A Guide to Body Wisdom: What Your Mind Needs to Know About Your Body

by Ann Todhunter Brode

Your Body is Listening. Are You? Deepen your spirituality, heal old wounds, and enhance your emotional and physical wellness by engaging in a conversation with your body. This innovative, down-to-earth guide teaches you how to listen to, understand, and work with your body's innate wisdom in everyday living. A Guide to Body Wisdom provides step-by-step instruction on how to create a personalized self-care regimen that works. You'll learn to quiet your mind and live consciously in your body through a variety of practices, including breathwork, mindful eating, meditation, affirmation, and positive habit building. Featuring simple exercises and techniques, as well as a Body IQ quiz, this valuable book helps you end negative thinking, develop intuition, improve relationships, boost creativity and personal power, and much more. Includes a foreword by Judith Aston-Linderoth, creator and director of Aston Kinetics "While we have learned during the past few decades the importance of emotions and beliefs in health, the body has too often been neglected, or regarded as a mechanical object that sooner or later is doomed to fail. In A Guide to Body Wisdom , Ann Brode gives the body its due by showing how it can function as a source of wisdom and strength in total harmony with the mind. Brode's perspective is long overdue, offering a holistic, balanced view of what it means to be human."―Larry Dossey, MD, author of One Mind "This book includes a myriad of everyday ways to awaken and experience the body's innate intelligence. It is full of interesting facts, intriguing exercises, and useful strategies."―Risa Kaparo, PhD, somatic psychotherapist, creator of Somatic Learning, and author of Awakening Somatic Intelligence

Genres: Nonfiction, Health

288 pages, Paperback

Published June 8, 2018

About the author

Ann Brode is a longtime resident of Santa Barbara and recognized master in her field. For over 40 years she has focused on the relationship of body, mind and spirit as it shapes the physical experience.

Receiving her BA in 1968, Ann spent 7 years as a motor-perceptual therapist working with young children. In this early work, she discovered that every person learns differently and every body can change and find better balance, grace, and comfort. Seeking to help all people access their full potential for responsive awareness, Ann began extensive training with Movement Therapy and Bodywork pioneer Judith Aston. Using Aston Kinetics principles, Ann worked with individuals and groups to facilitate healing and teach viable life skills. Along the way, she developed a deep respect for the essential unity of body, mind, and soul.
As a teacher, therapist, healer, and writer, Ann is a respected leader in the bodywork community.  She was the founder and director of the Healing Center Foundation, a non-profit supporting integrative health and practitioners in Santa Barbara, and creator of the website, sbHealthSource.org.

For the past ten years she has written on health and body related topics for Health Source Magazine, Santa Barbara Independent, Huffington Post (2016 -2018), Thrive Global, Elephant: Now, Body Mind Network and Somatic Psychotherapy Today Journal. She has also recorded and produced an acclaimed CD entitled Body Breath: Three Guided Meditations.

Reviews

[Lia · Rating 3 out of 5]

I saw that this book has not yet been reviewed. This book is about trusting your body by using it as a guide to navigate your life. I enjoyed reading the guided meditations. The one aspect I disliked about this book, however, would be the examples it used. They were rather surface-level, distracting, and unhelpful.

[Mary · Rating 4 out of 5]

Would recommend for beginners who have no previous experience in tuning in to body signals and body cues. Very good guidance for exploring how one can actively assist oneself in attending to good health and peace of mind. No fancy equipment or membership needed!

[Holly Wood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent book on tuning into the body trusting the body allowing the body to work for you
We are humanbeings disconnect from our bodies and emotions so it was nice to tap back in feeling all my emotions and their many expressions

[Raychel · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty ‘meh’ for me. Lots of the same idea reappeared over and over. There were some good things/practices but overall I was underwhelmed.

[Jamie Armstrong · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is a personal journey.

[Laura · Rating 3 out of 5]

Had some good tidbits for getting more aware of my body and assessing my relationship to it. Kind of repetitive and hit/miss though.

[Julie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book gave me so much confidence in listening and trusting my own body, working on creating a kind and loving relationship to it. Unfortunately I thought the book took ages to read.

[Katie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a bit repetitive and out-there by the later chapters (once she started talking about ESP I was pretty much done), but it had some good reminders about being mindful of and caring for one’s body, which is especially helpful dealing with a chronic illness.