Aging with grace!

A timely book for those of us who are reaching our later cycle in life. An exploration of the “process of how our body selves are created and shaped through relationships and the surrounding culture.” The idea that, “ the body—without which we are literally nothing, nobody—has been given such a minor role in human development for so long.” One sub heading was, The body in the shadows. An idea that haunts.
A startlingly clear concept that begets a cascade of thought.
Sands works in the field of “relational” psychoanalytic psychology, harkening back to Freud’s understandings of the body and it’s development as it is subjected to various traumas and the things that affect us all in life. The understanding of the bodily foundation of self.
She talks about the “exciting new science of interoception [that]has the power to transform our vision of what we are and who we can be as we get older.”
The concept of aging as a fixable problem, rather than a stage to be embraced, is challenged. I found it refreshing to be given alternatives to pursuing the “fountain of youth.”
I found Sand’s thesis fascinating, illuminating and helpful. Food for thought as the twilight years beckon.

A Sounds True ARC via NetGalley
Please note: Quotes taken from an advanced reading copy maybe subject to change
(Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.)

The Inside Story focuses on experience, empowerment, and embodiment. Yes, they bring the reader a dearth of academic research that constructs the evidence for knowing and understanding your individual inside story to live well. Dr. Sands offers a way forward in a body-based understanding for the lay reader as well as for practitioners and psychotherapists.

This book by the prominent pyschoanalyst Susan Sands is about developing a better and deeper relationship with our body, especially as we get older. For the author our body is integral to our lives, it is the foundation of our being. The author pleads to overcome the social construct of ageing and wants the reader to positively engage with our age. For this she wants us to cultivate interoceptive awareness for our body, to listen to it and follow its messages instead of overcoming, subjugating or ignoring the signals from our body. She gives several strategies and some advice on how we can achieve this and quotes extensively from the newest research on body, ageing, brain and gut.
While this book is addressed for the older reader, it is highly recommended for anybody who wants to develop and nurture a more healthy and wholesome relationship with the body we live in.

In The Inside Story, dr. Sands deals with new science - interoception - the body sense; the body we feel and experience from within. She promotes the integration of mind and body, which allows us to have the invigorating sense of actually living in the body, what we call “embodiment.”

The book guides us to establish healthier relationship with our actual maturing body. Not of shame, fear, hatred but of love, appreciation, tenderness and respect. Regardless of our age we still can create an older yet still positive and vital sense of our body that we can live with for the rest of our life.

The author interviewed women of different age (from forty-eight to ninety-one years), ethnicity, socioeconomic, and health status and also with both lifelong and recent disabilities. They speak of their body's experiences from childhood to the present and how they found pride and pleasure in their body as they aged.

Even though I am not in the age that is considered in a book, it is still relevant, inspiring and useful guide that will help women of diverse abilities, circumstances, outlooks, and gender identities create an accepting yet still vibrant sense of their older bodies. It offers many strategies of how to live well in an aging body.

We all can experience aging as a vital, optimistic, and transformative journey.