The Six Forms of Mindful Self-Care Practices in Eating Disorder Recovery
Written by CCTC Staff Writer
The concepts of “self-care” and “mindfulness” seem to have stepped into the spotlight overnight. Social media influencers, bloggers, health magazines — they’re all promoting the benefits of them! But what exactly are self-care and mindfulness? And can a self-care routine actually be useful in eating disorder recovery?
This article answers all of these questions, and others, including:
How are self-care and mindfulness related?
What are the six forms of self-care?
Is self-care scientifically proven to improve your mental wellbeing?
What’s a good self-care routine for eating disorder recovery?
Note: Before going into this, be mindful of the fact that self-care is not a trend, and if you want to feel the full benefit of self-care, you have to do it consistently.
What is mindful self-care?
Mindful self-care is a repeating process involving:
Mindful awareness and assessment of your internal needs and external demands
Intentional engagement of specific self-care practices that serve your well-being
This just means that you listen to what your mind and body need, and then do something positive and productive to meet that need. The “repeating” part means that you do this process of listening then taking action over and over again, which makes sense, since your mind and body don’t ever stop needing things like sleep and relaxation to function well.
Actively listening to your body and mind is meant to:
Decrease the amount of stress and burnout in your life
Decrease the impact of negative/distressing emotions
Positively affect your overall well-being
A Clinical Take on Self-Care: The Mindful Self-Care Scale
“Self-care,” or taking care of yourself, sounds pretty vague, which is why researchers set forth to develop and validate a standard model that measures the effectiveness of self-care.
The most thorough and practical model for self-care is the Mindful Self-Care Scale. It was developed through scouring all literature on proven actions that contribute to one’s well-being (for example, taking breaks throughout the workday) and from those, creating one holistic model for how to effectively practice self-care.
The Mindful Self-Care Scale (MSCS) breaks down self-care into six parts:
1. Physical Care
Physical care is doing all the things necessary to keep your body healthy: hydration, proper nutritional intake, proper hygiene practices, healthy amounts of physical movement, quality sleep, taking medications, resting, etc.
A healthy body is more prepared to react to stress than an unhealthy one. For example, getting a good amount of quality sleep has been proven beneficial to eating disorder recovery.
2. Supportive Relationships
Cultivating healthy, positive relationships with others will nurture your mind and improve your emotional well-being.
You may ask: What exactly are supportive relationships in terms of self-care? According to the MSCS, you have supportive relationships if you:
Are spending time with others who are good to you
Feel supported by the people you spend time with
Have someone who will listen to you
Schedule time with supportive people
Have people in your life who respect your choices
It’s pretty easy to recognize the people who are supportive for you in your recovery, and who are not. The people who support you are nourishing to your soul, and to the recovery process in general.
Anyone who disregards or invalidates your struggle is draining, a negative force in your life. Distancing yourself from harmful, unsupportive people as much as possible is a form of self-care, even if it seems hurtful to others. It’s a form of putting yourself first, and that’s the best thing you can do for yourself.
3. Mindful Awareness
Mindful awareness in the self-care model pulled concepts from meditation, mindful eating, and gratitude practices. In the final model, mindful awareness is a calm awareness of your thoughts, feelings and physical body as well as which thoughts and feelings you use to guide your actions.
In eating disorder recovery, a lot of effort is put into thought restructuring, or the practice of recognizing distorted thoughts and shifting them to more realistic ones. This is a way of practicing mindful awareness.
How would this look in your life?
Let’s say you have a distorted thought, like: “If I am fat, no one will like me.” If you practice mindful awareness, you would calmly evaluate the truth of this thought. Once you realize this negative thought is not an accurate one, you don’t have to be moved by it.
Even if you have a negative thought that you really believe is true, don’t be moved to engage in harmful behaviors because of it. Not acting on negative thoughts and impulses is practicing self-care.
4. Self Compassion/Purpose
Self compassion is what it sounds like: showing yourself the same compassion you show others you care about. The practice of self compassion includes:
Accepting failure as part of the process
The ability to engage in supportive, comforting self-talk
Permission to feel your feelings
The acknowledgement that failure and challenge are just a part of the human experience
Self compassion and a sense of purpose, grouped together, help you build resilience in times of struggle. They become a source of strength and meaning, giving you the ability to pick yourself up and go on.
For example, having slip ups, lapses, and relapses are common experiences for those with an eating disorder. But when someone does experience this, they usually feel pretty bad about themselves. They tell themselves they’re a failure, a fraud, or a bad person.
But instead of telling yourself things like: “I’ll never recover. I’ll never be anything but my disorder,” practice self compassion. Acknowledge that slips happen, and they don’t mean you have lost all your progress.
Then, firm up on your commitment to recovery. Remember what motivated you to recover. Think about your greater purpose — it does not involve trying to take up less space.
5. Mindful Relaxation
This is the most well-known aspect of self-care in the media. Mindful relaxation, in this model, takes self-soothing and mindfulness practices, and groups them together under the broader idea of “relaxation.”
Relaxing practices are creative, soothing, and/or engage the senses. For example, you can:
Write stories, poems, or journal
Draw or paint
Take a shower or bubble bath
Do a face mask
Buy yourself something nice (retail therapy is real, but can get expensive if you rely too much on it)
Put on lotion
Stretch or do yoga (mindfully, and only if you are able to)
Listen to music
Breathe deeply
Relaxation activities are great to do when you’re trying to distract yourself from potentially distressing moments, like after a challenge meal or when going out to a restaurant you’ve never been to before.
6. Supportive Structure
This aspect of self-care has everything to do with your external environment. Having a supportive structure includes:
Keeping your work area organized (desk, office, backpack, homework folders, etc.)
Keeping a clean, comfy, enjoyable home environment (including proper lighting, temperature, ambiance, and whatever else comfortable may mean to you)
Creating a balance between your needs and the needs of others
Maintaining a manageable work schedule
Doing all these things help you to cultivate a healthy working and living environment. It also helps you create a schedule that includes time to rest and practice other forms of self-care.
To make sure the MSCS is an accurate self-care guide, researchers asked a large group of people (who were all screened for eating disorder tendencies and negative body image) how often they practiced each form of self-care listed in the MSCS model.
Those who consistently practiced self-care reported higher levels of body satisfaction, lowered eating disorder thoughts and behaviors, and a higher sense of well-being in general.
How to Consistently Practice Self-Care in Eating Disorder Recovery
It’s really important to remember two things:
Self-care practices must be done consistently to really improve your life in the long run.
Self-care is made to be actionable. You can practice self-care at any time, even as you’re reading this.
The most important long-term self-care habits are the ones that meet your body’s bare necessities: staying hydrated, balanced eating, a lot of quality sleep, proper hygiene, taking medications (if needed), and a healthy amount of movement (which is different for everyone, especially those in eating disorder recovery.) If you do not have these habits down yet, they should be your main priority.
In eating disorder treatment, you will learn how to manage a proper diet and remain hydrated.
You may also be prescribed medication for any co-occurring disorders. If you have a hard time remembering to take them, put them in a pill box that’s labeled by the days of the week. Put it in the bathroom, so you’ll see it and remember to take morning or evening medications.
Eating disorder recovery is stressful, so find the activities that sooth you during distress. Make a list of the ones that are most helpful, whether they’re creative, meditate, or just make you feel better. Put the list somewhere you can see, so that you can do these helpful things when you need to.
And practice self compassion: Tell yourself that it’s okay to ask for help. Be proud of your accomplishments, and recognize the challenges that come with recovery.
If you or someone you love is suffering from an eating disorder, take the first step today and talk to talk to someone about recovery or simply learn more about the eating disorder recovery programs we offer.