Book Review: The Wisdom of Your Body by Hillary McBride

Rating: 5 stars of 5

The Wisdom of Your Body: Finding Healing, Wholeness, and Connection Through Embodied Living was such a helpful and practical read for me. Dr. Hillary does an excellent job throughout the book of presenting good information as she coaches the reader through learning to trust their body and find safety in it, repair their relationship with it, and make space for healing.

Each chapter presents solid, cited information about the research relevant to the topic being discussed and concludes with thought-provoking questions to explore and exercises to try. I loved both of those concluding sections in each chapter, and I also found so many new books to add to my reading list in the footnotes, along with intriguing studies I’d like to read when I have a moment to sift through them.

I really appreciated the perspective Hillary offered on the emotional dysregulation that is so common in modern western christian spaces and how it can manifest. This is a section of study that I have been finding interesting for the past few years and I especially enjoyed reading the parts of the book that dove into that topic.

I also loved that even though this is a book that we might think would appeal more to women, there are sections in the book that focus on men’s experiences and research as well. I think everyone can find value in this book, regardless of gender, and some of the chapters prompted some great discussions with my husband.

I think this book pairs well with When Religion Hurts You by Dr. Laura Anderson (you can read my full review of that one here), and would recommend both books to anyone who is learning to practice a more embodied faith or way of living after spending time in high control religious environments, religious environments that no longer align with your social / spiritual ethic, or spaces that led to an unhealthy or fractured relationship with your own body.

There was only one thing in this book that I found somewhat concerning. There is a brief section in chapter 6 where the author talks about person-first vs. identity-first language in relation to disability. I was happy to see this come up, as it is an important, ongoing conversation within disabled communities. As she discusses this topic, she points out that some people prefer identity-first language when speaking of their disability rather than person-first language. What she does not say, though, is that the primary community that is known for expressing a preference for identity-first language is the autistic community. This lack of specificity would normally just read as a lack of nuance or context, but in this instance, she also says that the people who prefer identity-first language are people who are “centering their pain and illness and its connection to identity [as] a form of activism.” Autism is a disability, not an illness, and the claim that it is an illness is harmful, both to autistic people and the general population. I do think Hillary meant well here, as she was trying to showcase that not everyone prefers person-first language, but her word choice considering the context in these types of conversations was unfortunate.

Overall, though, I did think this book was excellent and would highly recommend it.

Note: There are a couple of typos in the book. I usually remove a star or part of a star from a book rating if typos / grammar errors are present because they are distracting to me and reflect a lack of thorough editing during the publication process, but I have decided to leave this book’s rating at 5/5 stars despite them.

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