Summary

In “Learning to Inhabit Your Body: Yoga,” this chapter begins with a quote from a book titled “Yoga and the Quest for the True Self” (265), which suggests that through the practice of yoga, “we are able to experience an immediate and intrinsic pleasure in self-care” (265). Author van der Kolk then prologues this chapter with the story of Annie, who was severely traumatized by abuse as a child and who slowly started to open herself both to herself and to healing as a result of breath and body work.

In “The Legacy of Inescapable Shock,” the author starts this chapter’s analysis with a brief reiteration of how different portions and functions of the brain shut down and shape bodily responses in the aftermath of trauma, citing Annie’s behavior as an example.

In “The Numbing Within,” the author comments that...