This Is Body Grief: Making Peace with the Loss That Comes with Living in a Body

This Is Body Grief: Making Peace with the Loss That Comes with Living in a Body by Jayne Mattingly

At some point, we’ve all experienced grief over our bodies as they once were. Aging brings the reality that we’re not as quick or strong as we used to be. A chronic illness or disability can disrupt our plans and challenge our sense of self. No matter how strictly we follow a diet, we may still fall short of society’s ever-changing beauty standards. In these moments, we blame our bodies for betraying us—though this couldn’t be further from the truth. 

This is Body Grief: the sorrow of living in a body that changes, often without our consent. In This Is Body Grief, Jayne Mattingly offers a path to healing through this grief, helping you find peace and acceptance in the body you have now. Drawing from her own experience as both an eating disorder recovery coach and a person navigating chronic illness and disability, Mattingly guides readers through the complex emotions that accompany Body Grief with deep compassion and insight, beginning with feelings of dismissal, shock, and anger. 

Ultimately, she helps us see that our bodies have never been, are not, and will never be our enemy. The journey toward self-love begins when we learn to trust and work in harmony with our bodies as they are in this moment. While the path through Body Grief is not always linear, This Is Body Grief shows that it is possible to make peace with the skin you're in.