Category: lifestyle

lifestyle recovery

Lean on This: A Holiday Season Mental Health and Wellness Guide

When I create content, I always begin by asking myself what would have served my 15-year old self, a young girl consumed by an eating disorder, who felt absolutely helpless and misguided. What type of soft reminders and tough love did she need to pull herself up?

The holidays were hell for me when I was struggling with body image and disordered eating. I felt suffocated by the intimacy and food-focus this time of year brings. That’s exactly why I felt called to create this Holiday Season Mental Health and Wellness Guide. If you’re anything like I was, I hope these words bring you a sense of relief, armor you with peace of mind, and allow you to grow through hard times.

Click here to view the guide.

lifestyle

2020 @healthfulradiance Holiday Gift Guide

It’s here! For all your gift-giving needs this season, I’ve rounded up my favorite products, services, and brands to help spark some inspo! Each item is linked and discount codes are provided when applicable. (Note: I do make an affiliate commission when my code is used). Happy gifting, friends!

Click here for the full guide 🙂

lifestyle recovery writing

A Glimpse Into My Story…

Below is a stream-of-consciousness piece I turned in for a writing assignment in my Psychology of Well-Being course. My professor gave us plenty of freedom. No length requirements, no specific guidelines other than to choose a part of “our story” and write our way through it, as a means of healing, cathartic release, emotional discovery, whatever it may be.

I did what I could with what I had. Here’s what came out.

I’ve always been a writer.

Ever since I was young I’ve always had an itch to write, to put words to the feelings in my chest and the thoughts flowing swiftly in my mind. I remember being ten or twelve, unsure of who I was or who I was becoming. I understood there were many identities that could be mine, many roles I could attain and fall into, and this both unnerved and thrilled me. But I knew one thing for certain; 

I’ve always been, and always will be, a writer.

… A Glimpse Into My Story…

lifestyle writing

Eating Disorder Research Papers

I wrote this paper for my Religion, Theology, and New Media class. We were asked to write on a topic of our choice, and to analyze that topic from both religious and media perspectives. Since this course is research-focused, we also had to conduct research to support a hypothesis. I chose to research how religious fasting rituals are practiced and approached in modern day society, one that is seeing a rise in eating disorders due to media influence. In this paper I share some of the personal stories and reflections my followers submitted and found them incredibly insightful.

The Influence of Religious Fasting in a Media-Dominant Society

 

I wrote this paper for my Intro to Digital Technology and Emerging Media Class. Our prompt was to choose one topic from our class discussions and expand on it further. I was intrigued by our conversations on wearable technology and fitness trackers, and how these numbers communicated a sense of self to the user. We called this the “quantified self”. This paper argues that fitness trackers neglect the subjectivity of health and instead push a “one-size-fits-all” mentality. I suggest that wearable technology complicates efforts to live intuitively and can trigger unhealthy, addictive behavior.

Wearable Fitness Technology: An Unhealthy Obsession with Health