Unstressed: How Somatic Awareness Can Transform Your Body's Stress Response and Build Emotional Resilience

As a professor of stress management, I’m asked all too often for a “magic pill” or quick fix for dealing with stress. This is not a typical stress management book with superficial quick fixes. In her book, “Unstressed,” Dr. Alane beautifully explains that stress is essentially emotional disequilibrium or when our “fear-response system” is in control. She clearly and eloquently explores the very powerful mind body connection and the necessity of subduing the fear-response system in order for our "calm & connection system" to dominate. Dr. Alane brilliantly articulates the concept of emotional resiliency, specifically the process of reprogramming our emotional patterning in order to engage in heartfelt and authentic emotion as a means of combating stress. She focuses on what is often lacking in many stress management books – the importance of learning to operate with a connection to heartfelt emotions such as love, gratitude, and compassion. These heartfelt emotions can change us and dramatically alter our perceptions. The information and hands-on activities contained in this book are for everyone -- not just for those who deal with excessive anxiety or debilitating stressful emotions. It is a must-read for anyone and everyone who would like to reach their full potential and live life to the fullest!

In this stress-filled world, I’ve found Alane Daugherty’s book transformative. She offers a way to actually become able to ground, and then activate, the calm connective pathway which relieves stress and anxiety in moments and everyday life. Clear explanations helped me understand how stress affects and becomes ingrained in my body’s responses. Her concrete invitations, via writing and practices, helped me as a reader begin to deepen my understanding of how I could notice and attend to stress pathways in my body; and then, without judgment, to practice shifting—to refocus and nurture a calm connected pathway. She seemed able to sense where I might get stuck as a reader, and paused at just the right moments to tell a story, or clarify my confusion, enabling me to keep reading and internalizing what I was learning. I began noticing shifts in the way I respond in daily life, with heartfelt emotion and moments of compassion which I had not been able to access before. I know Unstressed will continue to be a traveling companion in my life…and I am deeply grateful to Alane for her work and all it will transform in my life and the lives of her readers.

Dr Alane's book shows us how we can make incremental changes and, like a small rudder on a large ship, chart a new course to a healthier, more fulfilling place. Too often in our everyday lives, our brain initiates a 'fight or flight' response before we are even able to recognize that a fear response to a perceived stressful situation is unwarranted. Dr Alane teaches us how to recognize these situations and the unhealthy physiological responses that result. Her exercises take us from 'mindful awareness to heartful engagement', by asking us to pause, release our negative reactivity, and instead, choose to react out of gratitude, empathy, compassion, hope and finally, love. Through practice and repetition, we rewire how we react to everyday situations in a way that allows us to live in a more calm and connected state. The more time we spend in this state, the healthier and happier we become. Through her exercises and our practice, we are given the 'gift of shift' and are able to transform our lives. UNSTRESSED could help you change your life.

As a practicing chiropractor I see patients dealing with all types of stress. I like to refer to the day in and day out combination of physical, chemical and emotional stressors as lifestyle stress...because it is now a part of our daily routine. The combination of this ongoing stress is detrimental to our health & wellness. While we are programmed for the acute stress response, we have no inherent defense against chronic stress, and it is the chronic stress that is the byproduct of our modern lifestyles. We, as a society, no longer live congruently with our innate genetic programming. We need to change if we are to shift from surviving to thriving. We need to become "unstressed".Dr. Alane Daugherty brilliantly explains the effects of stress on the mind and on the body, and more importantly how to positively use emotions to lead us to a state of peace and calming, physically and emotionally. Unstressed is a must-read for anyone feeling overwhelmed in our fast paced modern society, as well as anyone wanting to avoid the overwhelm.

As someone who has struggled with severe anxiety my entire life it's refreshing to read a book that help me rebalance the stress to make it more manageable. This book is easy to read which makes challenging myself to address these issues that much more likely.My mind and body seemed to be at war with each other and it's a daily struggle. This book helps you identify that struggle and teaches you the tools to help reconnect with yourself by using uncomplicated science and easy to understand methods. Thank you for making this book available.

This book was a required text for Kinesiology class… very confusing. Couldn't make integrative meaning from many of the coined terms: spiral of becoming, cortisol bath, power of pause, feeling states of awareness....to name a few.I can sense the underlying concepts....bu they are clouded and made less clear.After 5 chapters I couldn’t summarize to myself what I read.

Reading this book and participating in the exercises having given me hope that when I am triggered I don't have to go down the road of fear but tap into my calm connection system by looking at the triggering events in a different light. Take time to breathe, pause and see things in a different light. I highly recommend this book because, it is interactive and although there is scientific discussion it is written in a way that is easy to understand.