How to Change Your Body

Saga Briggs is a freelance journalist. Her articles on interoception and psychedelics have been published by Scientific American, Aeon+Psyche, and DoubleBlind Magazine. She is a former editor for the MIND European Foundation for Psychedelic Science and former managing editor of InformED, a digital magazine connecting teachers and students with trends in educational psychology. Originally from the Pacific Northwest, she moved to Berlin in 2018 on a gut feeling and continues to move that way.  Julie Holland, MD, is a psychiatrist specializing in psychopharmacology, with a private practice in New York City. Her book Weekends at Bellevue chronicled her nine years running the psychiatric emergency room as an attending physician on the faculty of the New York University School of Medicine. Frequently featured on Today and in CNN's documentary series Weed, Holland is the editor of The Pot Book: A Complete Guide to Cannabis and Ecstasy: The Complete Guide. She is the medical monitor for several clinical research studies on treating post-traumatic stress disorder, one using MDMA-assisted psychotherapy and another examining the effects of various strains of cannabis. Her New York Times bestselling book Moody Bitches has been translated into eleven languages.

TABLE OF CONTENTS


Foreword by Julie Holland, MD xiii

Acknowledgments xvii

Introduction xix


PART 1: PREDICTING THE BODY 1

Predictive Coding 3

Interoception 6

The Bodily Self 10

The Possibility Space 14


PART 2: DISCONNECTION 19

Alexithymia 22

Schizophrenia 24

Stress 27

Loneliness 29

Addiction 30

Anxiety 33

Depression 35

PTSD 37

Eating Disorders 39

Suicidal Ideation 42


PART 3: CONNECTION 45

Authenticity 47

Kama Muta 50

Peak and Transcendent Experiences 54

Nature 59

Body, Emotion, Action 68

Attachment 73

Social Interoception 80

Empathy and Compassion 88

Body Oneness and Movement Synchrony 93

Mindfulness 96

Trust 107

Music 113

Narrative 124

Movement, Yoga, and Reiki 133

Psychedelics 142


PART 4: EXPANDING THE POSSIBILITY SPACE 149

Agency 151

Expansion 154

Transformation 159


PART 5: PRACTICES 163

MAIA Scale: Multidimensional Assessment

of Interoceptive Awareness 165

Interoceptive Connection Toolkit 168

Attentional Strategies 168

Flexible Switching 172

Mindful Awareness in Body-Oriented Therapy (MABT) 172

Respiratory Practices 174

Aligning Dimensions of Interoceptive Experience (ADIE) 175

Somatic Practices 175

Social Justice Approaches 177

Practices from This Book 180

Body Trusting Toolkit 181


Glossary 187

Notes 191

Index 213