Being in the Body & Finding “Right Balance”

I have myself been in recovery from various eating disorders for over 50 years and worked with people with eating disorders for a similar amount of time. To some “finding our right body” might seem a question that does not even need asking. However, for people who have been over eaters, under eaters, anorexics, bulimics – we may have lost sight of what—according to our bodies, our bodily DNA, our intuitive bodies—our “right body” would have been. Unfortunately, humans have the capacity to override common sense, to override bodily wisdom, and even (to a certain extent, though with great cost) override what our “natural DNA” might have suggested to us that our size and shape would “naturally” be on this front. We have the capacity to eat more than we need, for comfort (not nutritional need). We have the capacity to ignore nutritional need, and eat less than we need, as a way of attempting to exercise control (over things that we cannot control). These capacities, to override our natural biology, can confuse us and disconnect us from being in touch with our “natural” truths. Why do I even bring this up in a website mostly focused on the climate crisis? It seems to me that eating disorders are –on a very small (personal) level – examples of ways that we have attempted to override what is needed because of some distorted beliefs or misplaced needs for comfort or control. In my opinion, in terms of the climate crisis, we have also (as humans) sought to override reality. We have lost sight of the “natural balance” of things (for too long we have bypassed, for example, attuning to what would be the “right balance” of trees to humans? What would be the “right balance” between land occupied by humans and land left available to other species?) It seems to me that the endeavor to find ourselves in right balance emotionally, and within our bodies, is a good place to start in order to see the ways in which distorted beliefs or misplaced needs for comfort or control affect humans. And, it seems to me, that only if we step into taking responsibility to find our own “right balance” can we fully lend ourselves to the higher mission of contributing to the inquiry about broader matters of distorted beliefs or misplaced needs for comfort or control that play out on the stage of the planet and with other humans. In terms of the smaller personal inquiry, of finding what is our “right body,” I hope to add the input of nutritionists and dietitians, dance and movement therapists, yoga teachers – and practitioners of other body-based therapies to this discussion and exploration.