February 1-7 is Eating Disorder Awareness Week across Canada. Eating disorders affect people of all genders, ages, races, ethnicities, sexual orientations and socio-economic backgrounds. We want to help break the shame and stigma of eating disorders through open and honest conversations. We hope you are enlightened and encouraged through the writings below by two women in recovery. Dear Body, After years of abusing you, ignoring you, and not taking care of you; I have decided that I am now going to take care of you. When you tell me it is time to eat, I will nourish you with a wide variety of foods. I will let you tell me what I need to eat and how much of it I need. I will no longer deprive you of certain foods but rather allow you to enjoy all foods. I will trust you to satisfy me and in turn I will feed you what you crave. I have decided that I will try my best to no longer compare you with other people's bodies. It is not fair to you or to them. I will accept you the way you choose to be and that you are supposed to be different from the rest. I will dress you up in the way that I like and it will make you look good. I will no longer force you by strict/rigid dieting, exercise or eating disorder behaviors to be a certain way. I will listen to you when you tell me that you are exhausted and need to rest. I will give you the activity you need to be healthy. When you say I need to rest or go to sleep, I will listen to you. I will not push you beyond your limits, instead I will be mindful and listen to your needs and give them to you. Thank you for supporting me and for being there for me through my past struggles and difficulties. I am choosing to love you, nourish you, and take care of you so that together we can enjoy a happy, healthy and long life. All my love. My Body My body is a magnificent divine creation. It was created as a vehicle for my Spirit, for Source to expand into this lifetime and create and to continue to expand our Universe. It is a self-sustaining creation wanting to survive and thrive. All its components working in unison, beautifully connected like an orchestra, a symphony, all working together and creating music, creating magic. My body is strong, resilient, persistent, self-loving, kind, compassionate, flexible, wise, open, giving and receiving, etc. It knows what it needs and can articulate its needs well, clearly and precisely. It can do whatever it wants to (run, bike, walk, yoga, stretch, jump, crawl, love, etc.) and knows if it can't at the moment, it can learn how to do what it wishes. Beautiful features, accents, highlights, limbs, organs, body systems, emotions, thoughts, spiritual entity all culminating into a masterful microcosm of our Universal macrocosm, divinely focused and created.