About this item
In our former lives as practicing alcoholics and addicts, we likely punished our bodies as much as our minds. And yet, recovery programs often neglect the physical, focusing primarily on the mental, emotional, and spiritual dimensions of staying sober.In The Recovering Body, popular health writer and Guinevere Gets Sober blogger Jennifer Matesa provides simple, effective ways for addicts to heal the damage caused by substance abuse, whatever our age, lifestyle, or temperament. Combining solid science and practical guidance, along with her own experience and that of other addicts, Matesa offers a roadmap to creating our own unique approach to physical recovery. Each chapter provides key summaries and helpful checklists, focused on: exercise and activitysleep and restnutrition and fuelsexuality and pleasuremeditation and awarenessMatesa’s holistic approach frames physical fitness as a living amends to self--a transformative gift analogous to the “spiritual fitness” practices worked on in recovery.
About the Author
Jennifer Matesa is author, educator, and speaker. She has written four nonfiction books about body, mind, and human well-being, including the forthcoming SEX IN RECOVERY: A MEETING BETWEEN THE COVERS, and the recently released THE RECOVERING BODY: PHYSICAL AND SPIRITUAL FITNESS FOR LIVING CLEAN AND SOBER. Early in her career her journalism won public-service awards, and she has covered addiction and treatment for The Fix, Salon, Substance.com, Alternet, and many other outlets.
Her long-running site about addiction and recovery, Guinevere Gets Sober (http://guineveregetssober.com) , was one of the first blogs of its kind and has always been dedicated to giving the public reliable information about addiction and recovery without advertising or fees.
Her commitment to removing the stigma from addiction and recovery and to reporting scientific advances along with human experience has earned her a fellowship at the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) .
She speaks and writes widely, and she teaches a course about life transformations at the University of Pittsburgh. She lives in Pittsburgh with her son and her black Labrador-whippet mutt, Flo, in a house with seven stained-glass windows and a treehouse out back.
