The Messages in Your Physical Pain: 8 Books to Better Understand Them

1. The Body Keeps the Score by Bessel van der Kolk

Bessel van der Kolk was responsible for getting PTSD into the DSM in 1980. Before that, PTSD wasn't recognized as a psychiatric disorder. This book is all about how the body stores trauma and stress, and especially important, how the body can release trauma so that we feel better. Traumas may include one time incidents such as a bomb explosion (such as military members may experience) or repeated stress such as growing up in a home with physical or emotional abuse or neglect.

2. The Body Never Lies by Alice Miller

I love how ANGRY Alice Miller is in this book. It feels so needed. She's angry about the patriarchy and authoritarian parenting. She tells stories of characters who were never acknowledged as existing by their caregivers and suffered greatly in their bodies with eating disorders and other physical pain.

After reading this book I felt angry too! Why DO we let child abuse be so prevalent? What CAN'T we talk about it more? After reading this and her other more famous The Drama of the Gifted Child I became convinced that child abuse is the biggest health epidemic no one is talking about.

3. Eastern Body Western Mind by Anodea Judith

This one is so good!! It was my first purchase from this list because it's more of a spiritual book and I was just not ready for the hard-hitting science yet. This book awakened me to what my body posture was saying about me. There are illustrations of different body postures and parallels are drawn with the different stages of human development. Any trauma or neglect in these stages and our bodies hold on to that and form specific shapes.

This book has helped me read others' body language much better. We can see people's stories in their bodies if we pay attention.

4. The Pocket Guide to the Polyvagal Theory by Stephen Porges

This one is for the advanced reader. It's physiologically technical but also accessible for any reader with the interest. Porges delves into exactly how the nervous system responds to triggers that send us into fight/flight/freeze. His theory says we have not paid near enough attention on the freeze part of the sympathetic response. If you want the science on stress and body-- what are the exact mechanisms whereby the body may develop chronic pain as a result of sympathetic nervous system hyperactivity, this book explains it.

5. Not Nice by Aziz Gazipura

This book is about setting boundaries and taking up more metaphorical space in our lives. It's self-help. He does an excellent job of connecting physical pain such as back pain or foot pain or any other chronic pain as being directly a result of our ignoring our "shadow side," or our dark emotions such as anger and fear. He gives clear instructions to correct this so we can acknowledge our true feelings and restore harmony in the body. 

This book has been great for noticing my body and being able to say to myself, "what feelings am I ignoring that are trying to get my attention?"

6. Trauma and Memory by Peter Levine

I love the examples in the book of his helping clients release trauma stored in the body. He has an example of a soldier who had a facial tick and always looking to one side. Levine guessed correctly that that's where the explosion had happened. He did some practices to help the soldier feel safe and soon the facial tick went away. Lot's of other good examples too!

7. What Every Body is Saying by Joe Novarro

This book was so useful for understanding body language! For example when people raise their eyebrows at each other this is a warm hello. I didn't realize this. When someone puts a hand to their neck, it's a protective act: they probably don't feel comfortable. Also, watch people's feet! If you're talking to someone, you can tell if they want to stay in the conversation with you if their feet are pointing toward you. If their feet are pointing away you might ask, "are you in a hurry?"

8. The Deepest Well by Nadine Burke Harris

This book specifically focuses on how stress impacts child physiological development. She cites an case from her medical practice of a young boy who stopped growing. Increaded levels of cortisol from a stressful abusive event at home were the culprit. She's part of the solution though! She integrates mental health with her primary care practice, referring parents and children to therapists to resolve the negative home experiences for improved physical health.