Body Aware: Rediscover Your Mind-Body Connection, Stop Feeling Stuck, and Improve Your Mental Health with Simple Movement Practices Paperback – August 9, 2022

amazing read, shares so many somatic tips that anyone can apply on a day-to-day basis

Horthall's book is an excellent read for anyone with a body! She gives insightful details and prescriptions for movement exercises to help you get back into your body. We often think of our emotional and mental issues as only staying in our head, but she clearly and thoroughly explains how we can access our mind through our bodies. Highly suggest for anyone, but especially for those working in the areas of dance, dance therapy, movement therapy, acting, and any kind of functional movement. Bravo!

Great book about the body-mind connection!! The author covers so much about movement and why it’s important for healing in all aspects! Def worth the read!

Very easy read. Wonderful content for the general public as well as for professionals in the health, and mental health industries.

In Body Aware, counselor and dance/movement therapist Erica Hornthal invites you to explore how all of the ways in which you move affect your mental and emotional wellbeing.Some aspects of the book worked better for me than others, and I think the author overpromises and underdelivers, but your mileage may vary. I didn’t feel like the author provided sufficient instruction for me to be able to locate where I hold my emotions and how to work with them skillfully, but I did find some of her suggested exercises helpful. I particularly liked her encouragement to be more mindful of all of the countless ways we move and to explore new ways of moving as a means of self-discovery, personal expression, and cultivating resilience.The book really shines when the author shares stories from her work with clients. Although it’s certainly useful as self-help, I think this book would be particularly valuable for anyone working with people who have difficulty communicating verbally, including young children and those with conditions such as dementia or autism.Thanks to the publisher, North Atlantic Books, for providing me with an ARC through NetGalley that I volunteered to review.

Cried because it’s so relatable

I received this book free in a Goodreads giveaway and it was a perfect fit!WARNING: this book will start impacting you at chapter 1 (see below for my personal experience)! Erica writes in a way that immediately changes your perception and enhances your body awareness that goes much deeper than just noticing sensations. We can’t connect to our emotions or change out mindset until we understand our personal body’s vocabulary. “The body holds answers to questions that the mind doesn’t even know how to ask all you have to do is listen.”Erica includes “body aware breaks” throughout each chapter which really helped me to pause & slow down my urge to consume this information. Each chapter also includes takeaways to summarize main points. I was truly impressed with the amount of practical tips this book provides. This is not a book that you just read once but one that can & should be revisited.If you are somebody like me (nonfiction junkie) who enjoys reading books on healing, trauma, and the body than this MUST be added to your list. I feel like this book really puts into practice and gives the reader techniques that pair nicely with, “The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma by Bessel van der Kolk”*Some examples of changes I noticed in myself initially were:-my reading slowed down & I enjoyed how I felt when choosing quality over quantity.-I began to notice how poor positioning had an effect on my mood.-I became aware of how rushed I am during my daily routine for no reason. When I Practiced slowing down my movements my mood improved & mind settled (especially before bed).-I am starting to listen to my body more & implementing more movement breaks when my energy runs low or focus needs a shift.

Hornthal's approach to movement is to see it as a path to unlocking mental and spiritual limitations. As a long-time practitioner of yoga, I not only relate to her hypothesis, I see it tangibly in my lived experience. Anyone who has found themselves moved to tears after a yoga practice or after dancing ecstatically or heck, even after lifting weights, knows that emotion is deeply entwined with the liberation we cultivate in the body through embracing unencumbered movement and allowing movement (not prescribed exercise!) to be a transcendent experience. She wants us to see movement was a way out of black and white thinking and as a way to connect with our deepest selves. I especially love that she specifically discusses the three planes (vertical, horizontal, sagittal) and discusses the spiritual and mental implication of movement in each plane. This is a really lovely book if you are a movement practitioner, a yoga enthusiast, or just someone who fully recognizes that movement is the path toward a better relationship with yourself. Or perhaps it's also a book for someone who does not yet realize that, but wants to! :)