The Secret Language of the Body: Regulate Your Nervous System, Heal Your Body, Free Your Mind

Readers can learn the “secret language of the body” to heal depression, insomnia, and other ailments, according to this insightful debut guide. Functional movement therapist Mann and somatic experiencing practitioner Rabin describe the nervous system as a “foreign country” that responds to daily stressors (paying bills, sending an difficult email) with stress-inducing survival responses. They suggest that readers better “converse” with their nervous systems by noticing such stress symptoms as muscle tension and quelling them with “interruption techniques” (breathing exercises, intentionally smiling to “improve mood and mind state”). Eventually, readers can “redesign” their stress responses by using their impartial “observing self” to witness harmful thoughts and emotions without getting caught up in them. With plenty of theories and strategies on offer—for example, how to tend to the emotional wounds of one’s “inner child,” and how to tune into each of the five senses to switch from a stressed mind into a more embodied state of being—the authors provide a sturdy yet flexible framework for integrated mind-body healing. Those who feel “stressed, sick and stuck” would do well to check this out. (July)