Embracing the Unknown: Finding Trust and Courage in Eating Disorder Recovery
Liminality — the space between an ending and a new beginning — can feel overwhelming, especially for those navigating eating disorders. The food cycle is a powerful metaphor for this: the end of a meal and the pause before the next is often where discomfort surfaces.
For many, this space feels too expansive, too uncertain. Instead of meeting it, we might overeat to prolong the moment, purge or exercise to jump over it, or avoid finishing or starting meals altogether. These behaviours, while protective, keep us from fully experiencing the rest, digestion, and clarity this space offers.
These liminal moments go beyond food; it’s a fertile ground for reconnecting with our inherent enoughness. In this pause, we’re reminded that our worth isn’t tied to what we’ve done, achieved, or controlled — it simply exists because we are.
The Fear of Rest and Stillness
At the core of many disordered eating patterns lies a mistrust of rest, pausing, and the unknown. Endings — whether of a meal, a task, or a chapter in life — can bring up discomfort, fear, or anxiety.
This discomfort mirrors how we approach food:
Do you struggle to fully finish a meal?
Does hunger feel overwhelming, making it hard to start eating?
Do you turn to behaviours like overeating, purging, or overexercising to avoid the stillness between meals?
These patterns highlight our relationship with endings, surrender, and the idea of simply being and belonging. They invite us to explore our beliefs about rest and non-doing. What do you notice within yourself when you ask the question, “Do I trust myself in the unknown?”
Trusting the Wilderness Within
Reconnecting with our inner truth is often messy, wild, and deeply courageous. For years, I struggled with self-doubt, often seeking external rules and validation instead of trusting my own inner guidance.
The process of listening to and trusting the quiet whispers of my inner voice has been one of profound transformation. Stripping away masks, people-pleasing, and the need to shape-shift left me raw, vulnerable, and fully present with myself.
This journey isn’t about perfection; it’s about presence. It’s about meeting the full spectrum of your emotions — pain, joy, anxiety, grief, love — and letting them belong. When we allow ourselves to feel, pause, and breathe through it all, we reconnect with the wisdom of our hearts.
Connecting to the truth of who we are is a journey into the wild, vast, oceanic human experience. So often we want to disassociate from this wild ocean that is the body because of what it contains, hold and longs for. Often, we don’t trust what we see and quickly brush over it, suppress it or change it. We don’t often pause with it.
Indeed, it can be excruciating to feel and scary to acknowledge all that we meet — and yet when we muster the courage to meet it, pause with it, breathe with it, and let all of it belong, we make a fundamental shift in our trajectory towards returning to wholeness.
When we pause, we step into presence with the wisdom of the heart. In the liminal space is a chance to see yourself clearly, soften into your inner waves and currents, and hear deep’s longing and hungers emerge.
What do you know to be true? Can you trust it?
Questions to Explore
As you navigate your recovery, consider these reflections:
How do you handle endings, both with food and in life?
What beliefs do you hold about pausing, resting, or letting go?
What arises when you face the unknown without a clear next step?
Can you meet yourself — your feelings, your body — with compassion and courage without the need to earn or prove it?
The Rewards of Meeting the Unknown
When we allow ourselves to rest in liminal spaces, we open the door to clarity, trust, and a sense of deep belonging. These pauses are where we learn that we are enough, not because of what we’ve done or achieved, but simply because we exist.
The more we practice surrender — whether at the end of a meal or in daily moments of uncertainty — the more we grow. With each breath, we expand our capacity to trust ourselves, to navigate the unknown with courage, and to experience the fullness of life. Let the ending of your meal be a practice of surrender.
In this open space, we can land into a sense of inherent enoughness — not based on what we’ve done or achieved but simply because we are here on this Earth. The liminal space is where we clear the canvas to allow for our inner clarity and wisdom to arise, informing us of the aligned next step to take.
You deserve to feel this sense of aliveness. You deserve to trust yourself. The journey into the unknown isn’t just about what you’ll find — it’s about returning home to who you already are.