Your Body Speaks Your Mind: Decoding the Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Messages That Underlie Illness

This book and related texts on the topic should be required reading for any medical or health practitioner! Deb Shapiro has been teaching bodymind therapy and meditation with her husband Ed for 25 years. She describes the premise of her book: "By learning the body's language of symptoms, you will soon discover that there is an extraordinarily intimate two-way communication going on that affects both your physical state and your mental and emotional health." Your Body Speaks Your Mind goes on to detail the body parts, some common diseases, disorders, and issues for each body part, and outlines their possible psychological and emotional connections.I appreciated Shapiro's overall acknowledgement about illness in the opening pages. She writes, "Illness is real. Accidents happen. Medicine can help." Shapiro continues, "I am not saying that by understanding the bodymind relationship you will be able to cure all your physical difficulties. What I am saying is that such an understanding adds an essential, and invariably overlooked, component to your healing process."To strengthen and clarify her bodymind concepts, Shapiro cites research studies, quotes medical and psychiatric professionals, and offers countless personal stories.Shapiro presents various avenues of self-study and healing, including mindfulness, meditation, writing and personal dialogue, affirmations, creative visualization, and imagery. I was particularly glad to see pranayama and the chakra system explored as tools for bodymind awareness. Throughout the book, she utilizes these avenues by offering bodymind dialogue questions, exercises, meditation practice ideas, imagery and journaling explorations, and affirmation examples. For instance, Shapiro describes general shoulder pain as meaning "you may be carrying too much [emotional/stress baggage] on your own." To deepen understanding with shoulder pain, she encourages these questions: "Have you been carrying other people's problems for too long? Is there something or someone you need to put down?"A wonderful CD accompanied this book that includes two guided visualization/meditation practices that can assist and encourage the bodymind awareness practice.I highly recommend this book to anyone who is healing something, helping someone heal, or wanting a deeper and more mindful self-understanding. (So I'm pretty sure that is everyone!) For more bodymind resources, check out Deb and Ed Shapiro's website, as well as Ed and Deb's blog at the Huffington Post.

I got it in the mail today and within 3 hours bought one for a friend. I was thinking at first that the author stole this idea from Dr. Sarno so I was a bit skeptical when this was recommended to me by someone who I was explaining Dr. Sarno too, but the author gives credit in the back pain section to Dr. Sarno. I believe he should have received a lot more since in his book from the 1980's he references how it's not just about the back and "TMS" can and is most likely the cause of pretty much every injury or illness. But I guess TMS can be looked at a little differently than the way Deb Shapiro explains the reasons for symptoms in her book. And the "coffee table" style of the second half of the book makes it a fun and quick reference guide. I haven't read the whole thing yet but I did read a lot and looked up a lot of symptoms I have and loved ones have and they are all so dead on that it's not even funny. The truth is, I would be dead if it weren't for discovering the mind-body connection a couple years ago. I still have some work to do thanks to the doctors loading me with insane amounts of opiates through my excruciating pain but I went from the depths of hell to a whole new lease on life due to Dr. Sarno, mindfulness training and books like this one. I know I needed to go through what I went through to get here. I would have preferred maybe just a letter in the mail or something, but I wouldn't have paid attention. I needed to get knocked down hard to really know how to get up again. Good job Deb!

very interesting information and meditation exercises. In 3 CDs, she goes over a general explanation on body, emotional / mind relationship then goes into the body parts, even bones and fluids. Furthermore, she provides information on body issues related to the right or left side of the body, what they could mean and what to do to heal.I was afraid that the voice of the author could be annoying but I was greatly surprise! She has a nice voice (not "baby / new age voice" type of voice where there is an artificial "softness" but good) and pleasant accent. It does not have an annoying music background either. So, it is clear, nice and professionally done, with lot of respect for the audience. Obviously, these two comments are very personal because some people may not be annoyed with voices and even like the background music in a presentation, etc.I got the CD because it has a CD with meditation and exercises. Because the CDs was good, I will get the book. Apparently the book has a additional info with charts and graphs.

One of my most treasured books, and I have thousands of books. It explains how your mind affects your body, your wellbeing, how your mind can make you sick. I truly believe it. Happy people don't get sick. Your thoughts and your feelings make you sick (or healthy).Often when I hear about somebody being sick and I kind of know his/her personality I check it in the book - and there it is - their personality matches the sickness.I can't be grateful enough for book like that. If only more people read it and tried to correct their thoughts and behavior, many of them wouldn't even need a doctor...Of course the hardest part is to change your thoughts and behavior, for example what if you know that you have arthritis because you are overly criticizing, judgmental, bitter, controlling, resentful? (I am simplifying). Will you change your personality? Probably not...But - if you did - the chances are that your arthritis would lessen. Anyway - wonderful book, thank you so much for writing it, it can truly change people's lives. (But only those who wants to change).