AUDIOBOOK
About
In this powerful follow-up to her bestselling memoir In Shock, a doctor asks: What does it truly mean to heal?
In the aftermath of critical illness, physician and writer Dr. Rana Awdish hits a healing wall. Though medicine had saved her life, it had estranged her from her own body in the process. In an attempt to understand how she came to view her body as a broken object, rather than as a site of meaning, mystery, and quiet wisdom, Awdish deconstructs her medical belief system. What emerges is a profound meditation on the stories we create about ourselves, their value and their limitations.
Guided by the evocative power of art from Frida Kahlo and Mark Rothko as well as her own creative process, After Shock is part memoir, part guidebook to sustaining wonder and attention to beauty even in the face of grief and loss. Awdish elegantly draws us into a space where our perception shifts, medicine's sacred myths are challenged, and a luminous alternative emerges: healing as a radically reimagined relationship with the self, the body, and one another. Awdish invites us to reclaim our healing as a living potential that resides in our relationships, our attention, and our willingness to stay present with suffering long enough for it to transform into something else.
With her poetic prose and evocative imagery as a guide, we learn to see differently, feel deeply, and trust that healing is always possible. Dr. Rana Awdish is the bestselling author of In Shock, a landmark medical memoir. She is the Medical Director of Care Experience at Henry Ford Health and pulmonary physician. She was Schwartz Center's National Compassionate Caregiver of the Year and a U.S. News & World Report Healthcare Hero. She is recognized as a leading voice on healing, has written for The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Harvard Business Review, and The Washington Post. She has been featured on NPR, BBC, and CNN.
"Awdish's writing crackles with wisdom: wisdom about the human body's tremendous yet mysterious capacity to heal itself, about the mind's ability to illuminate paths through the darkness of illness, about the spirit's constant striving for connection with those we love. Part garden of ideas, part memoir, part work of art, this jewel of a book speaks to us all, since we are all patients and we are all healers."
-Avraham Z. Cooper, MD, Associate Clinical Professor at The Ohio State University, Co-host of The Curious Clinicians Podcast, Co-author of Why Doesn't Your Stomach Digest Itself?: Tales of the Human Body's Remarkable Resilience
"Many believe medicine is in existential crisis, which makes this is an urgent and timely book. Dr. Awdish's writing is powered by art and human story, erupting off the pages in visual splendor. This is itself shocking considering the serious nature of her subject matter: life, death, and back to life. Through this penetrating analysis of her own disease and recovery, Dr. Awdish offers us a master class in self-discovery. Her writing is an exacting scalpel used to debride layers of physical and spiritual injury. In so doing, she exposes what courage looks like. For anyone seeking healing, After Shock offers a path to uncouple pain and fear, explore the human condition, and achieve acceptance no matter your circumstance. For healers, she teaches that medicine and science will never be enough. After Shock belongs on a short list of others that will serve to reshape the teetering steely structure of medical hierarchy by reclaiming the power of humanism and redirecting our focus where it must be…on the patient."
-Wes Ely, MD, author of Every Deep-Drawn Breath
"A piercingly honest, insightful, deeply vulnerable examination of the true nature of healing...Written with her characteristic humanity, humor, and gorgeous prose, Awdish's incisive observations and raw candor following the impact of her first book will take your breath away. If In Shock opened your mind to all the ways Medic
In the aftermath of critical illness, physician and writer Dr. Rana Awdish hits a healing wall. Though medicine had saved her life, it had estranged her from her own body in the process. In an attempt to understand how she came to view her body as a broken object, rather than as a site of meaning, mystery, and quiet wisdom, Awdish deconstructs her medical belief system. What emerges is a profound meditation on the stories we create about ourselves, their value and their limitations.
Guided by the evocative power of art from Frida Kahlo and Mark Rothko as well as her own creative process, After Shock is part memoir, part guidebook to sustaining wonder and attention to beauty even in the face of grief and loss. Awdish elegantly draws us into a space where our perception shifts, medicine's sacred myths are challenged, and a luminous alternative emerges: healing as a radically reimagined relationship with the self, the body, and one another. Awdish invites us to reclaim our healing as a living potential that resides in our relationships, our attention, and our willingness to stay present with suffering long enough for it to transform into something else.
With her poetic prose and evocative imagery as a guide, we learn to see differently, feel deeply, and trust that healing is always possible. Dr. Rana Awdish is the bestselling author of In Shock, a landmark medical memoir. She is the Medical Director of Care Experience at Henry Ford Health and pulmonary physician. She was Schwartz Center's National Compassionate Caregiver of the Year and a U.S. News & World Report Healthcare Hero. She is recognized as a leading voice on healing, has written for The New England Journal of Medicine, JAMA, Harvard Business Review, and The Washington Post. She has been featured on NPR, BBC, and CNN.
"Awdish's writing crackles with wisdom: wisdom about the human body's tremendous yet mysterious capacity to heal itself, about the mind's ability to illuminate paths through the darkness of illness, about the spirit's constant striving for connection with those we love. Part garden of ideas, part memoir, part work of art, this jewel of a book speaks to us all, since we are all patients and we are all healers."
-Avraham Z. Cooper, MD, Associate Clinical Professor at The Ohio State University, Co-host of The Curious Clinicians Podcast, Co-author of Why Doesn't Your Stomach Digest Itself?: Tales of the Human Body's Remarkable Resilience
"Many believe medicine is in existential crisis, which makes this is an urgent and timely book. Dr. Awdish's writing is powered by art and human story, erupting off the pages in visual splendor. This is itself shocking considering the serious nature of her subject matter: life, death, and back to life. Through this penetrating analysis of her own disease and recovery, Dr. Awdish offers us a master class in self-discovery. Her writing is an exacting scalpel used to debride layers of physical and spiritual injury. In so doing, she exposes what courage looks like. For anyone seeking healing, After Shock offers a path to uncouple pain and fear, explore the human condition, and achieve acceptance no matter your circumstance. For healers, she teaches that medicine and science will never be enough. After Shock belongs on a short list of others that will serve to reshape the teetering steely structure of medical hierarchy by reclaiming the power of humanism and redirecting our focus where it must be…on the patient."
-Wes Ely, MD, author of Every Deep-Drawn Breath
"A piercingly honest, insightful, deeply vulnerable examination of the true nature of healing...Written with her characteristic humanity, humor, and gorgeous prose, Awdish's incisive observations and raw candor following the impact of her first book will take your breath away. If In Shock opened your mind to all the ways Medic