In this episode, Kimberly and return guest Sophie Strand celebrate publishing week for Sophie’s extraordinary new book The Body is a Doorway: A Memoir: A Journey Beyond Healing, Hope, and the Human. They discuss where Sophie currently finds herself in a post-diagnosis reality and what writing the book taught her about the mysteries of illness. She emphasizes the complex power of doctor relationships and medical information on the body through the nocebo effect. Kimberly and Sophie talk through what it looks like to support someone dealing with illness day to day. Sophie shares her personal and social experiences with chronic illness, as well as the contemporary cultural pressures to intertwine identity with labels. She also highlights the role of community, creativity and bad story on diagnoses and treatments. This open-hearted conversation touches on the broader implications of health, identity, and the need for a more open and relational approach to care and self-understanding.

Bio

Sophie Strand is a poet and writer with a focus on the intersection of spirituality, storytelling, and ecology. Her poems and essays have appeared in numerous projects and publications, including Spirituality & Health, Atmos, Braided Way, and Art PAPERS. She is the author of The Flowering Wand and The Madonna Secret, and the creator of the popular Substack “Make Me Good Soil.” She lives in the Hudson Valley of New York.

What They Share

The impact of a long-awaited diagnosis
The No-Cebo Effect
What we pay attention to we pray towards
The Mystery of Illness
Bad Story in Myth and Psychotherapeutic fields
Self-Diagnosis
How to tell a different stories about chronic illness
Performing Sickness to have invisible illness be more visible
How to check in with friends having a hard time/facing health challenges
End of the addiction line
Chronic Sickness as it relates to sobriety
Eco-cidal culture wants to turn everything into product
Somatic Protest
Body can’t work
The miracle of GoFund Me alongside an unaffordable health care system
History of oral culture
Orality and Literature by anthropologist Walter Ong
What is an individual?
Monotheism of Psychology
The impulse to classify is about control and fear
Prayer is another energy that might have a better idea of what I need
Vending Machine Prayer
Finding book endings that aren’t fantasies
How to separate negative from worse
How to operate with one spoon

Links

IG @cosmogyny

Substack https://sophiestrand.substack.com/

Sophie's New Book: https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/sophie-strand/the-body-is-a-doorway-a-memoir/9780762487417/?lens=running-press

The Body is A Doorway Amazon Review page: https://www.amazon.com/review/create-review/?ie=UTF8&channel=glance-detail&asin=0762487410

Money and The Nervous System Sign-Up: https://kimberlyannjohnson.com/money-the-nervous-system/

Benedetto Croce

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