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Self-help Self-esteem

Your Body Is a Revolution

Healing Our Relationships with Our Bodies, Each Other, and the Earth

by (author) Tara Teng

Publisher
Dundurn Press
Initial publish date
Jun 2023
Category
Self-Esteem, Inspiration & Personal Growth, Social Issues
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781459752887
    Publish Date
    Jun 2023
    List Price
    $11.99
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781459752863
    Publish Date
    Jun 2023
    List Price
    $23.99

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Description

It’s time to fully inhabit our lives, to reclaim what has been stolen from us, and to embrace the wisdom our bodies long to share.

Too many of us are living disconnected from our bodies, chasing a constantly moving target of ideal, and accepting the societal narrative about which bodies are deserving of safety and protection. In an effort to keep ourselves safe, we shame, push aside, and assimilate parts of ourselves that don't align with the cultural norm. In turn, we are disconnected from our bodies and therefore from our humanity, losing sight of the true nature of who we are.

Embodiment coach Tara Teng helps us untangle ourselves from centuries of body-based oppression built into our societal systems or masquerading as religion. When we embrace our relationship with our bodies, we come into alignment with all things: ourselves, each other, the earth, and our spirituality. When we embrace ourselves, we can take back what society says is too much — too loud, too feminine, too masculine, too gay, too worldly, too unique. Now is the time to journey back to our bodies and to celebrate our whole selves.

About the author

Tara Teng is a somatic practitioner who helps people overcome shame, heal trauma, and come back into relationship with their bodies. An ardent human rights activist and former Miss Canada, she was presented with a Queen's Diamond Jubilee medal in recognition of her work to combat human trafficking. She lives on the unceded traditional territories of the Kwantlen and Katzie First Nations, in Vancouver.

Tara Teng's profile page

Editorial Reviews

With authenticity, passion, and conviction, Teng has written a book that both challenges the reader and points them back to their most valuable resource: their body. Teng's work reveals the disservice that has occurred for generations through systems of oppression that have required humankind to live from a space of disconnect from themselves, the collective, and the Earth. Simultaneously, Teng offers hope through education, research, and tangible somatic practices to find a way back to ourselves.

Dr. Laura Anderson, Center for Trauma Resolution and Recovery, and the Religious Trauma Institute

Although it would have been an easier path to instruct us how to be in our bodies in one particular way, Teng does the braver and more skillful thing of calling us to be in relationship with our own bodies, to let our own sensuality light the way to a more liberated future of connection.

Dr. Hillary L. McBride, therapist, author, speaker, podcaster

As a queer, Black femme, I am struck and impressed by Teng's intentionality in making the reader aware of her own intersections and the ways they inform her work and service to the world. She rejects assumptions and broad statements that often dismiss the experiences of marginalized bodies. This book truly welcomes all bodies to the table to heal and live fully in our truest, most authentic forms.

Coach Yeamah, creator of Confidently Queer

As someone who has religious trauma, nothing has been more transformative for my recovery than learning the language of my body. Our bodies are speaking to us all the time, but too often we dismiss them to our own detriment. In this book, Teng shows us the way to pay attention to our bodies, to trust in them, to fall into our bodies and in love with them. It will change everything.

Cindy Wang Brandt, author of Parenting Forward and You Are Revolutionary

Teng skillfully mines her experiences as a former pageant queen, a biracial woman, and a Christian to dissect the complicated ways body shame appears in society, and avoids simplified takeaways. Teng’s passion will motivate readers on the path to bodily acceptance.

Publishers Weekly

Teng’s warm, empathetic writing makes complex topics approachable to readers who may be new to these conversations…a refreshing, compassionate addition to the health and wellness space.

Library Journal

There is no doubt Teng has a well of love for the reader engaged, with her support, on a journey toward embodiment, toward wholeness.

The British Columbia Review

Reading this book feels like being tenderly coached into a deeper awareness of your body and the stories they have to tell. The earth, and every living body within it, has needed this book to exist for a long time. Teng's willingness to birth this deep wisdom into the world is a powerful gift and one that can profoundly change us all — if we let it.

Jamie Lee Finch, embodiment coach and author of You Are Your Own

Tara Teng is a beautiful voice of both timeless and urgent wisdom. Through her unique life experience, she is able to weave together a number of intersections to help others on the journey of embodiment and self-reclamation come home to their wholeness. Don't just read this book — experience this book as a revolution for yourself and as an embodied prayer for all other bodies.

Morgan Day Cecil, creator of The Feminine Wholeness™ Method

Highly recommended to anybody searching to decolonize their life through embodiment. A must-read to gain the insight and inspiration that's needed in today's world. Having hard conversations is something we need to move forward in a good way as a collective of human beings on Mother Earth.

Dakota Bear, Indigenous rights activist, and cofounder of Decolonial Clothing

Your Body Is a Revolution is a book that will support anyone's journey into breaking generational cycles of disembodiment and disconnection through collective care and reexamination of dehumanization and body-based oppression. By trusting the wisdom embodied within her, she weaves the political and abstract into discernible ways that shift us toward nonviolence. This book is an amazing companion.

Alma Zaragoza-Petty, author of Chingona: Owning Your Inner Badass for Healing and Justice