On Wednesday night at sundown, Jewish people around the world will begin a daylong fast for Yom Kippur. I will not be one of them.

In the years I’ve been eligible to fast, I have rarely observed the Day of Atonement. In fact, I’ve been discouraged from fasting. Since age 8, I have lived with chronic migraines. (As any fellow sufferer knows all too well, forgoing a healthy routine—which includes eating regular meals—is a fast-track to a terrible time.) While my parents have always cautioned me to avoid such an obvious trigger as fasting, it is also backed up by Jewish law: it is actually considered a mitzvah (or good deed) to put one’s health first. But even with a rabbi’s blessing, sitting out the holiest day of the year can dredge up feelings of guilt and anxiety.

“People are really attached to fasting,” says Rabbi Diane Rose, who leads the Santa Monica Jewish Humanistic Chavurah congregation. “I had a congregant who was quite unwell, and he would not eat. I said to him, ‘What are you doing? Literally the most orthodox rabbi would tell you to eat an egg right now.’”

People who suffer from illnesses, like those in recovery from an eating disorder, may also find Yom Kippur (and other holidays that include fasting, like Ramadan or Lent) an especially challenging day. “It’s important for someone contemplating [fasting] to really step back and decide if this is driven by the eating disorder—trying to avoid food—or if it’s truly a way to honor the Day of Atonement,” says Molly Perlman, chief medical officer for the eating disorder treatment organization Monte Nido.

From both a clinical and liturgical perspective, there are plenty of other ways to observe Yom Kippur without fasting. For those who want to stick to tradition, Rabbi Rose notes that fasting is just one of the holiday’s commandments, which also includes dressing humbly and forgoing perfume and leather. “The food is just one piece of it,” she says. “You could still dress simply, not put on lotion, not wear perfume. In that way, you’ve done the other aspects of traditional observance.”

Both Dr. Perlman and Rabbi Rose recommend interpreting the meaning of the holiday and considering how one can take action in other ways that don’t involve fasting. “Still take the day to be thoughtful, whether it’s through prayer, intentions, or journaling,” Dr. Perlman says. She suggests prompts like making goals for the upcoming year, or writing a letter to yourself to open on next year’s Yom Kippur. “[This] is always a nice activity for someone recovering from an eating disorder, or really other mental illnesses where there’s hope for a future and they’re not yet there,” she says.