After Shock

Learning to Reinhabit My Body After Illness

De: Rana Awdish

In this powerful follow-up to her bestselling memoir In Shock, a doctor asks: What does it truly mean to heal?

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 her own critical illness, physician and writer Dr. Rana Awdish finds herself oddly estranged her from her own body. Medicine has conditioned her to view sick bodies as broken objects, not as sites of meaning, mystery, and quiet wisdom. As she deconstructs her belief system and reassembles the pieces, she finds a radical alternative: healing as an embodied and relational process. 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 to Mark Rothko, as well as her own creative process, After Shock is part memoir and 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 and curiosity leads to profound revelation. She invites us to reclaim the power that resides in our attention, relationships and willingness to stay present with suffering long enough for it to transform into something else.

Through her poetic prose and evocative imagery, we learn to see differently, feel deeply, and trust that healing is always possible.