Learning to play again is a difficult but worthwhile part of recovering from an eating disorder.
The first thing lost when we begin obsessing about food, is our spontaneity. Each day becomes organized into time slots of work, meals, exercise and sleep. We become grumpy when something surprises us and hostile when our plan is interrupted.
Our daily life turns into a battleground inside of our heads. This leaves us with a rigid set of rules to abide by but, in the long run, nobody likes being told what to do.
Since we enjoy playing so much, why not find a new game that actually helps us to obtain our goals?
Disordered eating is similar to being locked in a cage: the bars around us dictate how far we can go and what we can do. Even worse than being locked inside a cage is the realization that we are the ones that, not only locked ourselves in, but are the only ones with the key to get out.
Most of us have pushed that key just far enough out of reach so that we can blame out captivity on not being able to retrieve it. Isn’t it easier to blame other people for our own restrictions?
Now I’m giving the key back to you. It might be true that your brother called you fat while you were growing up or your boss keeps making comments that your ass is too big, but instead of accepting these comments, how about taking the key in our own two hands, unchain the lock, and flinging the cage door wide open?
We will never be able to change the way other’s think, feel or behave, but we can change our reactions to them. Instead of internalizing the garbage that other people can throw our way, let’s learn how to play with it.
Things you can do to re-claim you inner child:
- Turn up your favourite CD and dance with wild abandon
- Go swing on the swings at the nearest park
- Play with a child through their eyes instead of watching them
- Create pictures with crayons that have absolutely no purpose
- Skip down the road
- Wear a piece of clothing that makes you feel loud and silly, and probably doesn’t match
- Make a collage of images that make you smile
- Draw mustaches on people’s faces in the newspaper
- Bake cookies in naughty shapes and then offer them to people at work
- Go to an open house of a fancy new home and pretend you are going to buy it
- Go to a thrift store and try on all the clothes you would never be caught dead in (and then buy one)
