Women's Intuition: Unlocking the Wisdom of Your Body [Paperback]

Paula M. Reeves (Author), Marion Woodman (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 1999

More than an old wives' tale, women's intuition is real, according to author Paula Reeves, a pioneer in the study of the biochemical relationship between mind and body. Because most women separate mind from body, many are not aware of what their intuition may be trying to tell them. In this guide, Reeves helps readers, through stories and practices, uncover the blocks preventing this singular channel of wisdom from informing their daily lives. Through years of study and practice, Reeves has developed her ground-breaking program of Spontaneous Contemplative Movement, an original, simple, and emancipating way of evoking body-based intuition. Readers can use Reeves's easy-to-learn approach to tap their own intuitive power.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Psychoneuroimmunologist Reeves guides women back to the knowing into which they were born through this thoughtful and thought-provoking treatise. With grace, compassion, and common sense, she tugs the lead of self-esteem encouraging the reader to follow her down a path toward greater self-wisdom. She explains that when we ignore "what matters most to us," that becomes "the matter with us." Then to make matters worse, because we're deaf to the voice of our embodied consciousness, we "cure" our symptoms and continue to dismiss our intuitive messages. Having greater control over our lives is ultimately what Reeves offers. "How vitally alive we would be if only we were able to develop as much confidence in what we feel and how that is moving us, as we do upon what we think and what that means to us," she exclaims. With a foreword by Marion Woodman, author of Addiction to Perfection, and an afterword by Belleruth Naparstek, author of Your Sixth Sense: Unlocking the Power of Your Intuition, this inspired lesson in self-love promises to change a woman's (or man's) life for the better. --P. Randall Cohan

From Library Journal

Although the title suggests that this book is for women only, Jungian therapist Reeves states up front that she believes that everyone has intuition and that we all have the capacity to tap into this seldom-recognized part of ourselves. To help us, she has developed Spontaneous Contemplative Movement (SCM), a "noninterpretative way to honor the integrity of the ongoing interactive relationship between consciousness and the unconscious in the body." Based on emotion, instinct, and imagination ("gut feeling"), SCM can be done by anyone. Reeves describes numerous real-life therapy sessions and exercises involving SCM, providing us with clear illustrations of how to connect with our bodies and emotions and hence achieve a deeper understanding of the self. She helps us through the difficult task of both rediscovering the intuitive parts of ourselves we have lost and trusting our intuitions to guide us through life. This challenging book will no doubt profoundly change some readers' lives.AMarija Sanderling, Rochester P.L., Wells, ME
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 250 pages
• Publisher: Conari Press (June 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1573241563
• ISBN-13: 978-1573241564
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #298,705 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Women's Intuition: Unlocking the Wisdom of the Body, April 14, 2002

By 

Cassandra Barnes "Cassandra" (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women's Intuition: Unlocking the Wisdom of Your Body (Paperback)

Paula M. Reeves, Ph.D. says intuition is "that sudden inexplicable insight that tells us we know something we had no idea we knew." She adds that "while it's true that everyone has intuition, not all of us have the same capacity to use it." She wrote Women's Intuition: Unlocking the Wisdom of the Body to help women learn to recognize and use their own intuition.

Dr. Reeves maintains a private practice, as well as leads workshops in psychology and relationships between the mind and the immune system. She has developed a technique called "Spontaneous Contemplative Movement" (SCM), which allows women to hear the messages their bodies have for them. SCM, done in a controlled environment, involves letting what is deep in the mind tell the body how to move, and then interpreting those movements.

She says that intuition is based in our bodies and adds that "body wisdom contains the essential truths about what matters most to a woman and ultimately to the human race as a whole. " Our bodies are constantly sending us signals, but we've forgotten how to read them.

Dr. Reeves describes how our bodies speak to us, what those messages mean in general, and how to interpret what they mean to us as individuals. She provides specific instructions for SCM. Essentially, it's a very simple process which involves paying attention to your breathing, allowing your body to move, and then contemplating the movements. She also includes chapters on soul talk, learning to love our bodies, and trusting our intuition. She finishes with a discussion of the role of intuition in healing.

Dr. Reeves also provides 13 exercises for developing and using your intuition.

She says that "it is my deep desire that through [her book], you will learn to trust your body's signals and learn to read them before they become symptoms of illness or distress." Readers will find that Women's Intuition contains the information they need to learn to recognize, trust, and interpret the messages their bodies are sending them.

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Embodied Exploration, March 13, 2000

By 

Lee Lawson (California) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women's Intuition: Unlocking the Wisdom of Your Body (Paperback)

I have long been interested in the study of the connections of body, mind, intuition and consciousness and have found most books on the subject to be fairly abstract and intellectual. This book by Paula Reeves gives very practical keys for personal exploration of the inner realms where physicality and consciousness meet and co-create our experience. She gives us many ways to explore "bodymind", not just appreciate the concept.

This guidance is of equal value for men and women.

The book is beautifully and sensitivly written, and was a great pleasure to read.

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Bridging Body and Soul, March 20, 2000

By 

virginia graham (Ormond Beach, Florida) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Women's Intuition: Unlocking the Wisdom of Your Body (Paperback)

Paula Reeves' book is a map, a language, and encouragement that trusting body wisdom is a golden prize. I am a recovering daughter of the patriarchy who accepted my body as an inconvenient, fallible vehicle to get me to the library. I assiduously treated the symptoms of tension headaches for 30 years, feeling sabotaged and inept. Now I see that these headaches were like nightmares: wake-up calls to pay attention to my intuition and live congruently.Learning to listen rather than to override my "gut feelings" seems now an act of self-respect, not a cop-out. My own intuitive life force, through my body, wants to express itself to survive, create and connect on an honest level. Paula's lectures, workshops and book have rewarded me by being grounded in scholarship while noting the relationship between personal wisdom and one's body. This book unites what I'd thought paradoxical: body and soul. Reeves weaves "silvery webbed bridges of spiritual steel across the divide between consciousness and instinct..." (p. 110) Her writing is fine and rich with intelligence, practicality and wisdom. So here we are: embodied, ensouled, incarnated, intuitive.Thank you, Paula.