Alternative Medicine

DailyOM: Inspirational Thoughts for a Happy, Healthy, and Fulfilling Day

You Can Heal Your Life (Gift Edition)

If you haven't seen Hay House's Lifestyles series of gorgeous gift books, there is no better way to acquaint yourself than with publisher/author Louise Hay's You Can Heal Your Life. A bestseller for many years, You Can Heal Your Life has been republished with bright, beautiful illustrations in full, living color and exquisite typography--each and every page is a work of art by artist Joan Perrin Falquet. The timeless message of the book is that we are each responsible for our own reality and "dis-ease." Hay believes we make ourselves ill by having thoughts of self-hatred. She includes a directory of ailments and emotional causes for each with a corresponding affirmation to help overcome the illness. For example, the probable cause of multiple sclerosis is "mental hardness, hard-heartedness, iron will, and inflexibility." The healing "thought pattern" would be: "By choosing loving, joyous thoughts, I created a loving joyous world. I am safe and free." --P. Randall Cohan

The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook: Your Self-Treatment Guide for Pain Relief, Second Edition

The first edition of this workbook is regarded as a classic in its field, and was the first book to introduce trigger point therapy to the general public as a self-care tool for alleviating chronic pain caused by a variety of conditions, including arthritis, back pain, carpal tunnel syndrome, fibromyalgia, headache, muscle ache, and repetitive strain injuries. As the author makes clear, all such conditions are related to lack of oxygen in exhausted or injured muscle tissue. Trigger point therapy has been used for decades by doctors, pain specialists, and massage therapists to quickly stimulate the flow of oxygen and promote rapid pain reduction. This book makes the same techniques available to the general public with instructions that are easy to follow, and abetted by an extensive collection of charts and corresponding illustrations.

The author's interest in trigger point therapy began when he used it to successfully treat his frozen shoulder. Since that time, he has dedicated himself to teaching others the same techniques. That dedication is obvious throughout his writing and the care he takes to make the therapy understandable to the lay public. Also included in this new edition is updated information that should be of great interest to pain specialists and bodyworkers, as well as useful instruction in a variety of relaxation techniques. Overall, this book is an excellent self-care resource for anyone interested in pain relief.--Larry Trivieri Jr.

Trigger point therapy is one of the most intriguing and fastest-growing bodywork styles in the world. Medical doctors, chiropractors, physical therapists, and massage therapists are all beginning to use this technique to relieve formerly undiagnosable muscle and joint pain—conditions that studies have shown to be the cause of nearly 25 percent of all doctor visits. The technique involves applying short, repeated massage strokes to trigger points, tiny contraction knots in muscle tissue where restricted circulation and lack of oxygen cause referred pain. Trigger points create pain throughout the body in predictable patterns characteristic to each muscle, producing discomfort ranging from mild to severe. Trigger point massage increases circulation and oxygenation in the area and often produces instant relief. This dynamic technique has made a huge impact among health professionals and the public alike, becoming an overnight classic in the field of pain relief. The book has sold over 145,000 copies since the release of the first edition in 2001. The second edition is a complete update and includes a new chapter specifically for massage professionals, as well as a chapter on systematic muscle relaxation techniques that can reinforce the therapeutic power of trigger point work.

The Wise Heart: A Guide to the Universal Teachings of Buddhist Psychology

You have within you unlimited capacities for love, for joy, for communion with life, and for unshakable freedom—and here is how to awaken them. In The Wise Heart, one of the leading spiritual teachers of our time offers the most accessible and illuminating guide to Buddhism’s transformational psychology ever published in the West.

Trained as a monk in Thailand, Burma, and India, Jack Kornfield experienced at first hand the life-changing power of Buddhist teachings: the emphasis on the nobility and sacredness of the human spirit, the fine-grained analysis of emotion and thought, the precise techniques for healing, training, and transforming the mind and heart. In contrast to the medical orientation of most Western psychology and psychiatry, here is a vision of radiant human dignity, and a practical path for realizing it in our own lives.

The Wise Heart is the fruit of a life’s work that includes such classics as A Path with Heart and After the Ecstasy, the Laundry. Filled with stories from Kornfield’s Buddhist psychotherapy practice and portraits of remarkable teachers, it also includes a moving account of his own recovery from a violence-filled childhood. For meditators and mental health professionals, Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike, The Wise Heart offers an extraordinary journey from the roots of consciousness to the highest expression of human possibility.

The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure: A Holistic Approach to Total Recovery

The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure contains the incredible three-step program to total recovery that is the basis of the miraculous success of the Passages Addiction Cure Center in Malibu, California, the world's most successful substance abuse treatment center. While traditional treatments have a relapse rate as high as 80% or 90%, the world-famous Passages has a cure rate of 84.4%. This revolutionary book shows how you or a loved one can follow the same successful program used at Passages with the help of health professionals right where you live. You'll learn the three steps to permanent sobriety, the four causes of dependency, and how to create your own personalized treatment program—one that gets to the real, underlying causes of dependency. The book also shows how your thoughts, emotions, and beliefs are key factors in your recovery and how you can stimulate your body's self-healing potential to be forever free of dependency. The Alcoholism and Addiction Cure will show you how to end relapse, end your craving, and end your suffering.

The Third Jesus: The Christ We Cannot Ignore

Who is Jesus Christ?

In The Third Jesus, bestselling author and spiritual leader Deepak Chopra provides an answer to this question that is both a challenge to current systems of belief and a fresh perspective on what Jesus can teach us all, regardless of our religious background. There is not one Jesus, Chopra writes, but three.

First, there is the historical Jesus, the man who lived more than two thousand years ago and whose teachings are the foundation of Christian theology and thought. Next there is Jesus the Son of God, who has come to embody an institutional religion with specific dogma, a priesthood, and devout believers. And finally, there is the third Jesus, the cosmic Christ, the spiritual guide whose teaching embraces all humanity, not just the church built in his name. He speaks to the individual who wants to find God as a personal experience, to attain what some might call grace, or God-consciousness, or enlightenment.

When we take Jesus literally, we are faced with the impossible. How can we truly “love thy neighbor as thyself”? But when we see the exhortations of Jesus as invitations to join him on a higher spiritual plane, his words suddenly make sense.

Ultimately, Chopra argues, Christianity needs to overcome its tendency to be exclusionary and refocus on being a religion of personal insight and spiritual growth. In this way Jesus can be seen for the universal teacher he truly is–someone whose teachings of compassion, tolerance, and understanding can embrace and be embraced by all of us.

Prescription for Nutritional Healing, 4th Edition

Prescription for Nutritional Healing by nutritionist Phyllis A. Balch and James F. Balch, M.D., has long been considered one of the most trusted, comprehensive sources on the mind-boggling array of vitamins, minerals, herbs, and other dietary supplements now available. Working from the premise that a good diet promotes good health, this third edition of PNH still starts with the basics: consume fresh produce, grains, and lean meats; avoid foods that are processed or high in saturated fat; cook using glass, stainless steel, or iron--never aluminum; and drink filtered water. The authors also stand by their claim that the government-prescribed recommended daily allowances are ridiculously low, and that the book's optimal daily intake for nutrients should be followed instead.

So what's new in the third edition? Along with now-accepted remedies, like zinc and echinacea for the common cold, the Balches also explore many of the newer supplements to hit the market: SAMe (recommended for depression and joint pain), phosphatidyl serine (mental acuity), red yeast rice (cholesterol), and 5-HTP (weight loss, insomnia, depression). You'll also find an expanded chapter on alternative therapies that encompasses Ayurvedic and traditional Chinese medicine, along with a hefty section on pain control that offers a grab bag of options such as acupuncture, biofeedback, guided imagery, chiropractic care, and massage.

Still, the bulk of the book remains the more than 250 health conditions--from everyday problems such as insect bites and bad breath to serious diseases including bulimia, cancer, and AIDS--and the nutritional protocols the Balches recommend for treatment. Since any number of supplements can be taken for the same condition, the Balches make sifting through the glut of information a little easier by separating their nutrient recommendations into four categories: essential, very important, important, and helpful. And they take a lot of the guesswork out of buying supplements by listing the brands they know and trust. Once again, the authors have squeezed in an impressive amount of information, including valuable sidebars on topics such as the dangers of aspartame; how to choose a calcium supplement; common heart problems and procedures; cancer risk factors, diagnosis, and treatments; and sports nutrition. This is not relaxing reading, but it's enormously useful. While the material can be dense, the authors still manage to present it in a straightforward manner that's understandable even for readers without a medical degree. --Norine Dworkin

Natural health's number-one bestseller for more than twenty years, completely revised and updated.

With more than five million copies sold, Prescription for Nutritional Healing is the most trusted, comprehensive source on dietary supplements, vitamins, minerals, and herbs. A pioneer in the field of nutritional healing, Phyllis Balch passionately and meticulously researched and compiled this groundbreaking book. Now, a generation later, her message has more relevance than ever: consume fresh foods, avoid processed foods and those high in saturated fat, and optimize your intake of essential nutrients with the right supplements. Today's well-stocked vitamin and natural-health stores can be confusing, and people need Balch's clear, concise, landmark guide.

To help them make sense of the mind-numbing array of choices that are available, readers of Prescription for Nutritional Healing will:

- learn the basics of good nutrition;
- find out how to balance vitamins and minerals so that the body can properly absorb both;
- determine how best to treat 250 problems-from abscesses to wrinkles-using herbs, nutrition, and supplements; and
- get the facts on other complementary therapies, like ayurveda, biofeedback, chiropractic care, and more. Prescription for Nutritional Healing is an essential resource for every health-minded consumer.

The Divine Matrix: Bridging Time, Space, Miracles, and Belief