Customer Reviews

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

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1 star:		(2)

 

 

"All your thoughts and feelings get translated into chemicals that fire off throughout your body, altering the chemical composition and behavior of your cells." ~ Deb Shapiro

If you have ever wondered how emotions affect the body, then "Your Body Speaks Your Mind" is an excellent place to start. Not only will you be able to understand your symptoms, you will also know how to eradicate them. This book contains many answers, especially to the following questions:

How do neuropeptides carry information from the mind to the body?
Do all diseases have their origin in the mind?
How do unresolved emotions affect your health?
Why are certain feelings linked to specific body parts?
What are the specific steps you can take to heal the body with your mind?

Deb Shapiro makes an interesting connection between love and health. She also shows how creative visualization and writing in a journal can help to take away symptoms of illness. By giving up negative emotions you can literally heal the body from the inside out. This book then becomes most useful as you make the connections and start the healing process.

"70 percent of patient visits to the doctor are for stress-related illnesses." ~ pg. 5

Some of the topics in this book include: Insomnia, Addiction, Nervous Breakdowns, Depression, Anxiety, Skin Conditions, Infertility, Menopause, The Digestive System, Eating Disorders and Heart Issues.

A CD is included with this book and contains visualization practices. I can recommend this book very highly and think it would make a perfect addition to any health library.

~The Rebecca Review

I am an energy medicine practitioner, and I use this book frequently to support my clients in making the changes in their beliefs that support improvements in their health. The information is an excellent partner to Louise Hay's "Heal Your Body" (or her larger book "You Can Heal Your Life".) My perspective is that our beliefs affect our emotions in somewhat predictable ways; our emotions affect our biochemistry in some predictable ways; our biochemistry determines our physical health. The beliefs that are negatively impacting our physical health are often hard to unearth, and this book is extremely useful in offering possible starting points to consider.

This book clearly and concisely explains the emotional and spiritual underpinnings for many physical dis eases. Rather than relying solely on conventional drug and western treatment methods, it helps the reader understand the deeper relationship of holistic approaches to healing - not just curing.

Deb Shapiro is a master in teaching us how to listen to what our bodies are trying to tell us through pain and disease. The enclosed CD - new with this edition - helps make the lessons contained in the book even more personal!

This is a book with an additional audio CD that describes a practical way to learn the language of your body so you can understand how your thoughts and feelings directly affect your physical health. It also includes a cross-referenced index of symptomatic illnesses and the emotional imbalances they symbolize. The CD has creative visualization and meditation techniques on to enhance your ability to listen to, communicate with, and heal your body, and more. More reviews at AudioColumn.com

I expected more from this book, and was disappointed (which is why I'm returning the item to the store).

The author begins by giving an overview of the chakra system. An overview that is completely inaccurate according to ancient and existing information. The first chakra, for example, has never been related to "finance" in any way, yet the author managed to make that connection. In fact, all of the information in this book seems to have been grossly altered to give it a "new" feel.

The connections between mental/emotional issues and physical problems are the same old 1960's brochure material. If you grind your teeth, the author asks what you're angry about. If you're constipated, the author wants to know what you're holding onto.

I don't know if the author was trying to re-write old bodymind material, or address the energy system. She seems to be attempting to do both in this book, but she doesn't do it well.

The biggest disappointment comes when you discover there are no "answers" in this book. No suggestions about how to deal with psychosomatic illness. The dozens of other bodymind books I've read have given thoughts about how to address physical problems, but all Deb Shapiro seems to do is ask questions.

If you want information about the mind/body connection, there are many books superior to this one.

Now in a revised and updated edition, Your Body Speaks Your Mind: Decoding The Emotional. Psychological, And Spiritual Messages That Underlie Illness by bodymind therapy and meditation instructor of 20 years' experience Deb Shapiro is a guide to better understanding how to read and understand one's own bodily symptoms in order to increase one's own potential for healthcare and healing. Chapters discuss how physical health, feelings and thoughts are linked to specific body parts, and how to become aware of the body's rhythms and supplement both the body's healing with the mind and the mind's healing with the body. New to the revised edition, an accompanying audio CD includes two previously unreleased guided visualization practices to aid in experiencing and learning the techniques in Your Body Speaks Your Mind.

For example, she says ME (CFS) is characterized (and caused, I guess) by feeling unmotivated and by focusing on oneself too much. These are just misinterpretations: one of the main ways to differentiate ME from depression is that people with ME express that they desperately want to get back out there in life to enjoy their old activities, but depressed people do not have any interest or motivation in engaging in life. People with ME may seem to focus too much on their bodies and problems, if and only if, one first assumes that their problems and somatic disease are not bad enough to warrant such attention, but this is not the case. (she also says it lasts weeks to years; it actually lasts from 6 months to decades/a lifetime. This makes sense in light of all the retrovirus findings in ME since 1986 that CDC has tried to cover up).
Similarly AIDS is supposed to be due to inability to express emotions. She cites gays as having high rates of AIDS and being guarded emotionally because of the judgment of society. Well, AIDS affects gays more often for reasons other than that they have trouble expressing emotions, obviously. Additionally, having a stigmatizing disease like AIDS will make one emotionally guarded.
Disease and emotions certainly have connections, but over-conflating them aids the cause of people who try to deny physical pathology in such disabling diseases as ME.

With this book, Deb Shapiro, will assist you with taking charge of your health and healing by listening and paying attention to what your body is trying to tell you from head to toe, inside and out. The premise is that all thoughts, feelings, emotions, memories, aches, pains and illnesses, are hidden messages available for you to decipher.

Your Body Speaks Your Mind: Decoding the Emotional, Psychological, and Spiritual Messages That Underline Illness, sets out practical advice in an easy to read format. I read the whole book from beginning to end the first time round, however, using it regularly, I often return to this book by dipping into just the section which matches my current ailment (be it a cold, sore throat or aching muscles, for example). Putting symptoms into words has never been easier! I also love the idea that healing comes through appreciation and gratitude rather than through resistance.

In addition, there is a CD with includes an Introduction, Talking With Yourself, and The Body Mind Appreciation meditations, which encourage positive thinking and affirmations to teach self love, no matter what you have (or may think you have) wrong with your body in terms of both your physical and psychological being. Used with the BodyMind Review (Pg 77) and BodyMind Writing (Pg 78) the whole package ensures a deep awareness and gratitude for every part of your body, even those parts that may be hurting you. This book is already a best seller here in England, along side many of Deb Shapiro's other books, which promote healing yourself and others. She is a popular inspirational author, and I have to say I am already a fan of her healing methods. Comes highly recommended with Sassy's Seal of Approval!

Sassy Brit
Alternative-[...]
June 2007

This book is 100% as far as telling you what is the problem with our bodies. Tried different family members and each explanation was 100% with each person. Everyone should have this book it is awesome!!!!

I really enjoy this book on a continuous basis when another symptom comes up I refer to the book. very valuable indeed!