Developing and mastering Conscious Awareness is like nothing else you've ever known. Those skilled in the art of Conscious Awareness will be amazed at what this knowledge can deliver at the personal life level. Over the 20 years I've been researching this topic there are a few books and journals I'd recommend as semi easily digestable and important building blocks that will help you understand your journey. While no one book or concept yields the entire key, each one does point out (and support) that there is more to our life journey than most of us comprehend. (This would even include some of the top scientific minds.)

Here is a short summary of each publication:

An important note before you read on: It is important to remember that much of the success you have with your journey will be based on the coach you choose AND the peer group you embrace. This is what makes these, and publications like them, so important.

- Alternative Medicine : This wonderful publication brings to reality that better health can be achieved through natural methods. So often we are frightened, by peer pressure, in believing that Western Pharmacological Medicine is the only way to support or restore good health. Alternative Medicine Magazine has become the core of my peer group as I have come to rely on its content displaying and supporting successful alternative and natural healing modalities.

- Yoga Journal : Another wonderful publication that brings the joy and benefits of exercise into your world at your pace. Yoga Journal also does a great job supporting the importance of the connection between the physical body and the spiritual soul.

- Mind Over Genes : A very enlightening piece as it supports the incredible feats that the human body is capable of. While most scientists are stuck on the notion that genetic programming predicts our destiny, Mind Over Genes exposes the role the mind and spirit play in manifesting the state of health we desire. If you now subscribe to this new theory, it easily reveals why people can have spontaneous remissions or recover from injuries deemed to be permanent disabilities.

- The Metabolic Typing Diet : This is a great book to expose the average reader to the logic that your body can (and will) speak to you about what you're feeding it. The key to capitalizing on this path is to learn how to "listen." Just like we must listen to our Children, our Spouses, or our Co-Workers in order to have a productive conversation, you must listen to what your body has to say about the things you eat in order to optimize your health. After you understand this process, you?ll quickly notice that your dietary requirements will change regularly based on many factors ? to name just a few; levels of exercise, amount of sleep, stress level, and changes in hormone levels. The ability to read our bodies? needs is innate within all of us. The problem is that somewhere along the line, you were told you were incapable of this and that you must follow someone else?s rules.

- The Art and Science of Flow : Keep in mind that the goal is not always to understand the ?how,? but to learn to appreciate the ?when.? I?ve found that to learn to enter the state of Flow, it is important to first be cognizant of the state in the first place. Once that first step is made, it will be your own appreciation of the state that will allow it to reoccur again and again. If you are not already aware of the complete, ultimate enjoyable, effortless state of concentration called Flow, this article is a must read.

The Zone Diet* – This is a great introduction to the art of eating a balanced diet and how your body expects its fuel in a balance. What I was not pleased with was Dr. Sear’s failure to guide the reader toward the importance of whole fresh food as part of the balance, while I will also point out that with whole food balance is far easier to achieve. None the less, this book will bring about some ah-ha moments.

The Ultra Mind Solution* – This is a fabulous road map to eating to heal, and to stay at the top of your game. Dr Hyman puts great health into terms anyone can understand and how important a balanced whole food diet is to fueling the body and the mind toward best health and performance. This book also supports the idea that many illnesses (mind & body), previously thought to be chronic, can be managed and often times healed through proper diet.

The Wisdom and Healing Power of Whole Foods* – This book is an excellent reference for pointing out just how jilted our dietary requirements have become and how the American diet is guiding us down a path of self destruction, and all this in the name of higher profits. What I was not 100% pleased with was Dr Quillin’s failure to be consistent where by in one passage he points out that sugar is an over consumed immune system distraction and in a later passage almost implies that it’s ok to be included in a balanced diet.

*In general, if you combine the knowledge gleaned from each of these publications and combine it with the rule that thou will consume foods in their rawest & freshest forms and without being genetically modified for “healthier consumption” (eg: Canola oil) then you can expect your body and mind to reach their most optimum state of great health.