Eating Disorder Awareness Month Blog Week 1 — Finding Peace in Recovery: The Healing Environment of Treatment
Welcome to our blog series honoring February as Eating Disorder Awareness Month. This week, we shine a light on the complexities of residential eating disorder treatment and the importance of the recovery environment in breaking negative patterns.
The Importance of Stepping Away from Familiar Environments
When we seek peace, we often look to the familiar: the people, places, and activities that, in the past, gave us a sense of purpose and belonging or provided physical and emotional comfort.
But what if that comfort enabled our unhealthy behavior patterns? What if our most trusted and valued spaces encourage sentiments and impulses that damage our sense of ourselves, even asphyxiate our uniqueness?
It might be time for a change.
The Complex Power of Routines
While turning toward the unknown can be frightening, distancing yourself from familiar environments can, in fact, refresh your spirit. The newness of your surroundings opens deep and previously un-accessed levels of awareness that can help you recontextualize your emotions and behaviors.
How does this happen? Essentially, you’re breaking your routine.
Routines are powerful. When we set an objective for ourselves, we build a structure of systematic tasks that allow us to progress toward our goal. We wake up at a certain time, brush our teeth, take the dog for her walk, bathe, dress, and begin the workday. From there, we may have built a separate routine for whatever work product we are developing.
By having a routine, we might have accomplished feats for which we can feel objectively proud: A finished thesis. Success within a competitive and challenging field. Becoming proficient in a different language.
We can also create self-care routines and routines that bring us joy. Making time to meet with friends and deepen relationships. Scheduling regular appointments at a favorite salon or spa. Meditating.
The benefits of creating and sustaining a routine are plentiful. Unfortunately, not every task within a routine will be blissful. We can even experience disillusionment with our routines or even our achievements.
And sometimes, maintaining a routine can come at a very deep cost.
When we build our routines for school, work, or life, we don’t necessarily integrate unsustainable or unhealthy habits into them deliberately. Nevertheless, when certain elements within a trusted routine stop yielding the desired results, we self-blame.
The routine works, I just got lazy. It’s my fault. I didn’t want it enough. I’ll work harder, do more.
The comfort and security of a routine – of familiarity – can be extremely challenging to abandon. When we use a routine, or our ability to stick to a routine, to suppress difficult emotions or behaviors, we run the risk of slipping into habits that, over time, erode our spirit, deplete our joy, and even compromise our health.
The Benefits of a New Environment in Breaking Negative Patterns
Making the transition to residential eating disorder treatment can be difficult, just as reexamining familiar patterns and routines can be difficult. However, the first crucial step is distancing yourself from a lifestyle that has been constructed around behaviors and impulses that are actively harming your mind, body, and spirit.
Being in a new, supportive, and safe environment will equip you with the tools to gently interrogate your habits and experience the fullness of your feelings. Moreover, your physical presence in a new space can act as a catalyst for your metaphorical healing journey.
In her book, Eating in the Light of the Moon, author and ‘Ai Pono founder Dr. Anita Johnston uses the mythological concept of the labyrinth to illustrate the sometimes discomfiting and painful complexities of navigating eating disorder recovery. She writes:
“A labyrinth is an ancient and mysterious archetype. It consists of one pathway that loops repeatedly upon itself, reaches the center, and then winds its way back out again.
“The women on the road to recovery from disordered eating began with a journey that required them to follow a twisting, turning, winding path to their centers. It required them to leave behind old perceptions of themselves that they had adopted from others and to reclaim their own inner authorities.
“As they walked through this labyrinth, there were times they felt trapped, lost, bored, disoriented, frustrated, or anxious, but they kept on going, placing one foot in front of the other. Finding their centers, the essence of who they are as women, was not the end of the journey. They then had to exit the labyrinth, integrating this new vision with a new way of being in the world.”
Whenever we stray from our standard mode of operation, we find ourselves engaging with our creative minds by necessity. We are forced to confront feelings of uncertainty, unease, and frustration. The solutions that previously delivered comfort and a sense of achievement are no longer applicable, and we must navigate a new path using our trusted support networks, self-knowledge, personal experiences, and beliefs as guides.
At ‘Ai Pono, we understand that breaking long-established routines is a particularly treacherous part of the eating disorder recovery journey. Recognizing new, complex, and sometimes frightening feelings can be overwhelming, but they’re a vital part of the process.
We offer gentle support and guidance, a safe space where your feelings, apprehensions, fears, and beliefs can be heard, respected, and honored.
Comprehensive Eating Disorder Treatment
Our specialized eating disorder care is guided by the ancient concept of mana and supported by evidence-based interventions.
Residential Eating Disorder Treatment
When you first arrive at ‘Ai Pono’s traditional Japanese Shinto gate, you will experience the power of mana, the ancient divine power that suffuses all living things.
Mana, the spiritual energy that flows through all of us and the world around us, is at the heart of our treatment philosophy. By acknowledging and embracing this divine power, we create a space where you can connect with your inner self and the natural world. This connection is vital in helping you find balance and peace as you navigate your recovery journey.
The combination of mana and evidence-based therapies creates a nurturing environment where you can explore your inner world and develop new perspectives.
We embrace the following treatment modalities:
- Dialectical Behavioral Therapy (DBT)
- Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy
- Horticultural Therapy
- Art Therapy
- Narrative and Metaphor Therapy
- Nutrition Therapy
- Somatic Therapy
- Sound Therapy
The Healing Environment of ‘Ai Pono: Residential Eating Disorder Treatment
Imagine a welcoming place where the lush greenery of tropical plants, the soothing sounds of the ocean, and the gentle warmth of the sun create a sanctuary for healing. This is the power of a Hawaiian landscape in eating disorder recovery.
Nestled in the heart of Wailuku, Maui, our recovery environment offers a colorful and eclectic atmosphere that integrates the power of mana – sacred, spiritual energy – into your healing journey.
