Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing (Newly Updated and Revised 5th Edition)
1184Women's Bodies, Women's Wisdom: Creating Physical and Emotional Health and Healing (Newly Updated and Revised 5th Edition)
1184Paperback(Revised)
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Overview
“A masterpiece for every woman who has an interest in her body, her mind, and her soul.”—Caroline Myss, Ph.D., author of Anatomy of the Spirit
“I recommend Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom to all women and also to all men who want to understand and nourish the women in their lives.”—Deepak Chopra, M.D., author of Ageless Body, Timeless Mind
Emphasizing the body’s innate wisdom and ability to heal, Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom covers the entire range of women’s health—from the first menstrual period through menopause. It includes updated information on pregnancy, labor, and birth, sexuality, nutrition, hormone replacement therapy, treating fibroids, avoiding hysterectomy, and maintaining breast and menstrual health.
Fully revised and updated to include the very latest treatment innovations and research data, and reflecting today’s woman’s proactive involvement in her own health care, this important new edition will help women everywhere enjoy vibrant health with far fewer medical interventions. Filled with dramatic case histories, Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom is contemporary medicine at its best, combining new technologies with natural remedies and the miraculous healing powers within the body itself.
Product Details
ISBN-13: | 9780525486114 |
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Publisher: | Random House Publishing Group |
Publication date: | 05/12/2020 |
Edition description: | Revised |
Pages: | 1184 |
Sales rank: | 98,972 |
Product dimensions: | 6.10(w) x 9.10(h) x 2.10(d) |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
Introduction to the Fifth Edition
The Medicine of Empowerment
The female body was designed by our Creator to be a source of pleasure, fertility, movement, strength, and well-being. Our bodies connect us with the moon, the tides, and the seasons. They are the temples within which our souls dwell and experience life on earth. And they are profoundly impacted first and foremost by our beliefs about what is possible, by the culture in which we live, and then by the behaviors that stem from these beliefs. If you believe that it is a woman’s lot in life to suffer and sacrifice, this will greatly influence your well-being. On the other hand, if you cherish your body and care for it well, you’ll have the tools to be healthy. Each and every one of us has the capacity to flourish within a physical body. I suspected this when I wrote the first edition of Women’s Bodies, Women’s Wisdom in the early 1990s. Now, almost thirty years later, I have proved it to myself not only personally but also in the thousands of lives I have had the privilege to influence. And there is more research than ever before proving the unity of mind, body, and spirit. More than that, we now know how to take this research and apply it to our own lives to influence our health.
We, the human race, have now come to a crossroads, a turning point, when old, unsustainable ideas and behaviors are breaking down all over the planet. For example, the revelations about the Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein and his thirty-plus years of sexual abuse of countless women struck a deep chord within me when the news erupted. Not because this kind of abuse of power was anything new—I have witnessed the health effects of this for decades—but because, for the very first time in my lifetime, our society was no longer protecting a rich and powerful sexual predator, and neither was his wife or the mainstream media. It turned out that this was just the beginning of a huge cultural shift that we’ve been building toward for decades. Following the Weinstein scandal, countless other women and men came forth with their own stories of sexual abuse. And the careers of many famous and powerful men—cultural icons, really—ended overnight. I was stunned. How and why did this happen? Because women have finally become strong enough and empowered enough collectively to risk telling the truth. And instead of backing down, we are rising in support. The tide is really turning. And now it needs to turn when it comes to our healthcare.
Back in the 1980s, when I was starting out in my medical practice, I saw the toll that silence and abuse take on women’s bodies. I noticed that many women with conditions such as chronic pelvic pain had been sexually abused. My colleagues denied this and told me my patients were “crazy” and that they only saw “normal” women. I persisted in telling the truth. And it cost me, just as it has cost every whistleblower and rape victim who has ever come forward and rocked the boat, because up until now, our society has been ruled by a belief system known as patriarchy—the rule of the fathers. And those who have challenged it have often paid dearly.
But that is all changing. Quickly. My observations have now become mainstream, and we have the data to support them. Long ago, Sonia Johnson, author of From Housewife to Heretic, wrote, “Women are rising like yeast all over the planet.” And that yeast has just taken a quantum leap.
The current healthcare crisis is another example of this breakdown to breakthrough—an example with which I’m intimately familiar. You truly cannot create sustainable health through more prescription drugs, more disease screening, and more surgeries, all of which are the mainstay solutions of modern medicine. That’s why there is no need to fear the crumbling of the old medical establishment, for this crumbling opens a space for the creation of new, more sustainable, and healthier systems and ideas in all aspects of the human experience on earth, including how we handle the experience of living in a female body.
Over the past four decades, my experiences as an ob-gyn physician, mother, midlife woman, and now grandmother have led me to put forth a revolutionary new approach to women’s health and wellness that acknowledges the seamless unity of our bodies, minds, and spirits. Though this still isn’t obvious within mainstream medicine, it is now abundantly clear that a woman’s state of health is highly influenced by the culture in which she lives, her position within it, her experiences, and her day-to-day thoughts, beliefs, and behaviors.
It is possible to thrive in a female body instead of simply waiting for disease to happen. It boils down to this: Regardless of our individual circumstances, our pasts, or our ages, each of us has inner guidance available that we can tune in to in order to create vibrant health—now. Inner guidance is a second spiritual (and energetic) system that can override and influence physical reality. It is an innate intelligence that operates within us, one that we can learn to access in order to heal. It is the part of us that is capable of creating a spontaneous remission. We are born with this inner guidance, which comes in the form of the emotions and desires that lead us toward things (including thoughts) that feel good and are good for us, and away from things that feel bad and are bad for us. It is influenced by our conscious intent to be well. It’s that simple. We are hardwired to seek love, joy, fulfillment—and health. Though we’ve too often been talked out of our desires as children, I’ve learned that we can trust those feelings that make us want to get up in the morning. Our desires are the way that the healing life force comes through us and replenishes our bodies. They are what make life worth living. They make up our hopes and dreams. And they invariably hold the keys to healing not only our bodies but also our entire lives.
As a physician, I’ve seen time and time again how our inner guidance also comes in the form of bodily symptoms and illnesses—especially when we are living lives devoid of pleasure, joy, and hope. Our illnesses are designed to stop us in our tracks, make us rest, and bring our attention back to the things that are really important and that give our lives meaning and joy—aspects of life we often put on the back burner until “someday.”
The insights catalyzed by decades of medical practice as well as my own health problems challenged everything I learned in medical school and residency training about women’s health. Over the years, it became abundantly clear to me that premenstrual syndrome (PMS), pelvic pain, fibroid tumors, chronic vaginitis, breast problems, and menstrual cramps were related to the contexts of an individual woman’s life and her beliefs about herself and what she thought was possible in her life. All of these factors are associated with very real biochemical changes in our cells. Learning about their diets, work situations, and relationships often provided me with clues to the source of women’s distress—and, more important, what steps needed to be taken to relieve that distress. Over the years, I have learned to appreciate the thoughts, beliefs, and behavioral patterns behind medical conditions in ways that simply aren’t addressed in medical training. These insights are the missing link to optimal health on all levels.
As I have developed more sensitivity to these patterns of health and illness, I have come to the conclusion that without a commitment to looking at all aspects of our lives and accessing our power to change them, improving habits and diet alone is not enough to effect a permanent cure for conditions that have been present for a long time. I’ve worked with many women whose illnesses could not be ascribed simply to what they eat and could not be cured solely through medication or surgery. Following a special diet or running three miles a day won’t make a woman feel well if her health is being adversely influenced by a subconscious belief that she isn’t good enough, or that she is the wrong gender, or that it’s a woman’s lot in life to suffer. Or if she is living with a personality-disordered person who lacks empathy—individuals I refer to as energy vampires. If she has experienced incest and hasn’t allowed herself to feel the emotions that are often associated with that history, or if she was unwanted or abused as a child, then no prescription drugs exist that will heal that wound and the physical aftereffects that often result.
Table of Contents
List of Figures xv
List of Tables xvii
Acknowledgments xix
Introduction to the Fifth Edition: The Medicine of Empowerment xxi
Part 1 From External Control to Inner Guidance
1 The Patriarchal Myth: The Origin of the Mind/Body/Emotion Split 3
Our Cultural Inheritance
Patriarchy Results in Addiction
Fundamental Beliefs of the Dominator System
Reclaiming the Authority of Our Own Feelings
2 Feminine Intelligence and a New Mode of Healing 29
Energy Fields and Energy Systems
Understanding the Bodymind
Feminine Intelligence: How Thoughts Become Embodied
Beliefs Are Physical
Healing Versus Curing
3 Inner Guidance 56
Listening to Your Body and Its Needs
Emotional Cleansing: Healing from the Past
Dreams: A Doorway to the Unconscious
Intuition and Intuitive Guidance
How Inner Guidance Works
4 The Female Energy System 77
The Matter-Energy Continuum
Earth's Energy
The Chakras
The Lower Female Centers: Chakras One to Three
Other Chakra Issues
Part 2 The Anatomy of Women's Wisdom
5 The Menstrual Cycle 117
Our Cyclical Nature
Our Cultural Inheritance
Menstrual Cramps (Dysmenorrhea)
Premenstrual Syndrome (PMS)
Irregular Periods
Excessive Buildup of the Uterine Lining (Endometrial Hyperplasia, Cystic and Adenomatous Hyperplasia)
Dysfunctional Uterine Bleeding (DUB)
Heavy Periods (Menorrhagia)
Healing Our Menstrual History: Preparing Our Daughters
6 The Uterus 191
Our Cultural Inheritance
Energy Anatomy
Chronic Pelvic Pain
Endometriosis
Uterine Prolapse
Fibroid Tumors
7 The Ovaries 237
Anatomy
Ovarian Cysts
Polycystic Ovary Syndrome (PCOS)
Ovarian Cancer
8 Reclaiming the Erotic 268
We Are Sexual Beings
Our Cultural Inheritance
Reclaiming Our Erotic Selves
9 Vulva, Vagina, Cervix, and Lower Urinary Tract 315
Our Cultural Inheritance
Anatomy
Human Papilloma Virus (HPV)
Herpes
Cervicitis
Cervical Dysplasia (Abnormal Pap Tests)
Vaginal Health: What Is Normal?
Vaginitis
A Note on Sexually Transmitted Diseases
Chronic Vulvar Pain (Vulvodynia)
Lichen Sclerosus
Vaginal Cosmetic Surgery
Interstitial Cystitis (Painful Bladder Syndrome)
Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections
Stress Urinary Incontinence
10 Breasts 387
Our Cultural Inheritance
Anatomy
Breast Self-Exams
Benign Breast Symptoms: Breast Pain, Lumps, Cysts, and Nipple Discharge
Treatment for Benign Breast Symptoms
Mammography
Breast Cancer
Program to Promote Healthy Breast Tissue
Cosmetic Breast Surgery
11 Our Fertility 464
Abortion
Emergency Contraception: Abortion Prevention
Conscious Conception and Contraception
Transforming Infertility
Pregnancy Loss
Adoption
Fertility as Metaphor
12 Pregnancy and Birthing 533
The Transforming Power of Pregnancy
Our Cultural Inheritance: Pregnancy
Preventing Premature Birth
Preventing Preeclampsia
Turning a Breech Presentation
Our Cultural Inheritance: Labor and Delivery
Birth Technologies
Mothering the Mother: A Solution Whose Time Has Come
How to Decrease Your Risk for a Cesarean Section
My Personal Story
Turning Labor into Personal Power
13 Motherhood: Bonding with Your Baby 605
Fourth Trimester
Formula Versus Breast Milk
Mothering in a Dommator Culture: The Hardest Job in the World
14 Menopause 637
Menopause: A Crossroads
Our Cultural Inheritance
Creating Health During Menopause
Adrenal Function: What Every Woman Should Know
Kinds of Menopause
The Hormone Therapy Question
A Hormone Primer
Symptoms of Menopause
Hot Flashes
Vaginal Dryness, Irritation, and Thinning
Osteoporosis
Sexuality in Menopause
Thinning Hair
Mood Swings and Depression
Fuzzy Thinking
Long-Term Health Concerns
Alzheimer's Disease
Deciding on Menopausal Treatment
Self-Care During Menopause
Menopause as a New Beginning
Part 3 Women's Wisdom Program for Flourishing and Healing
15 Steps for Flourishing 713
Imagine Your Future: Change Your Consciousness, Change Your Cells
Step 1 Uncover and Update Your Legacy
Step 2 Sort Through Your Beliefs
Step 3 Respect and Release Your Emotions
Step 4 Learn to Listen to Your Body
Step 5 Learn to Respect Your Body
Step 6 Acknowledge a Higher Power or Inner Wisdom
Step 7 Reclaim the Fullness of Your Mind
Step 8 Get Help
Step 9 Work with Your Body
Step 10 Gather Information
Step 11 Forgive
Step 12 Actively Pursue Pleasure and Purpose
16 Getting the Most Out of Your Medical Care 796
Why You Must Take Responsibility for Your Healthcare
Choosing a Treatment: From Surgery to Acupuncture
Creating Health Through Surgery
17 Eat to Flourish 836
Creating Optimal Body Composition and Vibrant Health
The Wonders of Magnesium
Creating a Supplementation Program
Other Common Concerns
A Word About Smoking
Appreciate the Energy of Food
18 The Power of Movement 928
Our Cultural Inheritance
Benefits of Exercise
Exercise and Addiction
Exercise, Amenorrhea, and Bone Loss
Getting Started
19 Healing Ourselves, Healing Our World 954
Our Mothers: Our Cells
A Ritual of Reclaiming
Transforming Our Fear of Our Shaman Past
Our Dreams: Earth's Dreams
Making the World Safe for Women: Start with Yourself
Resources 979
Notes 1005
Index 1113