Donna Jackson Nakazawa

Explorations in the Science of Flourishing
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The Last Best Cure Excerpt

Excerpts from The Last Best Cure

Read the Introduction and Chapter One on Penguin.com

Read a short excerpt from Chapter Two below:

The Last Best Cure by Donna Jackson Nakazawa – Excerpt

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The Angel and the Assassin

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Donna Jackson Nakazawa

Donna Jackson Nakazawa
Donna Jackson Nakazawa21 hours ago
๐‚๐จ๐ง๐ง๐ž๐œ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐›๐ž๐ญ๐ฐ๐ž๐ž๐ง ๐ฌ๐ฅ๐ž๐ž๐ฉ ๐š๐ง๐ ๐Ÿ๐ž๐ฆ๐š๐ฅ๐ž ๐ฌ๐ž๐ฑ๐ฎ๐š๐ฅ ๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ง๐œ๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง: ๐ ๐จ๐จ๐ ๐ฌ๐ฅ๐ž๐ž๐ฉ ๐ช๐ฎ๐š๐ฅ๐ข๐ญ๐ฒ ๐ฆ๐š๐ญ๐ญ๐ž๐ซ๐ฌ!
Sleep and sexual function are both common midlife concerns, and both deeply affect a woman's quality of life. A new study suggests that poor sleep quality, not duration, can affect female sexual health. Good sleep quality, in contrast, was linked with female sexual satisfaction. โ 
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More than 26% of midlife women experience significant sleep symptoms that meet the criteria for insomnia, and sleep problems are reported by nearly half of women during menopause . Up to 43% of women report sexual problems during this same period in their lives.โ 
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This study highlights the importance of understanding the association between quality sleep and sexual health in women, and also for clinicians seeking to identify potential treatment options. Bottom line: good sleep matters in more ways than you might think.โ 
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https://bit.ly/3aUdZ5L
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If youโ€™re dealing with unresolved childhood trauma or feeling chronically stressed and want to learn how to rewire your brain for health and build resilience back into your life, then click the link in my bio for my books and courses โค๏ธ.โ 
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Thank you for being part of our community โค๏ธ Content by @donnajacksonnakazawaauthor
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Donna Jackson Nakazawa3 days ago
๐Ÿ– ๐๐จ๐ฐ๐ž๐ซ๐Ÿ๐ฎ๐ฅ ๐‡๐ž๐š๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐  ๐“๐จ๐จ๐ฅ๐ฌ ๐ญ๐จ ๐Ž๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ž ๐“๐ซ๐š๐ฎ๐ฆ๐š.
After 30 years as a science reporter specializing in neuroscience, stress, immunology, and emotion, these are the practices that Iโ€™ve seen heal the most people, with the greatest efficacy and safety. Many of these are well-known to us all. What's new, however, is this: emerging science on the biological basis of the mind-body connection shows us why these approaches work, and why doing them matters so much to our health. Data shows that all of the modalities below help dampen down the stress-threat-immune response, which lowers inflammation and improves our brain-body health:

1. Therapeutic modalities, e.g. talk therapy, CBT, DBT, ACT, psychotherapy.
2. Writing to Heal, e.g. narrative writing about difficult experiences using carefully created prompts
3. Breath Work
4. Mindfulness Meditation
5. Movement Practices, e.g. yoga, Qi Gong, Tai Chi, dance, pilates
6. Heal the Gut, e.g. making dietary changes to eat more plants, vegetables, vs. processed foods
7. Brainhacking, e.g. neurofeedback
8. Build Social and Emotional Connections, e.g., be with the people you love

We can all benefit by building a toolbox of strategies to help heal our deeper wounds and manage day-to-day stressors (and help our children develop & build them as well). The trick is to try on enough practices so that we know: 1. how to use these strategies, 2. when they're most effective, and 3. which ones we want to keep (which fit best for our unique personality preferences, specific needs, and lifestyles). I'll be sharing more in-depth about each of these tools in upcoming posts. Stay tuned!

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If youโ€™re dealing with unresolved childhood trauma or feeling chronically stressed and want to learn how to rewire your brain for health and build resilience back into your life, then click the link in my bio for my books and courses โค๏ธ.

Thank you for being part of our community โค๏ธ Content by @donnajacksonnakazawaauthor
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Donna Jackson Nakazawa5 days ago
Over the past year, as weโ€™ve seen the stark link between COVID, physical inflammation, and brain health, interest in the brain-body link has grown. COVID is just one example of how environmental events (viral infections, trauma, chronic stress) can dramatically impact our immune system in body and brain, affecting our physical and mental health. This new understanding of the cellular basis of the mind-body connection yields powerful insights and new hope for human well-being, too. If youโ€™ve been following me for a while you know this is something I write a lot about. Recent interest in this topic has led to a lot of new followers around here, too. If you are new, Welcome! Let me introduce myself and share a few facts you may not know about me.
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Iโ€™m Donna Jackson Nakazawa. Iโ€™ve written six books, won a few awards, written for WIRED, The Boston Globe, STAT. I give a lot of talks, trainings, and presentations for universities and organizations, and my niche is exploring the intersection of neuroscience, immunology, and human emotion. I see myself as a translator of emerging science in ways that (I hope) help individuals find new avenues for healing. I also recently launched a new online course, Your Healing Narrative: Write-to-Heal with Neural Re-Narratingโ„ข. Link in bio โฌ†๏ธ
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Here are 5 little known facts about me:
1. Iโ€™ve never been without a dog in my life and I never plan to be.
2. My garden is my solace.
3. I grew up on the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland and being on the water is still my happy place.
4. I manage a few autoimmune diseases and if I count up the times Iโ€™ve been off my feet (which I donโ€™t like to do), well, Iโ€™ve spent nearly 2 years of my life in bed, a few months here or there (and once, half a year). Yes, Iโ€™ve written books from bed. I get what real fear and suffering feels like in every cell of your mind and body. Iโ€™m deeply grateful to my body and brain for their incredible fortitude and capacity for healing, and although there are times I still really struggle, it is also true that all that Iโ€™ve learned as a journalist scholar over the past 20 years has been life (and mind, and body) changing. I hope what I bring to light on this platform helps you, too.
5. I have a new book (book 7!) coming out with Random House in 2022! Stay tuned.

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If youโ€™re dealing with unresolved childhood trauma or feeling chronically stressed and want to learn how to rewire your brain for health and build resilience back into your life, then click the link in my bio for my books and courses โค๏ธ.

Thank you for being part of our community โค๏ธ Content by @donnajacksonnakazawaauthor
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Donna Jackson Nakazawa7 days ago
๐‡๐จ๐ฐ ๐๐ž๐ฎ๐ซ๐š๐ฅ ๐‘๐ž-๐๐š๐ซ๐ซ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐ง๐ โ„ข๏ธ ๐œ๐š๐ง ๐ก๐ž๐ฅ๐ฉ ๐จ๐ฏ๐ž๐ซ๐œ๐จ๐ฆ๐ž ๐ญ๐ซ๐š๐ฎ๐ฆ๐š. Even though chronic stressors and trauma can affect the brain and immune system in ways that influence your physical and mental health, itโ€™s important to remember that the adversity you've faced does not define you. Your biology is not your destiny. Neuroscience tells us that the wonderfully neuroplastic brain is exquisitely responsive to intervention once we figure out how to intervene.
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Neural Re-Narratingโ„ข๏ธ and writing-to-heal strategies have helped me in more ways than I could have ever imagined to ameliorate the impact of trauma on my body and brain and to be better able to find peace, and even flourish, in the face of life's inevitable adversities. Itโ€™s a bit like doing physical therapy for your mind!
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If youโ€™re dealing with unresolved childhood trauma or feeling chronically stressed and want to learn how to rewire your brain for health and build resilience back into your life using Neural Re-Narratingโ„ข๏ธ, then click the following link: https://bit.ly/35Wxxnv โค๏ธ.
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Thank you for being part of our community โค๏ธ Content by @donnajacksonnakazawaauthor
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Donna Jackson Nakazawa
Donna Jackson Nakazawa1 week ago
๐‚๐Ž๐•๐ˆ๐ƒ-๐Ÿ๐Ÿ— ๐ข๐ฌ๐จ๐ฅ๐š๐ญ๐ข๐จ๐ง ๐ฅ๐ข๐ง๐ค๐ž๐ ๐ญ๐จ ๐ข๐ง๐œ๐ซ๐ž๐š๐ฌ๐ž๐ ๐๐จ๐ฆ๐ž๐ฌ๐ญ๐ข๐œ ๐ฏ๐ข๐จ๐ฅ๐ž๐ง๐œ๐ž. A new study just out from the University of California, Davis, suggests that the added stress in the COVID-19 pandemic caused by income loss, worry about eviction, lack of ability to pay for housing and food, has exacerbated the far too often silent epidemic of domestic violence.
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Why is this happening? The increased social isolation and financial crisis of the pandemic has created an environment where victims can't easily separate from their aggressors. Added pandemic stress may also be exacerbating mental health issues, increasing the likelihood that individuals will react to stress through emotional abuse or violence. And of course those fleeing abuse may not have a place (or financial means) to get away from their partners. Sadly, we're only beginning to understand the far-reaching ramifications of the Covid-19 pandemic and the particular way in which it may be playing out in terms of ill-treatment and violence against women.
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What can we do to help? Research suggests increasing public awareness of resources available to the broader community might help. Community members, trusted friends, neighbors, and family members may be better able to connect those affected by domestic violence with resources, such as shelters, treatment intervention programs, and therapeutic professionals such as social workers and therapists.
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To learn more, follow this link: https://bit.ly/3sCVskl.
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If youโ€™re dealing with unresolved childhood trauma or feeling chronically stressed and want to learn how to rewire your brain for health and build resilience back into your life, then click the link in my bio for my books and courses โค๏ธ.

Thank you for being part of our community โค๏ธ Content by @donnajacksonnakazawaauthor
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Donna Jackson Nakazawa1 week ago
June is #ptsdawarenessmonth and if you've followed my work, you know that understanding the operating system of trauma is woven into all I do. Researching the complexities of trauma, as well as how to manage and heal, has been integral to my life's work for over a decade.
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One of the most important facts about trauma is that adverse childhood experiences prime the body and brain to be on high alert (hypervigilance). This can mean we respond to trauma and stress in adult life with a bigger brainimmune (inflammatory) response. Bottom line: those with a history of childhood adversity may be more likely to later suffer from PTSD in the face of adult stress & trauma. And it can be difficult to resolve PTSD without also addressing childhood adversity and ACEs.
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In light of #ptsdawarenessmonth, let's recognize and destigmatize PTSD (whether trauma originates from childhood or more recent events). If you think you are dealing with PTSD and need help, know that you are not alone. There are many resources available, one of them is the SAMHSA National Helpline - https://bit.ly/3ynunWC.
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If youโ€™re dealing with unresolved childhood trauma or feeling chronically stressed and want to learn how to rewire your brain for health and build resilience back into your life, then click the link in my bio for my books and courses โค๏ธ.

Thank you for being part of our community โค๏ธ Content by @donnajacksonnakazawaauthor
Donna Jackson Nakazawa
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