Yoga for Eating Disorder Recovery

Yoga for Eating Disorder Recovery

*This blog post was written by our dietetic intern Brittany Priller

Every form of movement has benefits for physical and mental health to some extent. As a Registered Yoga Teacher (RYT-200) I’m specially qualified to discuss yoga and the ways it can support your physical and mental wellbeing. In this post I’ll explain what yoga is, which styles I think are most supportive of eating disorder recovery, and the benefits they offer. 

What is yoga? 

At its core, yoga is movement paired with purposeful breathing. The movement between poses results in physical benefits like increased mobility and strength. Breathwork provides a way to direct your mental focus. There are many different styles of yoga including vinyasa, ashtanga, hatha, yin, restorative, and more. Each style offers a unique combo of physical and mental benefits. You can gain these benefits whether you go to a yoga studio, gym, or follow along with a video at home.

A large part of eating disorder recovery is mental. Styles of yoga with more emphasis on breathwork provide more time to work on directing your mental focus, and build resilience and distress tolerance. Yin and restorative yoga are the best examples of this style. Because poses are held in stillness for 3-20 minutes at a time the physical benefits of exercise are deemphasized in favor of increased mental benefits. 

Yin Yoga for Eating Disorder Recovery

Yin yoga seeks to promote connective tissue health by placing gentle stress on areas of connective tissue within the body for 3-10 minutes at a time. By spending more time in each pose, the fascia, tendons, and ligaments can be gently stressed and strengthened. 

Holding some yin poses can be mentally challenging and requires affirmations and breathwork to sit with the feelings that come up. Each new pose offers a new opportunity to practice tolerating difficult feelings. With enough practice, the ability to sit with discomfort translates to settings outside of the yoga practice. This ability to handle difficult feelings and discomfort is called distress tolerance and is a useful tool for recovery.

Restorative Yoga for Eating Disorder Recovery

Restorative yoga uses lots of props like pillows, blankets, and blocks to support the body in a variety of poses with the goal of reducing stress and promoting healing. Quite the opposite of Yin as there should be no discomfort while holding restorative poses. This style of yoga is excellent for practicing body awareness. As you move into each new pose in a Restorative class, you will have to set up many props to support yourself, listening to your body and adjusting the props until you feel completely comfortable and supported. Poses are held for 5-20 minutes in a Restorative class so being comfortable is very important. 

While Yin and Restorative have their own unique ways of impacting mental wellbeing, they both help reduce stress and anxiety, and increase mind/body awareness. Incorporating movement into eating disorder recovery is a nuanced topic that should be discussed with your healthcare team. Lastly, move in ways that are fun for you and honor your body’s cues.

Yoga for Eating Disorder Recovery - Dallas Nutritional Counseling, Registered dietitian and eating disorder specialists detail the benefits of yoga for eating disorder recovery and how to incorporate yoga to benefit eating disorder recovery.