Scan barcode
A review by lory_enterenchanted
The Wisdom of Your Body: Finding Healing, Wholeness, and Connection Through Embodied Living by Hillary L. McBride
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
4.0
Lots of valuable information, and especially suggestions for practice. The very last section of "Additional Practices" is a gem.
I have a problem with one of McBride's central formulations, her insistence that "I am my body." There is a contradiction there, how can one own something with which one is identical? The possessive suggests two entities. And yet, we ARE one. Maybe it's like the mystery of the Trinity. I need to ponder this more, both what is true and useful and what is disquieting about the statement.
So whenever that notion comes in, I get uncomfortable. However, otherwise I agree with so much of what she presents. We have got to befriend and healthfully inhabit our bodies. Not doing that is causing most and perhaps all of the harm in our world, inwardly and outwardly. Here's a statement I underlined: "When we are feeling out of control in an area of our lives, experiencing pain or illness, or longing for connection with someone, it is easy to attack our bodies without realizing that our response is a defense against feeling something else that is painful." (250)
I can trace this pattern in my own life and would venture that it underlies not only self-harming behaviors and illnesses but the attack on other people's bodies and ways of living. Each one of us is trying to defend against painful feelings we don't want. Until we stop doing that, turn to the feelings and bring them into transformation (the chapter on "Feeling Feelings" speaks to this), peace will never come to our earth.
And so embodiment is not just a self-healing practice, but a peace practice, the only one, in my opinion, that has any hope of being effective. And so I'm very thankful for this book and any others that usefully explore the theme. This is the future!
I have a problem with one of McBride's central formulations, her insistence that "I am my body." There is a contradiction there, how can one own something with which one is identical? The possessive suggests two entities. And yet, we ARE one. Maybe it's like the mystery of the Trinity. I need to ponder this more, both what is true and useful and what is disquieting about the statement.
So whenever that notion comes in, I get uncomfortable. However, otherwise I agree with so much of what she presents. We have got to befriend and healthfully inhabit our bodies. Not doing that is causing most and perhaps all of the harm in our world, inwardly and outwardly. Here's a statement I underlined: "When we are feeling out of control in an area of our lives, experiencing pain or illness, or longing for connection with someone, it is easy to attack our bodies without realizing that our response is a defense against feeling something else that is painful." (250)
I can trace this pattern in my own life and would venture that it underlies not only self-harming behaviors and illnesses but the attack on other people's bodies and ways of living. Each one of us is trying to defend against painful feelings we don't want. Until we stop doing that, turn to the feelings and bring them into transformation (the chapter on "Feeling Feelings" speaks to this), peace will never come to our earth.
And so embodiment is not just a self-healing practice, but a peace practice, the only one, in my opinion, that has any hope of being effective. And so I'm very thankful for this book and any others that usefully explore the theme. This is the future!