Five Essential Reads for Tuning Into Your Body's Wisdom
Learning to listen to your body’s wisdom is critically important in healing your relationship with food and your body.
Why, may you ask?
Listening to your body’s messages allows you to tune into YOUR unique needs in all areas (not just the need for physical things like food, water, rest, etc., but for other things too). Subtle variations in our energy levels, changes to our heart rate, vibrations in areas of the body, aches, pains, tenderness, stiffness, and other sensations can tune us into our state of being.
The more adept we become at recognizing these cues and what they indicate, the better we’re able to take care of our needs. This includes the need for food. When we nourish all of our hungers, our relationship to our body can (and will) shift.
We have all the wisdom we need to decide the best course of action for ourselves. All we need to do is listen to and learn from our bodies. Tuning into our body’s wisdom can be overlooked during treatment for disordered eating and eating disorders. In my opinion, this is the most critical piece in healing one’s relationship with food and body.
In that spirit, here are five essential reads for helping us learn how to tune into our body’s wisdom:
Women Who Run with the Wolves: Myths and Stories of the Wild Woman Archetype by Clarissa Pinkola Estes. This beautifully written masterpiece imparts lessons about how to connect with our deep needs/hungers through the retelling and expansion of classic mythology and fairy tales. A must read!
Stalking Wild Psoas: Embodying Your Core Intelligence by Liz Koch. In this book of nine essays, the author dismantles traditional thinking about the psoas muscle and the body, helping us to reimagine our somatic experiences as humans.
Intuitive Eating, 4th Edition: A Revolutionary Anti-Diet Approach by Evelyn Tribole and Elyse Resch. This classic book imparts a summary of the principles of an intuitive approach to food and movement.
Eat What You Love, Love What You Eat: A Mindful Eating Program to Break Your Eat-Repent-Repeat Cycle by Michelle May. In this book, Dr. May presents a mindful approach to learning food, hunger, and eating. This is a fantastic book if you’ve found yourself on and off diets and are looking for a mindful approach to food and eating.
Reclaiming Body Trust: A Path to Healing and Liberation by Hilary Kineavy & Dana Sturtevant. This wonderful book asks the reader to ponder how they may start to reconnect with feeling at home in their body.
Note: Each book contains a link an Amazon sales page for convenience only. I do not have any affiliation with these books and do not receive any compensation if you choose to purchase any of the books listed above.