Allison Post - The Gut Wellness Guide The Power of Breath, Touch, and Awareness to Reduce Stress, Aid Digestion, and Reclaim Whole-Body Healt

Allison and Stephen have done the miraculous: written a book about the functioning of our bodies in an ever-so-personal and delicious way. They write so clearly and with such warmth and mastery that what seemed obtuse and dry is suddenly understandable, evendare I sayexciting. And, as a grateful recipient of Allisons hands-on magic, I can say with utter conviction that the love that comes through her work is astounding. It is, after all, love that heals, and now we can all be recipients of that magic through this book.

Geneen Roth, author of the New York Times #1 best seller Women Food and God

Through their intimate knowledge of anatomy and extensive hands-on experience, Allison and Stephen gift us with the definitive practical roadmap to a healthy gut, a stronger immune system, increased energy, and a sense of a greater quality of life. Yet the big surprise is that the practice of their simple yet powerful techniques brings us joy.

Greg Hicks and Rick Foster, best-selling authors of How We Choose to Be Happy

Allison and Stephen have deep knowledge and expertise of both traditional and contemporary healing arts. But more importantly, in this book they point us to our own individual capacity to heal and to rediscover our innate wholeness. Trust your gut, buy this book.

Frank Ostaseski, author of The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully

Allison and Stephen provide simple, easily applied techniques for accessing the bodys self-healing mechanisms and they are very persuasive in their appeal for cultivating a relationship with ones own body in the pursuit of optimal health. Their gentle appeal for a life of greater being is both disarming and at times irresistible.

Robert P. Turner, MD, holistic psychiatrist

Copyright 2018 by Allison Post and Stephen Cavaliere. All rights reserved. No portion of this book, except for brief review, may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any meanselectronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwisewithout the written permission of the publisher. For information contact North Atlantic Books.

Published by

North Atlantic Books

Berkeley, California

Authors photo by John L. Hall

Cover design by Rob Johnson

Book design by Happenstance Type-O-Rama

Printed in the United States of America

An earlier version of this book was previously published by North Atlantic Books in 2003 as Unwinding the Belly: Healing with Gentle Touch. This edition has been thoroughly revised and updated.

Medical Disclaimer: The following information is intended for general information purposes only. Individuals should always see their health care provider before administering any suggestions made in this book. Any application of the material set forth in the following pages is at the readers discretion and is his or her sole responsibility.

The Gut Wellness Guide: The Power of Breath, Touch, and Awareness to Reduce Stress, Aid Digestion, and Reclaim Whole-Body Health is sponsored and published by the Society for the Study of Native Arts and Sciences (dba North Atlantic Books), an educational nonprofit based in Berkeley, California, that collaborates with partners to develop cross-cultural perspectives, nurture holistic views of art, science, the humanities, and healing, and seed personal and global transformation by publishing work on the relationship of body, spirit, and nature.

North Atlantic Books publications are available through most bookstores. For further information, visit our website at www.northatlanticbooks.com or call 800-733-3000.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Post, Allison, 1956 author. | Cavaliere, Stephen, 1960 author.

Title: The gut wellness guide : the power of breath, touch, and awareness to

reduce stress, aid digestion, and reclaim whole-body health /

Allison Post and Stephen Cavaliere ; foreword by Sara Gottfried, MD.

Other titles: Unwinding the belly

Description: Berkeley, California : North Atlantic Books, [2018] | Revision

of: Unwinding the belly / Allison Post & Stephen Cavaliere. | Includes

bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2018013884 (print) | LCCN 2018014953 (ebook) | ISBN

9781623172572 (ebook) | ISBN 9781623172565 (paperback)

Subjects: LCSH: Breathing exercisesTherapeutic use. | StomachMassage. |

Healing. | Self-help techniques. | BISAC: HEALTH & FITNESS / Diseases /

Abdominal. | BODY, MIND & SPIRIT / Healing / General. | HEALTH & FITNESS /

Healing.

Classification: LCC RM733 (ebook) | LCC RM733 .P67 2018 (print) | DDC

615.8/36dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018013884

North Atlantic Books is committed to the protection of our environment. We partner with FSC-certified printers using soy-based inks and print on recycled paper whenever possible.

Benjamin Sahler, a Jungian psychologist, author, translator, and fellow belly-lover, asked us if we would agree to let him translate into French our first edition of this book, which we called Unwinding the Belly: Healing with Gentle Touch. This unsolicited offer from a complete stranger came twelve years after the publication of that book, and so we consider it to have been serendipitous. Benjamins kind offer was the perfect excuse for a visit to the South of France where we met Benjamin and his wifeand artistic collaboratorMarie Martine. Benjamins translation and our visit to France inspired us to expand upon the original scope of the work and to create this new offering.

We do so with the encouragement of those who are steeped in the world of the new advances in the science of all things Gut, who now unashamedly point to the vital roles that stress and its mitigation, and the need to pursue a deeper meaning in life, play in the quest for authentic health. That, coupled with the belief that those who are skilled in meditation and spiritual practice now recognize the need to maintain physical health and respect, if not honor, the belly and its ways.

And so it is with gratitude that we extend our love and appreciation to so many good friends and stalwart colleagues who helped us, in one way or another, keep to our truth while fulfilling our pledge to learn more about bellies and more about life.

Specifically, we thank Gilles Marin for being our first and best belly- teacher, Robert Turner for his unfailing moral and professional support, and Sara Gottfried for her generosity of spirit. Rosalie Arcadi, Michael Bellino, Astride Hofmann, Monica Passin, and Susan Skornickaall friends who were there to listen and offer tangible assistance and encouragement during the challenging decade when we were caregiving for our elderly parentswe feel blessed by their presence.

Over many years Fred Arnicar has proffered just the right touches of dry wit whenever Stephen was in sore need of a fresh perspective, and although Fred will deny it, he is remarkable for being kind. Dan K. Palmer has for several years generously provided a one-room refuge for Stephen to write this and other works. We thank Stewart for sharing his Paris with us, and when Nicole Lambrou clued us in about a certain cozy writers retreat in San Francisco, we discovered a camaraderie we had yet to experience.

We regard North Atlantic Books as a publishing company that has always been willing to let writers speak their truth and present philosophies not always in the mainstream. We cannot express enough gratitude to them for supporting the effort to get our work out to a larger audience. A special thanks to Sarah Serafimidis for her help with all things French, and for her invitation to us to consider further creative projects with North Atlantic Books. Many thanks to Erin Wiegand for getting the project started in a timely way and to our project leader, Ebonie Ledbetter, for her thoughtful guidance. Thanks also to Hisae Matsuda for her close editorial work and to Diana Salles for her illustrations.