I love being a yoga therapist. It's an absolute privilege to hold space for individuals and share the practices, philosophies, and tools of yoga to support them in the shifts and changes they wish to make in their lives. Many thanks to Sofia Health for inviting me to share about the benefits of yoga therapy for eating disorder recovery in this interview.

While standing at the Ferris Wheel, watching my family enjoy the ride, I am overcome with memories of how painfully difficult family vacations were when I was deep in the eating disorder. But the moment is also filled with a sense of freedom, as I acknowledge what progress feels like years later. For anyone dreading vacations and social events, I hope this blog feels helpful and supportive.

I am deeply honored to contribute to this new, groundbreaking book on the topic of grief and chronic illness.

How do we keep moving toward accepting ourselves on hard days, when the pull of the eating disorder is strong, and the need to numb is overwhelming? This is a question I had to answer for myself and learned two keys: permission to have my emotions and small acts of self-kindness. Both have had a positive impact on my recovery, and I hope you find a gem here that resonates with you.

In our struggle to feel, be, and do “enough,” we often measure our self-worth by external sources like social media, to-do lists, or the scale. I get it — that was part of my eating disorder journey too, which I open up about in this blog. I also share what helped me to claim my “enoughness.” If you are exhausted from the constant effort to do and be “enough,” this blog offers some concrete ideas to help you release dependence on external factors that sabotage your self-worth.

Meet guest contributor Stacy J. Bryant, who shares how, through her gift of writing, realized she was struggling with disordered eating. Read how she is meeting herself where she is each day through yoga and therapy to heal the shame that lived beneath the eating disorder behaviors and thoughts for so long. Stacy’s writing is beautiful, and you will be moved!

I’ll never forget the moment my daughter needed me while I was in the middle of a body image meltdown. While comforting her, I realized the divide between these ways of being—chaotically body checking and comforting my child—was incongruent, too off the mark of who I wanted to be for my daughters—and for myself. That is the moment when I started to reconcile who I was in the mirror and who I already was for the people I love. Give a read to learn how peace with the mirror is possible.

Thanks to the dedication and support of all of our readers and guest contributors, the Yoga for Eating Disorders Blog has been ranked #5 out of the top 20 blogs about eating disorders by FeedSpot!

Written by Maria Ortiz, LMHC, a former Division 1 gymnast, this blog focuses on gymnastics and eating disorders, but athletes of many appearance-driven sports will relate to what is shared. Maria hopes the information she provides will be helpful for athletes as well as for coaches, parents, and mental health professionals alike to gain insight into how a sport may breed an eating disorder.