Books (Click on Titles to see more)
Shiatsu For Women 
Ray Ridolfi & Suzanne Franzen
A fantastic and very practical resource for home use or for the serious student/practitioner. Black and white with good drawings. Lots of emphasis on points and various conditions.
The Complete Illustrated Guide
to
ShiatsuElaine Liechti
This beautiful guide covers every aspect of this nearly 3,000-year-old healing art which has been used to treat headaches, back pain, stress, and even reproductive and circulatory disorders. I love it's
full color pages with diagrams, photos, and how-to sequences, etc. The best introduction to Shiatsu around (thorough, interesting, and not to technical)!
Breathing: The Master Key to Self Healing
(Audio CD)
Dr. Andrew Weil If there is one thing you can do that would be the most effective thing to improve your health, reduce stress and increase your spiritual sensitivity, it's making your breath slower, deeper, and more quiet. And it's free and totally portable!
This is a fabulous introduction, with half the material covering the theory and the other half explaining and taking you through 8 breathing techniques. Easy to follow. For a more thorough workbook approach, see
The Breathing Book below.
The Breathing Book
Donna Farhi
Internationally renowned yoga instructor presents a refreshingly simple and practical guide to re-establishing proper breathing techniques that will dramatically improve your physical and mental health.
During infancy most of us breathed with complete ease. Since then, however, we have unconsciously altered our breathing in response to stress and other demands in our lives. Now, rediscover the wonders and freedom of unrestricted breathing. In this accessible and comprehensive manual you will learn how to get in touch with your own lost natural breathing so that you can develop effective strategies for using your breathing to relax your body in stressful situations and calm your mind during trying times; learn how to enhance your sexual pleasure, develop your concentration, and cultivate inner peace; use safe and easily learned techniques to treat asthma, depression, eating disorders, insomnia, pain, fatigue, headaches, and to quit smoking and a wide variety of other debilitating conditions; and improve athletic performance.
Spontaneous Healing 
Dr. Andrew Weil This paperback is what inspired me to become a Shiatsu Therapist!
A passionate and convincing book about the need to incporporate alternative medicine into current medical practices, Spontaneous Healing shows how the mechanisms of self-diagnosis and self-regeneration have worked to resolve life-threatening diseases, severe trauma, and chronic pain. But spontaneous healing is also the essential element in the maintenance of our basic daily health. The book outlines an eight-week program that each of us can use to alter our diet, avoid environmental toxins, and reduce stress in order to enhance our innate healing powers.
Healing with Whole Foods: Asian Traditions and Modern Nutrition
, (3rd Ed.)
Paul Pitchford
This is a
hefty, truly comprehensive guide to the theory and healing power of
Chinese medicine. It''s also a primer on
nutrition—including facts about green foods, such as spirulina and blue-green algae, and the "regeneration diets" used by cancer patients and arthritics—along with an inspiring cookbook with more than 300 mostly vegetarian, nutrient-packed
recipes. The diet is certainly acetic by American standards (no alcohol, caffeine, white flour, fried foods, or sugar, and a minimum of eggs and dairy) but the reasons he gives for avoiding these "negative energy" foods are compelling. From the adrenal damage imparted by coffee to immune dysfunction brought on by excess refined sugar, Pitchford spurs you to rethink every dietary choice and its ultimate influence on your health. Overall, this is a wonderful book for anyone who's serious about strengthening his or her body from the inside out.
The Thrive DietBrendan Brazier
This is a long-term eating plan (not a fad diet) that will help you achieve optimal health through stress-busting
plant-based whole foods. It's an easy-to-follow diet that will help you understand why some foods create nutritional stress and how other foods can help eliminate it, giving you a lean body, sharp mind, and everlasting energy. Fully researched and developed by Brendan Brazier, professional Ironman triathlete, The Thrive Diet features: - the best whole foods - a 12-week whole foods meal plan - over
100 easy-to-make recipes with raw food options that are all wheat-, gluten-, soy-, corn-, refined sugar- and dairy-free, including
exercise-specific recipes for pre-workout snacks, energy gels, sport drinks, and recovery foods - and an easy-to-follow
exercise plan.
A Call to Women: The Healthy Breast Program and Workbook
Sat Dharam Kaur, N.D.
Naturopath Guide to Prevention
An extraordinary book, comprehensive and compassionate, ... goes into the kind of detail I have not seen in any other book.
Also, consider this online article from Shiatsucentre.net: Margaret Feeman is a graduate of the Shiatsu College, Newcastle. In this long & detailed dissertation she examines breast disorders from both a Western & Eastern perspective: "
The Breast Connection"
Relax & Renew 
Judith Lasater
Restorative yoga uses
supported poses and
breathing practices that will help you heal the effects of chronic stress. In Relax and Renew, the first book exclusively devoted to this work, the author offers in-depth guidance in the Basic Relaxation Pose (Savasana), the heart of restorative practice. In addition, this book provides yoga sequences for busy days, including a fifteen-minute practice, yoga at your desk, and the Totally Invisible Relaxation.
Mindfulness In Plain English 
Venerable Henepola Gunaratana
This is a fantastic step-by-step guide to
Insight Meditation that's truly practical and direct. This new edition includes the complete text of its best selling predecessor and a new chapter on loving-kindness. A great introduction and also a helpful resource for the seasoned meditator's struggles.
Full Catastrophe Living 
John Kabbat Zinn
Based on Dr. Jon Kabat-Zinn’s renowned mindfulness-based stress reduction program, this groundbreaking book shows you how to use natural, medically proven methods to soothe and heal your body, mind, and spirit. By using the practices described within, you can learn to manage chronic pain resulting from illness and/or stress-related disorders…discover the roles that anger and tension play in heart disease…reduce anxiety and feelings of panic…improve overall quality of life and relationships through
mindfulness meditation and
mindful yoga.
Although not a light read, this is one of the great classics of mind/body medicine! And no other book has enabled so many people to discover the inner life. This book has brought peace of mind to hundreds and thousands of people and healed countless lives!
Stretching 
Bob Anderson
Discover the best-selling exercise manual trainers and medical professionals recommend. Stretching 20th Anniversary Edition features stretches for more than 60 sports and activities. This updated, revised edition includes more than 20 new stretching routines, including some for sports buffs, travellers, children, gardeners and people in wheelchairs; time-saving abbreviated versions of all routines; information about the stretching vs. warming up debate; as well as new and better illustrations.
Chi Running 
Danny Dreyer
Ultramarathoner Danny Dreyer teaches the running technique he created to heal and prevent injuries and also to run faster, farther, and with much less effort at any age.
Stopping Dr. David Kundtz
"stopping" is a simple, straightforward, contemplative system of "doing nothing, as much as
possible, for a definite period of time, for the purpose of becoming more awake and remembering who you are" so you can get going again in a more purposeful and centered way.
The Merck Manual of Medical Information: Home Edition
A fabulous resource for home-use or student/practitioner! B&W with Great diagrams and charts/lists.
A New Earth
: Awakening to Your Life's Purpose
Eckart Tolle
I highly recommend this book if you want to understand the nature and dysfunction of the Ego, and especially for his unique description of what he calls "the pain-body."
Following several sustained periods of depression, at the age of 29 Tolle experienced an enlightenment that dramatically changed the course of his life. His subsequent spiritual teachings have focused on awareness of the present moment, freedom from negativity, and the attainment of inner peace. Tolle does not align himself with any specific religion or tradition and this can be refreshing if your open to that. See his other book:
The Power of NowThe 7 Habits of Highly Effective People
Steven R. Covey
Do you feel like there's a gap between your values and how your life actually is? Are you serious about personal change, finding your "
mission" and living a truly effective life? We cannot have "vitory" or success in our public life if we haven't first created
integrity and taken
responsibility in our private/personal life. It all begins with acknowedging the reality that between any stimulus (choices, emotions, circumstances) and our response lies our ability to CHOOSE our response. We are response-able! And from this comes our power to develop
the 7 habits... Not a light read, but worth the investment of time and energy! Click
here for a more detailed summary.
The Way of The Superior Man
David Deida This book is a total wake-up call, refreshing in its bluntness, challenging in its call to a whole new way of being a man that is an invitation to get out of the new-age, whimpy, 50/50, passive masculinity that's all around us!
A must read for every man who wants to live a life of
integrity,
authenticity, and
freedom. Learn how essential it is to know
your purpose in the world and to not "collapse" in the face of challenge or pain. Understand how your masculine direction gifts your woman as much as her attractive radiance gifts you. "Superior" is in reference to a man with spine
and heart.
Deida's books on intimacy and relationship are revolutionizing the way that men and women relate both spiritually and sexually.
The Web That Has No Weaver
Ted J. Kaptchuck
An expert in alternative medicine, Ted J. Kaptchuk carefully explains the elements and benefits of such practices as acupuncture, herbal treatment and other traditional Eastern approaches, grounding his synthesis of East and West in the history and philosophy of China while employing poetic language the general reader can understand and enjoy. This is a classic and very thorough, for the student at heart or anyone in the medical/healing professions.
Between Heaven & Earth
: A Guide To Chinese MedicineHarriet Beinfield and Efrem Korn
This is a great resource, especially if you want to understand and use the 5 Element Theory. B&W.
Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming
Stephen LaBerge, Ph.D. and Howard Rheingold
This is a solid how-to book. It goes far beyond the confines of pop dream psychology, establishing a scientifically researched framework for using lucid dreaming--that is, consciously influencing the outcome of your dreams. I've used it and it works! One example: I used to find myself flying in dreams but felt a bit trapped in the sense that I couldn't control direction or speed. As I used this book I first gained ability to change the direction of my flying, then the speed, and eventually I could land and take off again at will!
Use your dreams to: Solve problems; Gain greater confidence; improve creativity!
However there is value in temporary meditative/contemplative states because they have proven to help accelerate one's development. But don't "settle" for occasional states. Which means, time and effort and training are required. It's worth it!
