INNER HEALING | BOOKS | MIND & BODY CONNECTION

Great Books to Connect Mind and Body and Improve Your Life

My go-to for inner healing

Now that I’m officially retired, it is time to devote more time to doing inner work.

Throughout my life, inner healing has been a focus but often cast aside in order to make a living and raise a family.

This last phase of my life is for me.

After all, I am the one I spend the most time with. It seems vital to like myself and be content with the person I am.

With these thoughts and goals in mind, I am sharing with you the books I’m using on this journey, in case you might be interested in exploring some inner work on your own.

First on my list is Self-Therapy: A Step-by-Step Guide to Creating Wholeness Using IFS, A Cutting-Edge Psychotherapy, 3rd Edition by Jay Earley

Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) deals with our various parts.

Have you ever said, “A part of me feels this way and another part feels another way?” Those are two parts of yourself, also known as sub-personalities.

I first worked with my sub-personalities in the early 1990s while in therapy. That work changed my life for the better and got me to where I am now. A place where I feel much more comfortable and capable of going deeper.

What I like about this book is that it guides you through the process and equips you with the tools to become self-empowered.

Understand your psyche in a clear and comprehensive way, and resolve deep-seated emotional issues. Self-Therapy makes the power of a cutting-edge psychotherapy approach accessible to everyone. Internal Family Systems Therapy (IFS) has been spreading rapidly across the country and the world. It is incredibly effective on a wide variety of life issues, such as self-esteem, procrastination, depression, and relationship issues. IFS is also user-friendly; it helps you to comprehend the complexity of your psyche. Dr. Earley shows how IFS is a complete method for psychological healing that you can use on your own.Self-Therapy is also helpful for therapists because it presents the IFS model in such detail that it is a manual for the method. — source

Much, if not all, of inner work revolves around our shadow.

Shadow work is about uncovering those parts of ourselves we don’t like or want to deal with. These are the parts that make up our shadow self and are the essence of who we really are.

Just like Yin and Yang, these two sides need to become balanced.

The Shadow Work Workbook: A Life-Changing Guide to Integrate Your Shadow Self, Release Emotional Blocks and Heal Your Inner Child by Rachel Porter

You can also access a free online guide to Jungian Shadow Work: How to Get to Know and Integrate Your Dark Side.

I bought this next book after seeing a psychologist regarding a repetitive workplace injury that developed into chronic pain/fibromyalgia. She told me there is the belief that our physical pain is a manifestation of our emotional pain.

I clearly saw how my emotional pain came out as physical pain.

This book is a must-have for understanding the connection between thoughts, beliefs and illness. More and more science is confirming the importance of the mind/ body connection.

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

The next book I found years ago in a used bookstore.

Or should I say, the right book found me.

I’ve worked with some exercises and found them insightful and beneficial.

Artists have always known intuitively what science is just beginning to discover: that creating a visual image through any medium can produce physical and emotional benefits for both the creator as well as those who view it. Most important, you don’t need to think of yourself as an artist or even believe you have any “talent” to tap into the healing powers of art.

The lessons in the book teach you how to connect with negative, painful, and even repressed emotions, and to express them through drawings or other creative forms. Doing so enables the release of feelings through the creative process and helps your body to fight off disease and heal emotional wounds.

Art and Healing: Using Expressive Art to Heal Your Body, Mind, and Spirit by Barbara Ganim.

And of course, we should never be all work and no play.

This next book is for relaxing and another approach with its easy step-by-step instructions. For anyone from age 8 to 108.

As a child, I loved coloring books and this takes the pleasure I found there to a whole new level.

In this book, you’ll find 50 pages of original designs, providing you with the shapes — circles, squares, and triangles — that are the foundations of your neurographic art.

Your Step-by-Step Neurographic Art Therapy: 50 Pages of Shape Outlines Which Provide the Foundation for Unique Neuro Art Creations by Karleen Tauszik

I sum up what I believe to be the best approach to aging.

Don’t be afraid to explore new things, especially parts of yourself. If need be, change your way of thinking.

Work on improving mind, body, and spirit. Never stop learning.

Approach the future with the wonder of a child.

And as Bob Dylan said, “If you’re not busy being born, you’re busy dying.” Dylan

Barbara Carter — Artist and writer with a focus on healing from childhood trauma, alcohol addiction, and living her best authentic life.