Happiness is Within

Do you ever find yourself struggling to find happiness in your life? Perhaps you feel like you don’t have control over your happiness and that it’s out of your reach. But that couldn’t be further from the truth. The key to happiness is within you, and you can find it if you’re willing to seek it out. In this post, we’ll explore five ways to achieve happiness in your life. No matter what challenges you face, remember: happiness is within your reach!

I’m delighted today to have a guest post for you by Dana from the eating disorder recovery blog Happiness is Within.   Dana has used her own personal challenge of recovering from an eating disorder to become a positive body image advocate and she’s doing a great job of being so!  Thanks Dana for telling us more about your story.

Happiness is Within

Hi!  My name is Dana and I am the writer of Happiness is Within – a blog about my eating disorder and recovery.  Eating Disorders have always been surrounded with a great deal of social stigma. It is often thought that people with eating disorders engage in behaviors to be thin out of a quest for vanity, but I have met no one for whom this has been the case.  The onset of an eating disorder for every person is a very individual thing which is particular to them.

I have met some people who developed an eating disorder as a result of a societal pressure they felt to be thin. They have viewed being thin as a form of success and achievement. I have also met people who’s eating disorder had nothing to do with this issue and for them was a way of coping with difficulties in their life, or even as a result of wanting to hide away or disappear. For me, a perceived need to be thin combined with needing a method to cope with negative emotions was the combination that made up my eating disorder.

My eating disorder began as a young girl while I was at a ballet camp where my instructor told us that sugar was bad and I quickly saw that the girls who were thinner got to dance at the front of the line.  By the time I was in  middle school I was teased about my weight and it sent me into a destructive thinking and behavioural pattern.  I both fasted and purged regularly and my weight plummeted.  Even though I was clearly unwell, I was often praised for being thin and this made me me want to be thinner.  It became my coping mechanism for life.

I only began my recovery as an adult a year ago and I’m pleased to say I’m at a healthy place right now. I would not consider myself fully recovered, but I now believe recovery is possible and I am working towards that. One thing that has really helped me in my recovery has been becoming pro active about my body image and being a positive body image advocate. Some of the things I have done to encourage positive body image within myself has been to find positive role models. I surfed the web for different blogs and websites that encouraged positive body image, hence finding Beautiful You! I love this blog and there has been many, many, posts that have been very helpful to myself and my own body image. Julie did a guest post at Happiness is Within and I have created a Love Your Body Movement collecting stories and inspiration from various bloggers.

I’m writing this today to bring about more awareness of eating disorders and to let people know that they can make a difference in others lives. The more people I found that were accepting of more then one body type, the more relaxed I became about being comfortable in my own skin. It helped me so much in my recovery. I’m guessing if you are a reader of Beautiful You, you are either a positive body image role model already or you are trying to be one. I want to say thank you and let you know how much of a difference you are making in this world. It may not seem like it sometimes when we open up a magazine these days, but slowly things are starting to change. Hopefully one day negative body image will be a thing of the past and we can all learn to accept our bodies whatever their shape or size.

Those who have never taken time to look within, it is a time for introspection that can make all the difference in your life.

We at Mind Your Own Matter share this belief, and thus decided to compile insights from some of the best thinkers about happiness is within. We hope that by reading these articles you will start questioning your habits and finally change your life for the better. Have you ever felt like changing yourself? Share your thoughts in comments!

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