This Is Body Grief: Making Peace with the Loss That Comes with Living in a Body
- 256pages
- 9 heures de lecture
Read by the author, Jayne Mattingly, this guide offers insights on living harmoniously with your ever-changing body. Many of us have felt our bodies let us down—whether due to aging, illness, or dissatisfaction with our appearance. In this work, Mattingly, a disability advocate and recovery expert, presents a transformative approach to mourning and embracing our bodies. She emphasizes that Body Grief, like all grief, cannot be simply overcome but must be experienced in its complexity. By challenging the notion that our bodies are 'against us,' she introduces compassionate strategies for coping with physical changes. Mattingly outlines the seven stages of Body Grief, including dismissal, shock, self-blame, hopelessness, hope, and ultimately, body trust. She encourages readers to honor each emotion as it arises. Through personal anecdotes and stories from others navigating Body Grief, she shares her own journey as a newly-disabled woman, detailing experiences from her life-altering diagnosis to using a rollator on her wedding day and accepting a hysterectomy in her 30s. Mattingly illustrates that while healing is not a straightforward path, it begins with trust and collaboration with our bodies.