Even if you’re not a family caregiver of someone with an eating disorder, life can be pretty stress-filled right now. We can feel so helpless when others are suffering.
There is a way towards having peace and joy even when your loved one is suffering deep in their eating disorder. To be clear, this doesn’t mean that you’ll stop supporting them through all the parallel process that you may be practicing. Both can be true, the opposing feelings can both exist, this is sometimes called the ‘dialectic’ when we hold two differing emotions at once.
How could you go about finding one new pathway, today, to dream a new dream when you’re feeling suffocated by stress?
There is a particular type of meditation called, “Loving Kindness Meditation” (LKM) that has been studied widely showing it could enhance positive emotions in daily life and that the on-going practice of LKM could provide short-term positive emotions. This LKM has become commonplace for helping people with an array of challenges including; trauma, mental illnesses, pain, stress, self-criticism and lack of quality of life.
You can read more about Loving Kindness Meditation and how to practice it as well as research citations here. How exciting that there are so many practitioners who’ve got books, podcasts and other resources that we can access easily at any time. I know I now have some new podcasts lined up to listen to on my walks or while folding laundry or doing dishes. 🙂
Meditation introduces us to the part of ourselves that has been missing.~Russell Simmons
Here are some of the phrases that are often suggested for using during Loving Kindness Meditations for self and others; 
“May I be peaceful,” “May I be happy,” “May I be safe.”
‘May you be happy,’ ‘May you be safe,’ ‘ May you be healthy,’ ‘May you be at peace.’
‘May I and everyone else be peaceful,’ ‘May I and everyone else be happy,’ ‘May I and everyone else be safe.’
Whether you learn best by doing, reading, listening or watching videos, there are resources to help all of us practice these simple Loving Kindness Meditations each day. It doesn’t have to take a lot of time, we can see a difference from just 2 minutes each day. I hope you feel a bit less hopeless and helpless knowing that there is actually some THING you can DO to help those you’re feeling concerned about.
