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 Nakazawa10 hours ago
Let’s talk about how the stress cycle works, and why this matters for mental and physical health, especially for children who grow up with #ACEs and adversity. Think about how, in nature, your stress response is supposed to function. Let’s say you see a bear in the woods. You go into fight, flight, or freeze. Your body prepares to fight the bear, or run from the bear, neither of which are a very good idea.
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Let’s say the bear isn’t that interested in you, and lumbers off. Now, your body goes through the second half of the stress cycle and relaxes, letting go of stress, Ahhh. But what if the bear is in your home? What if the bear is a father who is an alcoholic who comes home drunk some nights and hits you with his belt—but comes home on other nights and tells you he loves you? What if you never know when the next bad moment is going to happen?
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When you grow up with chronic, unpredictable, toxic stress, and you never know when the next stressful event is coming, you get stuck in the first half of the stress cycle, living in a low-grade, constant state of alertness, hypervigilance—essentially a low-grade state of fight, flight, or freeze.
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This heightened stress response leads to increased production of inflammatory chemicals and stress hormones, which can lead to long-lasting shifts in the genes that oversee the stress response. This, in turn, can lead to increased inflammation, physical illness, and mental health concerns in adulthood, including anxiety and depression.
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In my new course, Your Healing Narrative: Writ-to-Heal with Neural Re-Narrating™️, I use science-based techniques to help you work through #trauma and #ACEs to calm your nervous system down, stop the negative self-talk, and experience a new layer of healing. https://bit.ly/35Wxxnv #brain #neuroscience #resilience #ACEs
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Donna Jackson Nakazawa1 day ago
I would love your opinion and ideas! Just got out of a meeting with Random House and turns out we have to change the title for my upcoming book on today’s growing adolescent female mental health crisis (book will be In stores this summer). We were calling it GIRLS ON THE EDGE, but that title is being used. We’re looking for a title and subtitle that meets the sweet spot of speaking to the urgency of our times (girls are struggling in an era of toxic stressors) and offering hope. Below is a quick description of the book, followed by a few titles we are kicking around. Thoughts? Ideas? Thank you! I especially want to hear from moms of girls and therapists!

Quick book description: Anyone on the front lines of caring for girls today—parents, school nurses, counselors—knows that girls are more anxious and prone to depression and anxiety than ever before. Now we have the science to understand why: during the critical neurodevelopmental window of adolescence, a confluence of modern toxic stressors are altering the female stress-immune response in ways that derail female thriving. Drawing on insights from both the latest science and interviews with girls, Donna Jackson Nakazawa guides readers through fifteen “antidote” strategies to help teenage girls flourish even in the face of stress, creating a new playbook for how we—parents, families, and the human tribe—can ensure a healthy emotional inner life for all of our girls.

Title ideas that aren’t quite good enough:

Girlhood on the Edge: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Age of Increased Anxiety and Depression

Girls in Peril: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Age of Increased Anxiety and Depression

GIRLS: An American Tragedy in the Making and How to Rewrite the Story

Growing Strong Girls: How to Help Our Daughters Feel Safe and Seen in an Age of Increased Anxiety and Depression

Healing Girlhood: Helping Our Daughters Thrive in an Age of Increased Anxiety and Depression

Thrive Girl: Helping Our Daughters Feel Safe and Seen in an Age of Increased Anxiety and Depression
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Donna Jackson Nakazawa2 days ago
Plant party time! People ask me if I have a green thumb when they see all our house plants and the truth is I do not. But every week I give the plants a party and they all perk up and I think it makes them happy. My family has to work around the green party for a day or two but no one complains. I think it perks us all up.
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Donna Jackson Nakazawa5 days ago
𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐠𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐟 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐥𝐨𝐬𝐬? 𝐑𝐞𝐥𝐚𝐱 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐛𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐭𝐨 𝐡𝐞𝐥𝐩 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐭 𝐟𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐡𝐞𝐚𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐠. According to a new study from the U. of Arizona, finding simple ways to relax your body is an effective treatment for grief.
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Researchers compared 2 ways of treating grief. One focused on the mind (mindfulness and focusing attention on the present moment with kindness and curiosity and letting difficult thoughts come and go without trying to change anything). Another focused on the body (guided sessions of progressive muscle relaxation, letting different muscle groups relax in stages to make difficult emotions more tolerable).
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Researchers were surprised to find that the ability to focus on the body and really relax the body turned out to be more powerful and important in managing grief and loss. The key difference? Mindfulness is about learning how to be with what is without trying to change it, and doing so with compassion. Progressive muscle and body relaxation is more about how can we be in the present moment but also feel better in our body right here right now.
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Both mindfulness and muscle relaxations helped participants find relief from the severity of their grief. But the muscle relaxation was more helpful and participants found it easier to stay with and keep implementing this practice over time. *
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Bottom line: these are tough times and we are all managing grief at varying levels right now. Those of us who regularly meditate might find it hard in these times of adversity to find our usual calm (I know this has been true for me on many mornings when I sit down in my meditation chair!). If that’s true for you, too, give muscle relaxation and other body relaxation techniques a try! https://bit.ly/2W9VV3u
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If you’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 ❤️.

Thank you for being part of our community ❤️ Content by @donnajacksonnakazawaauthor
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Donna Jackson Nakazawa1 week ago
𝐀𝐝𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐢𝐭𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐜𝐡𝐢𝐥𝐝𝐡𝐨𝐨𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐚𝐭𝐞 𝐥𝐨𝐧𝐠-𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐬𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐬, 𝐝𝐚𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐜𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐃𝐍𝐀, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐦𝐚𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐮𝐬 𝐬𝐢𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐬 𝐚𝐝𝐮𝐥𝐭𝐬. Conventional wisdom tells us what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger. But science tells us that far more often, the opposite is true. Based on the findings from the original ACE survey, two-thirds of American kids experience wounds in childhood and carry them quietly into adulthood, with little or no idea of how their wounds affect their daily health and well-being.
Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACEs) are surprisingly common. And even more surprising is the relationship between early adversity and physical and mental health disorders in adulthood.

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If you’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 ❤️.

Thank you for being part of our community ❤️ Content by @donnajacksonnakazawaauthor
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Donna Jackson Nakazawa
Donna Jackson Nakazawa1 week ago
Forest bathing with my husband today. Best hiking partner ever.
Donna Jackson Nakazawa
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