In our latest blog series on yoga therapy and inclusive eating disorder recovery, Niya Bajaj investigates how gender identity impacts eating disorder recovery, and explains why yoga therapy —specifically the practice of pratyahara—can help support a more inclusive eating disorder recovery for transgender, non-binary and agender individuals.

Guest contributor Liz Dehler shares about the Buddhist meditation of loving kindness and how integrating it into her recovery and life has helped her love herself more fully and build nurturing relationships with others.

Learn about the yoga philosophy known as the kleshas, or psychological blocks. The kleshas can be a helpful lens through which to understand how eating disorder thoughts and behaviors create blocks in our lives. As Ashley Paige shares in this blog post, once we understand the block, we can learn to make new choices that will lessen its intensity and eventually remove it.

The culture we are raised in provides the lens that determines what is beautiful and influences our body image. Guest contributor Niya Bajaj explores how the philosophical principles of yoga, or the niyamas, are guides for both addressing biases and definitions of beauty and healing body dissatisfaction. She offers practical suggestions for how to apply the niyamas to address eating disorders in a truly inclusive way, beyond the limitations of personal and cultural biases.

Guest contributor Liz Dehler shares how the Buddhist teaching of impermanence can be a tool in eating disorder recovery that helps us shape a new relationship with our experiences and the world around us. Liz provides some practical ways to begin embracing impermanence in your daily life and a short meditation to practice also.

Writer and yoga teacher Ashley Paige explains how the second chakra relates to eating disorders. Learn why addressing our emotions and expressing ourselves—both essential for recovery—are related to this chakra.

In February 2020, guest contributor Cameron Pettinato came out to his friends and family as gay. As Cameron shares, what followed was an “uncomfortable transitionary period” fueled by social media images of '“ideal” and unrealistic body standards for gay men. Read on to learn how moving to another city and finding an inclusive community was the catalyst for Cameron learning to accept his body.

The representation of who is affected by eating disorders is changing in blog posts and on social media to depict more gender, socioeconomic, racial, and sexual diversity. As guest contributor Niya Bajaj points out, “this increase in representation is not the same as inclusion” and asks: “How can yoga, beyond the mindful movement practice, help us address eating disorders in a truly inclusive way?” Learn how the ethical principles of yoga, or the yamas, are guides for removing barriers and biases that discriminate and for creating true inclusion for all by including systemically excluded populations in the eating disorder community.

Guest contributor Caroline Young, MS, RD, LD, RYT, shares her story of yoga and eating disorder recovery. From watching her mother practice yoga as a child to taking classes in college, Caroline describes how this practice helped her find lasting connection with her body and emotions.