Jenni Schaefer Quotes

#1. Recovery is about making room for the real me to exist.

Jenni Schaefer

#2. Holding myself to perfectionistic standards, I used to think I had to become lifelong friends with everyone who entered my life. This was exhausting, and I now know it's not true. I believe the old saying that people come into your life for a reason, a season, or a lifetime. (127)

Jenni Schaefer

#3. I would not encourage you to go through the sweat, blood, and tears of the recovery process only to reach some kind of mediocre state where you were just 'managing' the illness. It is possible to live without Ed.

Jenni Schaefer

#4. I went from really hating my body, to disliking it, to accepting it but not exactly liking it, then accepting it and liking it, and now I love it.

Jenni Schaefer

#5. Ironically, this physically weak feeling signifies that I'm actually getting stronger. I know from my past that I will ultimately feel strong if I just sit with the feeling and experience it.

Jenni Schaefer

#6. Real hope combined with real action has always pulled me through difficult times. Real hope combined with doing nothing has never pulled me through.

Jenni Schaefer

#7. When you feel like you would rather die than live another day with an eating disorder, know that I used to feel that way too. Search deep inside yourself for the part that wants to live,

Jenni Schaefer

#8. Being thin created intense anxiety that I wouldn't be able to maintain that weight for life, and I couldn't.

Jenni Schaefer

#9. I left myself out of humanity by focusing on differences. This isolation only strengthened Ed (17)

Jenni Schaefer

#10. Oftentimes, especially during my recovery, I didn't need to think about everything I was doing wrong; instead, I needed to focus more on what I was doing right - and then do more of the right stuff. I needed to live more in the solution.

Jenni Schaefer

#11. With Ed, I always pushed away the good and only heard the bad. Today, I let in the good.

Jenni Schaefer

#12. Replace perfectionism with persistence. After all, in recovery and life, it's persistence that really pays off. Forget about perfection.

Jenni Schaefer

#13. Clinicians have told me that our emotional is arrested at the age that an eating disorder takes control of our lives. After we recover, we pick up emotionally where we left off at that age.

Jenni Schaefer

#14. Connect with supportive people who empower you. The more you jump into your life, the further away from Ed you can get. Don't have a backup plan for living. Live today. [ ... ] Trust in God. Believe in yourself. Get friends and family members to stand behind you. That's the only backup you'll need.

Jenni Schaefer

#15. In the past, I was a perpetual victim; how I was doing in any given moment depended on what happened to me. Today I do my best to avoid this kind of 'victim thinking.' Instead, how I am doing is determined by how I respond to what happens to me.

Jenni Schaefer