About the Book

Peggy Huddleston developed five steps to prepare for surgery using mind-body techniques. She guides you in using these steps in her best-selling book, Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster.

A graduate of Harvard Divinity School, her clinical work and research focus on the ways positive emotions and the human spirit speed healing.

The book is a quick read of 2-3 hours. An updated, 4th edition was published in 2012.

The mind-body techniques in this book help you to:

  • Reduce anxiety before surgery
  • Use 23-50% less pain medication
  • Heal faster

Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster is recommended in hospitals across the US, including Brigham and Women’s Hospital which is a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital and NYU Langone Medical Center in New York.

Step One shows you how to use visualization to turn your worries about surgery into positive healing imagery. It calms preoperative jitters, showing you how to shift yourself out of the fight-or-flight response into feeling peaceful.

Step Two is listening to her relaxation CD or MP3. It reduces anxiety, guiding you into a deep state of relaxation. If you have insomnia, it will help you fall asleep. If you have headaches, they will melt away as you relax.

Research at a Harvard Medical School teaching hospital showed those listening to her relaxation had less anxiety and used less medication for anxiety.

Step Three shows you how to ask friends and family to wrap you with their thoughts in a “Blanket of Love” for the half-hour before surgery.

Many say, “I felt more loved then I’ve ever felt in my whole life as I waited in the holding area before surgery feeling the “Blanket of Love around me.”

Step Four explains the “Healing Statements”, words spoken during surgery which research showed reduced the use of pain medication by 23-50%.

Step Five shows you how to request use of the “Healing Statements”, explaining it is your legal right to request them.

Using these five steps, you will reduce anxiety and feel profoundly peaceful in the days before surgery. In turn, this peace creates the biochemistry of healing that will dramatically speed your healing.

Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster Workshops are offered in hospitals and HMOs by nurses and therapists trained and certified by Peggy Huddleston.

Prepare for Surgery, Heal Faster has been selected by:
Book-of-The-Month Club
One Spirit Book Club
Quality Paperback Book Club

Watercolor of Exuma, Bahamas, "Clouds from Goat Cay" by Jane Chermayoff
Watercolor of Exuma, Bahamas “Clouds from Goat Cay” by Jane Chermayoff