Every now and again, a new book comes along that can truly be a game-changer. Nature advocate, former pro-boxer, and rewilding facilitator Vanessa Chakour’s Earthly Bodies: Embracing Animal Nature is one of them. In it, she draws parallels from her own struggles “to our unease of feeling like prey; challenging the entrapment of our limiting beliefs; contextualizing the turmoil of fractured landscapes; and affirming our primal ache to belong.”

I unhesitatingly say if Earthly Bodies doesn’t change your head and heart and get you outside—to rewild yourself and to expand your self-centered mindset and remain positive—little will. Here’s what Vanessa had to say about her riveting book that explores our inner and outer landscapes through the lens of wild animals.

I wrote this book for all animal bodies, including my own, who do their very best for us every day, and for misunderstood, beloved relatives like bats, coyotes, and wolves who cannot speak for themselves. I’ve always had a deep emotional bond with the Earth and other animals. Raised on books like Charlotte’s Web that portrayed animals as beings with rich inner and emotional lives, I fell in love with all species. I was fortunate to grow up in Western Massachusetts, where I spent every moment I could in the woods and imagined that, like Snow White, I could talk to woodland animals and befriend them.

But as I grew older, I became increasingly aware of harmful narratives that portray other animals as inferior or expendable. This dissonance, along with society’s aggression toward more-than-human animals and our own animal bodies, has fueled my activism, led me on a path of healing and rewilding, and........

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