Take Care of YOU First & Foremost

I have a few things to share with you. And I thought I'd start with this: 55 Gentle Ways to Take Care of Yourself

There are a lot of people out there who could use a friendly reminder of what's important, what's not, and how to make life just a little easier... By being good to YOU. It's a great post by a fellow blogger.

More great links (I discovered this week) to come. :)

Insurance Wars

Yesterday's article from the NY Times - it's regarding eating disorders and insurance coverage for residential treatment in the USA. Just keeping you aprised:Eating Disorders a New Front in Insurance Fight

Passing It Along

Recent article by a teen - "What I Wish Parents Knew About Eating Disorders" - thought I'd share.

Check it out, parents and others!

Thought You Might Like to Know...

that other people feel as I do! :)

These Letters to the Editor were published in the NY Times, in response to the article I discussed in my previous post. Rock on, recovery warriors. Click to read the published responses.

And thank you for all the wonderful and positive feedback I received regarding my own response to the detrimental article. I appreciate it so much!

Getting Your Priorities Straight

Hi everyone,

I have officially stopped accepting art for my Calling All Art! Show & Tell and Giveaway (unless you get something to me within the next 3 hours, that is). I still have some more artwork to put up on the site in the next couple of weeks, but I will no longer be collecting more for the Giveaway. Stay tuned, because there are some DAZZLING pieces still to come.

On a different note, I received a question from one of my YouTube viewers last week and made a video in response. Hope you can find it helpful. It's about getting your priorities straight, or in other words, "how can I give up other aspects of my life to get help?"

Check it out - click to view on YouTube as usual. :)

Artifacts by Arielle

I have a little side business--an artistic jewelry business--called Artifacts by Arielle.

I've started creating "Recovery Jewelry" for eating disorders.

There are currently only 13 items up for sale on my merchant website, but I hope to add more this week and continue to add more items as I create them.

The descriptions and extra photos on the website say more, but here's a sample:



You can find more here: Artifacts by Arielle The first category at the bottom of the main page is "Recovery Jewelry."

I have a message and I'm trying to spread it. A reminder you can wear is always a good thing.
Sending love to all.

The Desire to Be Thin is Weighing Heavily Upon Us

I guess it's even come to this now: '"Diabulimics' shun insulin to get thin"

It's terrible--this desire to be thin; I always thought it was possible that things would become this bad, but it still makes me sad to read this article.

What are your thoughts about it?

Arielle

Tell Your Tale Tuesday (# 3)

I recieved an email from a woman named Kira Bloom this week. I am copying the email here so all of you have access to what she shared with me. I am also posting a few images of Karin Collins' beautiful, WEARABLE artwork. How nice! She is LA based, but her items are available online. This art has a story behind it and the "Every BODY Is Beautiful" Online Fundraising Auction event sounds wonderful. And of course, it's a great cause.

Here is the email that was sent to me; I hope you all will read it!

These are the pendants Karin Collins donated for the auction.

These are just a couple of the spoon pendants on her website that are for sale.

Hello Arielle! Please consider this important health/lifestyle/fashion/charity item for coverage on your Actively Arielle blog at some point during the month of November!

Acclaimed Los Angeles-based wearable art designer Karin Collins (please see her inspiring health-related story below and at http://www.spoonfedart.com/) is once again promoting and participating in the annual National Eating Disorders Association "Every BODY Is Beautiful" Online Fundraising Auction, which is running from November 1st through December 2nd, 2007. There are a number of fantastic items up for sale, including jewelry, clothing, tote bags, spa packages, beauty products, celebrity-autographed collectibles, vacations, music, books, art - and many more great items will be added as the auction progresses! The event is being chaired by music superstar Sara Evans and features many other celebrity contributors!

The delightfully diverse auction offerings include a trip to Tokyo, a backstage concert meet & greet with Sara Evans, a manicure in Beverly Hills, yoga classes in Seattle, an iPod Nano, an autograph/clothing package from American Idol singer Carrie Underwood, a one-of-a-kind customized guitar signed by Bo Diddley, tickets to the Regis & Kelly show, a Disney Snow White animation cel, an Orioles jersey autographed by Cal Ripken, Jr., a weekend in Malibu, and much much more....

Please let your audience know that they can go to this link for the scoop on this great event: http://www.blogger.com/www.nationaleatingdisorders.cmarket.com

And please do take a moment to check out Karin Collins' latest SpoonFed Art work (and the brand new look of the website!) at http://www.spoonfedart.com/!

Karin's gorgeous wearable art spoon necklaces - made from actual spoons! - are gaining popularity all around the globe (see a sampling of our press clips below)! AOL Style recently referred to Karin's pieces as "staggeringly beautiful pendants with a soul," and as NYLON magazine writes, SpoonFed Art is "...an imaginative jewelry collection that takes wearable art to a new level... The L.A.-based designer hacks the handles off ordinary utensils and fills them with all things sticky, shiny, and bright... Wear one, and you\'re guaranteed to cause a few mouths to open."

Karin originally started making her SpoonFed Art pendants as a very personal art-oriented therapy to overcome a serious eating disorder she\'d been battling for almost 20 years. Karin is entirely free of her eating disorder now, and she continues to contribute to and spread awareness of the National Eating Disorders Association to keep the focus of her SpoonFed Art business on the reason it was started - to help heal.

For more information on the inspiring story behind SpoonFed Art, please see this profile of Karin on Yahoo! Health: http://health.yahoo.com/topic/mentalhealth/inspirational-stories/article/capessa/63_karinc

...or this SpoonFed Art article from the LA Weekly: www.laweekly.com/la-vida/la-vida/the-art-of-spooning/14389/

Karin Collins has donated three of her SpoonFed Art pendants to the NEDA fundraising project, including an exclusive NEDA-commissioned one-of-a-kind necklace featuring the NEDA logo. Last year's one-of-a-kind NEDA Logo pendant from SpoonFed Art sold for $370!

Please let your audience know that they can go to this link for the scoop on this great event: http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.cmarket.com/

Karin Collins is available for interviews and can be reached at Karin@SpoonFedArt.com and her number is 310-467-8648.

Please feel free to use any of the images from the NEDA auction and SpoonFedArt.com sites in your coverage of this event - or let me know if you'd like higher-res jpegs of the three pendants Karin contributed to the auction!

Thanks so much! Hope all is well!

Kira Bloom

SpoonFed Art

Kira@SpoonFedArt.com

SpoonFedArt has recieved awesome reviews in many popular magazines like Jane, Venus, Vision, Health Magazine, and TONS of others. Have a great Tuesday, everyone!

Arielle

Cards for Life's More Difficult Issues

I know this is an old article (by a few months), but I wondered if perhaps some of you hadn't heard about it. I think it's pretty cool and definitely shows awareness of issues.

Hallmark's new line of cards (including ones for those struggling with eating disorders)

What do you think about this?

Arielle

Refreshing Reinforcement

Glamour magazine has a segment each issue called "glamour list." It is typically a list of 12 things of a particular nature...you know, 12 things it's okay to do, etc. In the most recent issue, the segment is entitled: "12 things in life never to take for granted."


I liked a lot of the items they had on the list, but #4 stood out and made me happy:


Just wanted to share that with all of you. It's good to see a women's magazine give some positive reinforcement, however small.

***

Along those lines, there was a page in the same Glamour issue entitled: "The 7 best (and worst) things you can say to a girl." There is a photo of a little girl playing dress up and laughing. The sub-heading reads: "What you say does make an impression. Make sure it's a good one."


The first column is NEVER SAY...

"I feel fat." (After a second helping of stuffing, sure you do. But beware! If she sees you hating your body, she may learn to loathe hers, says Courtney E. Martin, author of Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters.

"You're young. You'll get over it." Yes, she'll survive being blown off my her so-called friend. But that doesn't make it sting less right now. Ask how you can help.

"Men suck." Bashing just feeds an us-versus-them mentality, says psychologist Rita Haley, Ph.D.

"Sure you want to eat that?" Eating a honking slab of pie is much less damaging got her than the feeling that everything she puts in her mouth is fodder for scrutiny.
"Paris is such a slut." Whatever you think of Ms. Hilton, trashing women teaches girls to be mean, says psychologist Sharon Lamb. Bring up Nancy Pelosi instead.
"Guys won't like you if you..." It's never good to change to "get" a guy. Tell her the right one will like every crazy, quirky thing about her.

The ALWAYS SAY... column was wonderful too, but one particular ALWAYS SAY stood out for me.

"Yum!!!!" Teach her to enjoy her food, not battle it.

This definitely made me feel positive today! What do you think about this?

Arielle

Starting High School, Starting College

Found this article earlier this week. I know it's a bit of a generalization (as most things are), but I basically agree with it. I know for me, starting college was what made my eating disorder "come out," so to speak. This article doesn't have too much of a point, but it does prove that eating disorders are being recognized, so I'm very glad of that.

Any thoughts about this?

Arielle

A Truly Frightening (E.D. Related) Halloween Costume

THIS is one of the most horrid things I have ever seen. I am shaking my head in disbelief and amazement that such a thing exists. The worst part of the whole thing is the poll at the bottom of the article: the majority of readers found this FUNNY. I find it disturbing. What is the world coming to?

Arielle