If you were lucky enough to be walking from Lecture Hall to Bartle last Monday night around 7pm, you would have stumbled upon a magnificent tealight-lit path, surrounded with positive energy and a sense of purpose. You would have been amid “Find Your Light”.
This past week was National Eating Disorders Awareness Week, and Binghamton University’s Eating Awareness Committee (EAC) took creative steps to highlight the importance of drawing attention to the cause and promoting positivity in everybody.
Photo Courtesy of Binghamton Find Your Light
While there may still be a stigma implying that females are more susceptible to fall down the path of an eating disorder, these disorders do not discriminate. Anybody can develop an eating disorder, regardless of gender, age, race , religion, blood type, nationality, major, and so on. It takes both a mentally toxic and physically harmful shape in its victims.
However, there are free and confidential resources on campus that are available to anyone suffering. Among them are the University Counseling Center, an on-campus dietician, and classes and events offered through the Health and Wellness department.
The EAC hosted several events around campus throughout the week under the title “Find Your Light”. The goal of “Find Your Light” is just what it sounds like-to prove to yourself how beautiful you are and discover what makes you shine. To realize that your body doesn’t in the least way define who you are or determine your self-worth.
Photo Courtesy of Binghamton Find Your Light
When you find your light so to speak, you will attract others who are finding their light. Positive attracts positive; warmth and gratitude attract comfort and happiness. When you are able to recognize what it is about yourself that you love, you will beat the cycle of self-doubt and self-hatred that the media so carelessly feeds on.
The heart and soul of “Find Your Light” centered around recycled mason jars, filled with 30 blank paper slips and a tealight. The intended goal was to write a positive affirmation, a gentle thought, a sentiment of gratitude, etc. each day for 30 days. When you return to your jar upon completion of this month, you will rediscover all of the little instances that may have seemed trivial at the moment, yet were real and palpable and will have cultivated into a multitude of positive qualities in your life that you may have forgone drawing attention in the past.
As an added bonus, if you bring your full jar to the Health Fair, you will be rewarded with a prize!
The rest of the week was dedicated to bringing “Find Your Light” to the various resident halls and the West Gym, as well as decorating your jar.
Even if you missed out this week, you can make your own jar or create something of your own. Let those creative juices flow! You can also join the movement on social media by hastag-ing #binghappy.
For more information on NEDA, check out:
http://www.nationaleatingdisorders.org
To stay updated with #BingHappy:
Binghamton University Find Your Light