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For many people with a lived or living experience of an eating disorder, the word wellness can be complicated. Once associated with health and self-care, wellness has become increasingly commercialised, often tied to images of "perfect" health, strict routines, and idealised body standards that are unsustainable, and often downright unhealthy.
It’s not just challenging for those in the process of recovery from an eating disorder. For anyone trying to improve their health or build a more positive relationship with food, movement, and their bodies, these messages can be particularly confusing. What begins as a genuine desire to be healthy can quickly become entangled with wellness trends that promote restriction, fear, control, and body dissatisfaction, leading people further away from wellbeing rather than towards it.
This year's BIEDAW theme, invites us to question these messages and think more broadly about what wellness really means. The reality is that wellness looks different for everyone. It might be found in connection, creativity, rest, purpose, community, joy, or simply getting through a difficult day. Many of the things that help us be well and stay well have little to do with food, exercise, weight, or appearance.
With that in mind, we asked members of our Lived Experience, Family & Carers Reference Group two questions: "What does wellness look like to you?" and "How do you choose to keep well?"
Their responses remind us that wellness is deeply personal, and that there are many different ways to live well, in recovery and beyond.
A huge thank you to everyone who generously shared their reflections and experiences for this piece.
These quotes, including names and locations, have been shared with permission of the contributors.
“To me, wellness is feeling a sense of purpose and meaning in my life. Its about showing myself and the people around me compassion, understanding and grace. It is about looking after myself, and prioritising time to do the things that I love to do (creative activities, seeing friends, swimming, being in the sun, visiting family, walking, cooking). Wellness is an ongoing journey towards self-acceptance and self-trust.”
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“I used to see my body as something to control. Now, I see it as a partner. To keep it strong and capable, I must listen to, fuel, and care for it. Hitting the gym and playing squash are no longer about changing my appearance or earning permission to eat—they celebrate what my body can do. Keeping well doesn’t eliminate difficult days. It means choosing compassion when old voices creep back in, remembering this is my only body, and it deserves care.”
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“Wellness to me as a recovered individual looks like being able to treat it not as something to ensure my body ‘looks well’ or that I am on top of the latest wellness trends or habits, but as a more holistic concept. What does my specific body, mind and soul need or crave today to feel at peace? This changes day to day and even minute to minute. It means regularly paying attention internally and identifying what my healthy self’s needs are. Ultimately, to me wellness is feeling balanced and able to cope and engage with life to the fullest.”
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“Wellness looks like to me taking my dog for a walk or enjoying some sunshine in my garden”
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“To me, wellness is connection, purpose and growth. Feeling connected to the people and things that matter, having a strong “why” and sense of direction, and always working towards something that helps me grow. Wellness isn’t about how I look or what I achieve, but about feeling fulfilled, connected and like I’m continuing to grow.”
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“What keeps me well now is the ordinariness of life. I love waking up hungry and recognising that my body needs to be fed. I eat in front of people without wondering what they think, and I see my body as strong and capable rather than something that needs to be smaller.
Perhaps the greatest shift is that if I realise I haven’t eaten enough, I now chastise myself rather than feel secretly proud. Feeding myself has become an act of care. I have gained freedom, strength and trust in my body and I love this version of me.”
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“Wellness for me is holistic and intentional. It takes effort and energy to uphold my boundaries and personal values, and it almost feels like an act of resistance because society's toxic and unhealthy "current" can so easily pull me back in. When this does happen, I don't berate myself, I simply get curious and ask myself how I can best realign and look after myself. Self-compassion is a super-power!
Some strategies that have helped me reconnect to my authentic self include turning my phone off for the weekend, prioritising sleep hygiene (yoga nidra is a great wind-down), spending 1-5mins catching some sun or cloud gazing while bare-footed in the backyard, a short walk around the block, and spending time with loved ones.”
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“Being well means coming home to myself.
It means listening to my body instead of constantly asking it to be different. It means checking in with what I need each day and trusting that my needs are allowed to change. It means choosing compassion over criticism. Choosing the walk because it clears my mind, not because I feel I need to earn my food. Challenging the voice of diet culture when it tells me my body needs fixing. For me, wellness is giving myself permission to exist fully; in my mind, in my body and in who I am. It is listening in, turning up for myself, and remembering that I don't have to fight my body to feel at home in it.”
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“Wellness to me means having the freedom to be my authentic self, rather than the person my eating disorder wants me to be. I keep well by being honest with myself and the people around me, and by accepting support when I need it. Recovery has also allowed me to rediscover the joy in food — not just food itself, but the connection, spontaneity and shared experiences it brings with friends and family.
For me, wellness isn't about doing everything "right" or achieving a particular version of health. It's having the freedom to participate fully in my own life and make choices based on what matters to me, rather than what my eating disorder tells me I should do. “
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“I keep well by ensuring that I take time outside every day. Whether that be a mindful walk in the sun in nature, spending time with the dog or taking my sons to ride their bikes at the park, I find fresh air and a change of scenery is always a nice way to clear the mind and keep well.”
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"Sometimes I think the best sign that I’m well is that I’m not thinking about wellness at all. I’m thinking about what I want to create, where I want to travel, who I want to see, or some completely random idea that has caught my attention! I’m laughing more. I’m getting excited about little things. I’m saying yes to experiences and letting myself enjoy them. Yes, challenging days still come. I still have my struggles and doubts…but they don’t stop me from living. I have the freedom and headspace to look beyond my body and be present in the things that matter to me.”
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Interested in sharing your lived or living experience to help shape eating disorder prevention, treatment, research, and recovery?
Join the InsideOut Lived Experience, Family & Carers Reference Group, a network of people with lived or living experience of an eating disorder, as well as family members and carers, who work alongside InsideOut on a range of projects and opportunities. Together, members help ensure that lived experience remains at the heart of our work.