How to cope with Eating Disorders at Christmas and New Year

by Stella Stathi

''Mindfulness is one of the most useful and effective tools that people affected by disordered eating can employ to deal with the challenging holiday period. This involves becoming aware of your moment-to-moment experience, without judging it or trying to change it in any way, but by relating to it with an attitude of compassion and curiosity. 

The practice of mindfulness can be applied on all levels, specifically in terms of the festive season. Being conscious of physical sensations will allow you to listen to your body's signals as to how much you really need to eat; mindfulness of your thinking process encourages you to externally observe any judgmental thoughts towards yourself and your body, without taking them as actual facts or getting caught up in their story, while awareness and acceptance of your emotions will support you in tuning in to your experience, instead of turning away from it, even when that becomes hard and unpleasant. 

This will also help you take action to soothe and comfort yourself in healthy and nurturing ways, instead of self-punishing or harmful ones. ''

As featured in RSCPP's article, 'How to cope with Eating Disorders at Christmas and New Year'. For the whole article, please click here: http://www.rscpp.co.uk/content/features/coping-eating-disorder-christmas.html.