Unfuck Your Body

Using Science to Reconnect Your Body and Mind to Eat, Sleep, Breathe, Move, and Feel Better

Faith G. Harper, PhD, LPC-S, ACS, ACN

• Publisher: Microcosm Publishing
• Year: 2021
• eBook ISBN: 9781621061434
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Self Improvement

• Kickstarter Campaign
• National and Local Media Campaigns
• Pre-publication Online Publicity Campaign
• Email Marketing and Publicity Campaign
• Curated Advanced Reader Copy Distribution
• Digital Influencer "Buzz" Campaign
• Social Media Promotions

Unfuck Your Body: Using Science to Eat, Sleep, Breathe, Move, and Feel Better

Part of the 5 Minute Therapy Series

© Dr. Faith Harper, 2021

First edition © Microcosm Publishing, May 25, 2021

eBook ISBN 9781621061434

This is Microcosm #235

Edited by Elly Blue

Designed by Joe Biel

For a catalog, write or visit:

Microcosm Publishing

2752 N Williams Ave.

Portland, OR 97227

www.Microcosm.Pub

Did you know that you can buy our books directly from us at sliding scale rates? Support a small, independent publisher and pay less than Amazon’s price at www.Microcosm.Pub

The “Sleep” chapter was originally published as Unfuck Your Sleep.

Introduction

Where do we even start with talking about how bodies get fucked up?

We get sick or injured. Trauma takes root, directly affecting our physical body as much as our brain. Stress seizes us up. Our toxic environments and food systems poison us. We experience pain. Our immune systems freak out and we don’t know why. We have kids, or don’t. We get busy and stop exercising. Years of insomnia catch up with us. We have surgery or take medication that changes our bodies. Or, most common of all, our personal meat puppet gets older and less tolerant of our bullshit.

We can’t talk about bodies without talking about our brains, and vice versa—because our bodies and minds influence each other in every area of our physical and emotional lives.

This book is about how the body and mind communicate with each other using the vagus nerve, and the enormous role trauma, inflammation, toxicity, and stress plays in that communication and our overall health. And most of all, it’s about how we can feel better, by improving our body-brain awareness, developing habits that support the brain and body, and accessing treatments that serve our physical and mental health.

When my first book, Unfuck Your Brain, came out, there was so much about the mind body connection that I wanted to include that there just wasn’t physically the room to include. I swore that this book would follow up where that one left off.

Unfuck Your Brain is about trauma. So is this book. Trauma is a physical event, an injury to the nervous system. In that book, I did talk a little about the impact of trauma on the body (like with the physical symptoms of PTSD, anxiety, depression, and anger) and in some cases recommended physical treatments. I focused mainly on mental and emotional sources of trauma, as well as ways of working with those issues to promote healing.

But so much of trauma is a bodily experience that it merits a deeper dive and its own book. Stuff that we have known is incredibly helpful to mental health (like yoga, breathwork, somatics, and dietary changes without the BMI body shaming bullshit) as practice-based evidence is now collecting more and more data to back it up as evidence-based practice. And we are gaining ground at light speed at answering the “but why” questions of the body-mind connection. So much so, that I have to dial it down a bit and not write the 12 volume Encyclopedia of Body Unfuckening that will then be sold in late night commercials by Time Life Books (and if you are old enough to get that joke, you are as middle aged as I am).

There was some concern that if I wrote this book it would get shelved as another “change your body, change your life” diet-and-exercise regime book with tips like gargle with lavender essential oil, sleep upside down like a bat, and live on a diet of bee pollen and kale. Or whatever idea is fresh at this moment. But one thing that has happened in the five years since Unfuck Your Brain came out, is a bigger cultural awareness of the mind-body connection and how we support whole health by recognizing both. This means it isn’t weird and woo-woo for us to recognize our gut as being our second brain. Or that polyvagal theory explains so much about how our bodily reactions fuel our thoughts and feelings. Stuff that nutritionists and other complementary practitioners have been yammering on about for a century or more are now entering the mainstream with enough energy that I can tell this story with hella research and without the presumption that I am trying to sell you on a fad regime that includes wasp stings, protein powder, and astral projection.

So here is the goal. To dive into the science of the mind-body connection. To really look at how and why the body impacts (ok, actually is in charge of) our mental health. To separate fact from fiction on body-based treatments and holistic care (with the best research we have at the time of this writing) as ways of supporting/enhancing other traditional treatment options. To help us all consider what wellness looks like beyond fads and beyond bullshit cultural norms and standards. To create space to personalize a wellness plan that suits you.

We’ll also talk about a lot of practical things you can do to unfuck your body, including coping skills, food, meds, movement, sleep, breathing, and mindfulness techniques. I’m all about the practical. I also busted my booty to approach each topic without all the shame and blame crap we’re all used to getting served to us. I know these are loaded topics, but we’re going to make them all as un-loaded as possible. And you can skip whatever chapters you aren’t up for dealing with right now. There isn’t an order you need to do things, it’s all about finding what works for you.

A note about my expertise and its limits: Much of what you’ll find in this book falls into the category of “complementary medicine.” Complementary means just that: adding to, shoring up, augmenting, and helping us heal. As well as being a licensed professi...

Table of contents

• UNFUCK YOUR BODY