Permission Granted. Be Kind to You.

What is it holding you back in getting well, staying healthy or removing yourself from a world of eating disorder behaviours and thoughts?

Could it be that you feel you need ‘permission’?

There’s often discussion among those who recover fully from an eating disorder, about the fact that they felt they needed to achieve and receive permission.

Permission to eat.
Permission to rest.
Permission to accept the imperfect.
Permission to ignore the diet dialogue which plagues society.

And yet, the truth is, if you keep waiting for full and uncompromised permission to escape from your eating disorder, you could be waiting an awful long time.

That eating disorder – the one that keeps you stuck and deprives you of a life you know you’d prefer (if only you could get there without the pain of recovery) – it will never freely and merrily ‘let you go’.

We all have to choose to grant permission to ourselves to move on from our eating disorder.

That sounds simple, and perhaps even somewhat glib.
But it’s true.

It’s true that we alone must tell ourselves we have permission to live a full and happy life.

We don’t need permission from a parent to eat the meal we used to enjoy as a child.

We don’t need permission from our spouse to lay in bed with them, rather than heading out for a 10-mile run.

We don’t need permission from our best friend, to order the full-fat hot chocolate instead of the Diet Coke.

We don’t need permission from the doctor to gain 3lbs in a week instead of one.

It’s our own responsibility to grant permission to lead a better life.

It’s up to us – with the love and friendship and empathy of those cheerleaders around us.

So have permission today. Have permission to choose healthy and happy.

Have permission. You’ve earned it.