Bodymind

This book shows how our thoughts and emotions (our energies) get stuck in certain parts of the body. Starting from early childhood, going to adulthood, we can look at our bodies and see what was going on then and now and give us an area to work with to correct anything from illess to phobias. I enjoyed reading it.

I picked this book up at a bookstore about 12 years ago but did not read it until I began acupuncture for a knee problem. I have always been interested in how the body works and why it is the way it is; this book explains so much about the body. Whenever something physically wrong happens to me or my family I refer to this book to see what we can do to change our behaviors to create a healthier bodymind.

As an integrative therapist, I see these connections all the time. The chakra/thought/physical/emotional connections in what we hold and what then holds us. This book is a wonderful read, easy and engrossing with great information about the authors' own experience. I thoroughly recommend it to my students and to those interested in learning more about how the bodymind connection works in order to look deeper at who they are and are becoming.

I purchased the mass-market edition of this book about 20 years ago (it is copyrighted 1977), but I never got around to reading it. I did start in on it and I always remembered the story that he starts the book with. The author (a psychologist and gerontologist)is standing naked before a group of people in some type of encounter session and after having him walk around a bit, a Dr. John Pierrakos proceeds to tell him all kinds of things about himself that Pierrakos should not have been able to know. He was able to read all kinds of things about a person just by observing the patterns of tension in their body. More recently I picked up a new copy and read the whole book. I have read a lot on the subjects of yoga, meditation, bodywork, physical fitness, psychology, etc. and this is one of the most interesting books I have come across. The main point is that our minds and bodies can't really be separated. Our bodies can store tension. This can be caused by physical, emotional, mental or spiritual factors and usually once the tension goes in it doesn't come out (and can cause all kinds of physical problems). This is something I know a lot about, as I have spent decades working to understand and release my own deep physical tension. Currently I have been practicing yoga (ashtanga yoga) and this is the best thing I have found yet. There are many other approaches. But I find that very few people who should understand physical tension (yoga teachers, doctors, bodyworkers, even some Rolfers) really do understand the subject.And I have never found this subject to be explained clearly anywhere - except in this book. The chapters are organized around the sections of the body and are full of stories and examples from the author's experiences in working on himself and working with others. He integrates ideas from Ida Rolf, Moshe Feldenkrais, Fritz Perls, Wilhelm Reich and many other pioneers. After reading the book, I was at first sad that the author has not continued to write on this topic, but then I realized that he has already written the definitive book on the subject. And although it covers a lot of deep territory the book is very easy to read. Definitely a classic. Most highly recommended.