants, but this is a quirky reminder of how beneficial time in nature is.  And it's an inspiration to start an indoor garden. We have lots of little plants around our tiny apartment, and some of them have been around since I was a baby, so I often think of them as siblings. Looking at the pictures of Summer Rayne Oake's plant-filled abode is fun because all the green is so refreshing.  It's amazing how much I want to go hug a plant right now.

Best Wednesday wishes!
<3 Frances 

Link Loves and Must-Reads

Hi, dears!  Happy 2017!  (Yesterday was technically New Year's Day, but it's the thought that counts, right?)  I'm getting ready to go back to work (school) tomorrow and have been teaching/volunteering today, but I'm excited to have some "must-reads" to share with you in case you find yourself with a spare moment. I know that seems unlikely given the whole rush of getting back into the "daily motions" of the post-holiday season, but I'm pretending that the holidays are still going on.  Our Christmas tree is still up, and I intend to keep it up as long as possible.  And I refuse to stop listening to Lissie's cover of "2000 Miles" despite it being a Christmas-y song .  .  .  .

• The scientific reason you should be watching Planet Earth by Jessica Hullinger
• Did you know how good being in "awe" is for not only your health but also your relationship with the world around you?  Given all the tragedies of the last year (and even the last few days), this article makes me really really really really want to watch Planet Earth II and then force everyone around me to watch it, too.  We all need to just sit in a group circle talking about swimming sloths and amazing tree frogs until we can achieve peace.
• Diana Vreeland: Why Your Flaws Are Your Most Important Asset by Words of Women
• With all the insecurities we have about our flaws, former Vogue editor Diana Vreeland's thoughts on using flaws as strengths are pretty freaking inspirational.  Diana was one of the forces behind the whole "unique beauty" movement.  You don't "owe" anyone prettiness, and stereotypical ideals of prettiness are irrelevant and just plain ugh. YOU are your style.
• We'll Never See These Animals Again by Laura Smith
• This article is a lot more depressing than the first two, but it's SO IMPORTANT that we take its message to heart!!!  Knowing that ocean acidity has increased as much as it has devastates me, and I'm traumatized that Toughie (the last Rabbs' fringe-limbed tree frog) has passed away.  PLEASE read this and spread the word. I'm so grateful to be hearing about what Obama has done to protect the environment, and I'm really going to miss him. 
• Daily affirmations from Louise Hay
• You Can Heal Your Life has been on my mum's bookshelf as long as I can remember.  Through death, autoimmune disease(s), major life stresses, etc., that book has always been a source comfort. The little affirmations available online are really sweet and uplifting and inspiring--perfect for the new year (or any time of year!).  So take a moment to treat yourself to a little positivity.

I hope you all find these link loves as meaningful as I do :).  Hopefully there will be more to share later, but for now it's time for some psychology textbook reading . . . .

<3 Frances