Being a healthcare professional, I was drawn to this book,
Radical Well-Being, when I saw
Dr. Rita Hancock's mentions of its upcoming release.
Not only is it a book written about overcoming pain, illness and addictions (which we all suffer at times from one if not all three of those), but it is also written by a Christian Pain Management Specialist from a biblical perspective.
Needless to say, I quickly requested a review copy.
And now, on the date of its official release, I am sharing my thoughts on it with you.
First, I would like to share her synopsis of it with you as well as her brief bio.
Book Synopsis
Research increasingly shows a strong connection between our spiritual life, our emotions, and our physical well being. Yet too often our physical conditions are treated without taking our whole lives into account. In
Radical Well-being,
Dr. Rita Hancock shows you how your mind, body, and spirit are connected and addresses the factors that can contribute, and even cause, illness, addictions, and chronic pain.
If you suffer from medical conditions like fibromyalgia, migraine headaches, neck or back pain, irritable bowel syndrome, jaw pain, food and drug allergies, depression, anxiety, or unwanted behaviors such as overeating, an eating disorder, overspending, drug abuse or alcoholism, Radical Well-being will show you a biblical, whole-body approach to overcoming your condition. With nearly twenty years of experience counseling patients from a balanced, mind/body/Holy Spirit perspective, Dr. Rita gives you practical nuts-and-bolts advice, including how to:
· Identify the lies that are manipulating you from a subconscious level
· Deal with emotional factors that can make your pain seem worse
· Address addictive behaviors that you want to get rid of
· Fully accept God's love and forgiveness on a deep, healing level
True freedom and improved health come when deeply-rooted lies are illuminated and replaced with knowledge from the merciful heart of God.
Radical Well-being will help you feel better in all three domains—in your mind, body, and in your spirit. You will end up feeling the way one of Dr. Rita's patients put it: "Like the weight of a skyscraper has been lifted off my shoulders."
Author Bio
Dr. Rita Hancock is board-certified in Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation as well as Pain Management and is passionate about helping her patients achieve optimal health and wellness in three dimensions: mind, body, and spirit.
Dr. Rita's books include
The Eden Diet (Zondervan) and
The Eden Diet Workbook, which are about learning to eat in response to physical rather than emotional hunger. Her second book,
Radical Well-being: A Biblical Guide to Overcoming Pain, Illness, and Addictions, offers a road map for finding relief if you suffer with nearly any type of symptom or behavior that can be magnified by stress. Examples of such stress-related symptoms or conditions include fibromyalgia, depression, anxiety, irritable bowel syndrome, back or neck pain, migraine headaches, and others.
Dr. Rita writes from the Christian perspective and lives in Oklahoma City with her husband and children. To find out more about her, visit
www.TheEdenDiet.com and
www.RadicalWell-being.com.
My Thoughts
In
Radical Well-Being, Dr. Rita shares practical examples from stories based on real patient experiences in her practice (in a way that maintains their confidentiality). Additionally she shares practical steps to breaking free from some physical and emotional strongholds that may seem permanent and are even, as we call it in the medical field, chronic (have been around for an extended period of time). She does not make light of ailments and addictions and specifically points out that there are plenty of instances in which they cannot be traced back to underlying stress, yet she enlightens us with example after example of how often stress truly is the key factor in ailments and addictions.
A couple of interesting examples she shares are:
- A patient with multiple and frequent complaints of pain for which no origin could be located. During one bout with a pain attack, Dr. Rita was able to help her immediately "put a name to the emotion she felt at that moment in time," which turned out to be named "afraid." Within less than a minute of identifying that related emotion, the patient had a realization that led her to recognize what situation and emotion from her past as well as from her current experience caused her to experience the subsequent pain attack. And, upon realization, the patient's current leg pain was decreased by almost half in thirty seconds. Pretty amazing what our emotions can do to our bodies!
- Another patient who was unknowingly holding onto anxiety even after several visits to Dr. Rita as well as pain medication injections during those visits. She finally was able to recognize, confront and release some of the anxiety which resulted in the injections and other pain treatments finally working. Dr. Rita states that, "In an unexpected way, 'Betty' has even become grateful to God for her physical pain. It's her way of recognizing that she's bottling up her emotions. It's like her emotional litmus test for stress."
- Dr. Rita also shares her own story of living for many young years as an overweight child and even more overweight teenager until she finally was able to work to get the weight off by the time she started college. I suggest you read this book to find out more about how she did that and even turned it into inspiration to write this book. (HINT: Don't skip the Introduction!)
And a couple of sections of quote-worthy material:
All-in-all, I would say you should give Dr. Rita's book
Radical Well-Being a chance to impact your life, health, and emotions in ways that you may not even realize you need.
And come back here and share your experiences if you do!
Disclaimer: I received this book for free from Dr. Rita Hancock. No other compensation was received. The fact that I received a complimentary product does not guarantee a favorable review.
