Last week, as I listened to commencement ceremonies at Goddard College, where I teach creative writing, I was reminded that a healthy, fulfilling life is full of difficult transitions. One of my favorite graduates turned to his classmates and faculty and said, "I don't know whether I'll ever see any of you again, but know that I love you all."
I bring this up because, for some time now, I've been putting off a difficult transition of my own, one that will involve saying goodbye to many people I love. And now the time has come. I need to step away from my work in the eating disorders field and concentrate on my creative work again. This will be my last post for this blog.
As difficult a decision as this has been, I believe that it reflects a necessary stage for those in recovery. In Restoring Our Bodies, Reclaiming Our Lives, we call that stage Discovery. On the surface, the preoccupations of this stage have nothing to do with eating disorders. With restored health, individuals in Discovery pursue passions for rock climbing, improvisational acting, graphic art, photography, teaching. They achieve the dreams that were beyond their reach when they were tethered to anorexia, bulimia, binge eating and when their focus was on "recovery."
With full recovery comes a fully integrated self. This means that you have the power and the freedom to shift gears when you need to. You choose to direct your focus to positive passions and pursuits. You embrace change that opens up your horizons. You "know thyself" well enough to balance your life and prioritize your goals. Acting to organize your time and energy, rather than constantly reacting to the demands and expectations of others, you choose to devote a greater proportion of your attention to fulfilling your own highest needs and loves, while controlling the amount of energy you give out of a sense of obligation or guilt.
Over the past eight years, my research, speaking, and writing on the topic of eating disorders has dominated my working life, and I am proud of both Gaining and Restoring Our Bodies, Reclaiming Our Lives. I am profoundly honored to have helped many, many people struggling with eating disorders. But I'm not a therapist or a researcher, or even a science writer, by trade. I am a novelist and a teacher, and literature is my true home, where my mind and spirit are most fully nourished. I need to regain the balance that lets me spend more time in this home.
There are so many voices in the world of recovery that need to be raised and heard. I hope I have encouraged a few of them, and I now yield this blog spot to make room for them. Elsewhere, you may find me occasionally speaking up at www.redroom.com or at www.msmagazine.com/blog, and you can reach me through my sites at www.gainingthetruth.com and the FaceBook page for Restoring Our Bodies. I hope to hear from you as you make your journeys through recovery, out into the world and to the home that most deeply nourishes you.
Thank you so much for all that you do and for all that you are. And always, be well.
You will be missed Aimee....I wish you the best!!! Early in my recovery I came across Gaining and it touched the researcher in me!! While other books tried to reach the emotional side of me, I needed your facts and observations to bring me to the reality of my disorder. May your creative powers touch as many lives outside of the ED field as it has inside!!!
Best wishes!!
Posted by: Kym | July 25, 2011 at 12:59 PM
And I will miss readers like you, Kym!
Thank you so much.
Posted by: AIMEE LIU | July 25, 2011 at 01:35 PM
Beautifully, said, Aimee. You show us that recovery is about entrance and then fully living in a world where you respect yourself and pursue your happiness and personal fulfillment.
You may "step away from the eating disorder field," but your writings will continue to inspire and support people on their recovery path.
And now you offer the greatest inspiration of all: you spread your wings and fly.
I'll keep an eye out for you ont the urls you posted.
Bon voyage, Aimee. I'm so very happy for you.
Joanna
http://www.eatingdisorderrecovery.com
Posted by: Joanna Poppink | July 25, 2011 at 10:10 PM
I'm very grateful for your comment, Joanna, and for your caring work.
Cheers to you!
Aimee
Posted by: AIMEE LIU | July 26, 2011 at 08:35 AM
I'm going to miss you so much, Aimee!! I think about you often--the you I've come to know through your writing--and I'll never forget you. I have learned so much from you even though we have never met. Maybe someday tho :)
Thank you for your inspiration and insight! You were always my favorite author in the ED field. All my best to you~~
Posted by: Stephanie | July 29, 2011 at 05:30 PM
Wow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This touches me more than you know.
Thank you, Stephanie.
I will be writing as long as I live. Maybe someday I'll find a new way to write for those who have come through EDs without the words being pigeonholed as "writing on eating disorders." The restrictiveness of this field frustrates me no end -- nice irony, eh? Especially since so much of the restrictiveness is imposed by external stigma and misunderstanding. The term "eating disorders" in itself "minimizes" the field and public interest in the topic. But perhaps I can find a better way to address this problem through fiction than through research. On this note, I leave you with a recommendation for a novel that does what I just proposed: MY YEAR OF MEATS by Ruth Ozeki.
Posted by: AIMEE LIU | July 29, 2011 at 05:49 PM
thank you, Aimee for all you have done. you are truly amazing and your work has changed my life in so many ways and helped me to gain full recovery of over 10 years of anorexia and bulimia. you will be missed and i wish you nothing but luck and happiness and peace in all that you do. God Bless!!!!!
Posted by: Amanda | August 31, 2011 at 07:38 AM