A fascinating read and a resource I will come back to again and again. It gives some clear and easy to understand advice about understanding the connection between your body and your mind. It's something I've never considered before and doing some of the exercises has really switched me into movement therapy and how my emotions sit within my body.

Body Aware by Erica Hornthal guides the reader in understanding the mind body connection, understanding how our mental and emotional state impacts our physical movements and vice-a-versa. Essentially it is a book about movement therapy, how the way we move our body can help to ground and alleviate various mental and emotional issues. It does not propose that movement alone is a cure-all, but rather, helps you to identify where you may be holding emotions in your body and how this may be impacting the way you move and feel. There are many tips and movement exercises to help you get in touch with your body so that you can be more aware of how a feeling is manifesting physically. A big takeaway for me was that when you are able to become more aware of your body you are able to gain new perspectives, perceptions, confidence, and self-awareness. Our body takes the brunt of our emotional and mental states, so when we have visceral physical sensations, we can speak to them through movement.

What surprised me most about movement therapy was that it has a major intuitive aspect to it. Being able to tune into your body and make connections between emotions and physical sensations requires trust, silence, and communication with your higher self. We have not been taught to listen to our bodies as we are almost always in our heads. There is an incredible amount of wisdom in our body if we can learn how to feel it.

My only critique is that I think having some drawings or diagrams would have been helpful, as well as breaking up the text more throughout, since some of the best nuggets of wisdom were lost in big blocks of text.

The author does a great job at explaining the interconnectedness between mind, body, and soul and how we can try to bring them into alignment. I think this book is a must read for holistic practitioners, dancers, and those deeply interested in embodiment.