Preparing Your Body to Heal: How to Speak to Your Nervous System Before, During, and After Surgery (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9798253036396)

Every surgery patient receives instructions about physical preparation. Almost no one receives guidance on how to work with their nervous system to support recovery.

This guide fills that gap.

Preparing Your Body to Heal is written for anyone facing a medical procedure who wants to contribute to their own recovery in every way they can. Drawing on research in surgical psychology, neuroscience, and mind-body medicine, psychologists William Matulich, Ph.D. and Shirley Lanyi, Ph.D. explain how your nervous system responds to your internal language, and how that response shapes the biological conditions under which healing happens.

The goal is practical: learning to communicate with your nervous system in ways that shift it from protection toward repair - not just relaxation or positive thinking. The difference is real, measurable, and within your reach.

You will learn:

• Why the specific language you use internally predicts recovery outcomes more reliably than general mood or anxiety levels.
• How to speak directly to your body in ways it can receive and use.
• Simple physical practices that prepare your nervous system to respond to what you tell it.
• How to build your own set of healing phrases matched to your procedure, your fears, and your recovery phase.
• What to do at 3 a.m. when pain spikes, progress stalls, or practiced phrases feel out of reach.

Dr. Lanyi and Dr. Matulich bring decades of clinical experience to a guide that is grounded in research, written in plain language, and designed to be used before, during, and after your procedure. Both have also drawn on their own experiences as patients and know firsthand what it means to put these practices to work when it matters most.

Your body is already working to heal. This guide shows you how to work with it.