CUTTING LOOSE

Somatic stress release practitioner and educator Zaring discusses her personal struggle with a “body-focused repetitive behavior” and shares methods for soothing anxiety and compulsions.

At the age of 44, the Kentucky-based author was falling in love—and falling into emotional dysregulation. She was in her first long-term relationship after her 17-year marriage ended, and she realized that she had to admit to her new partner that she compulsively cut her hair. In this part memoir, part guidebook, Zaring traces her experience with anxiety from childhood to adulthood, when her haircutting transformed from an occasional grooming habit to a condition that’s currently categorized in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders as obsessive-compulsive. She intertwines her personal account with explanations of the neuroscience behind stress and anxiety, as well as stories of her discoveries of various techniques that proved helpful to her. Her language is often lyrical (“Perhaps this was the beginning of a lifelong dance between my gravitation toward the spotlight and my fear of its searing beam”) but also approachable, and the content is well suited to readers who may be new to anxiety disorders. A short section at the end of each chapter invites readers to practice a guided, somatic technique to connect the body and mind (“Sense It for Yourself”). Zaring is not a health care professional, but the various techniques she explains will engage readers looking for nonmedical options for mental wellness. To that end, the book provides in-depth explanations of the Bowspring Method, the Linklater Voice Method, and the Feldenkrais Method, along with accounts of how Zaring learned and used each one. As the narrative moves further along her journey to overcome a constant need to trim her hair, Zaring shares more of her personal story, including the launch of her first book, Flavors From Home: Refugees in Kentucky Share Their Stories and Comfort Foods (2015). The end of the book features references and further resources on various somatic practices.

An often engaging personal narrative and self-help work that aims to guide readers along their own paths to well-being.