Recommended Reading
The basis for Oriental Medicine can be found in Taoism and its reverence for the cycles of life. The
Tao Te Ching
is the most available work in translation. I prefer this translation, as it keeps the poetic flow of the original, while allowing the
intuitive mind (right brain) to grasp what the logical mind (left brain) cannot.
The Web That Has No Weaver was one of the
very first books I read on Chinese Medicine, and it does a good job of explaining the ins and outs of Oriental Medicine to someone who
doesn't have a formal education in OM. If you're wondering what all this acupuncture stuff is about, this book is for you!
Between Heaven and Earth is
another "first-look book" on Oriental Medicine. Most of my classmates agreed that "Web that has no Weaver" appealed to the more "left-brained"
scientific-types among us, while Beinfeld's book took a more right-brained approach. If this book is still listed as unavailable
at Amazon, try Redwing Books.
Here are four books on diet, from four different perspectives.
Helping Ourselves: A Guide to Traditional Chinese Food Energetics
is a marvelous little book that explains Traditional Chinese Food Energetics in a simple, easily explained manner. I think that this book
is indispensible for personal healing in an Oriental Medicine paradigm. I use it every day. Again, if the above link to Amazon
still shows the book as unavailable, try this link to
Redwing Books.
Healing With Whole Foods
is a treasure-trove of information, and HUGE in comparison to Healing Ourselves. However, I feel that Pitchford goes rather off the deep
end into vegetarianism, as there is much recent new thought on the virtues of eating more protein and fat, versus carbohydrates.
Considering the new paradigm in diet, The South Beach Diet Book
is the way to go, in my opinion. I don't consider it so much for weight loss, as much as a way to eat healthier and regain vitality. ( If you are dealing with cardiac issues, The South Beach Heart Program
is an eye-opening book - be sure to get a copy for your cardiologist, if they haven't read it already!)
If you are still thinking that a low fat/low protien/high carbohydrate diet is the way to health, Good Calories, Bad Calories
will completely shake you up! Even though my thoughts had moved on to a more "South Beach" way of thinking, this book is close to finishing
the transformation for me. This is another one to buy for your MD.
The next two books are a pair, Younger Next Year is
written for men, while Younger Next Year For Women
obviously has the other half in mind. I have given and recommended these books to many of my friends and family, and literally
everyone has been taken with them. Who doesn't want to reverse their aging, and feel younger and stronger? These books will give you
a pep talk and sound advice on reaching those ends.
Much of physical healing is grounded in the spirit, and these two books come from different directions to achieve much the same thing:
health of body, mind, and spirit.
Wherever you go, there you are
is a primer on meditation for health. Kabat-Zinn is the founder of the Stress Reduction Clinic at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center, and is a practitioner of "non-spiritual"
meditation - while it comes out of the Buddhist "mindfulness" tradition, it is presented here as a Way of Being.
Shakti Gawain's classic book,
Creative Visualization
comes at life (and healing) from a completely different direction - the practice of clearly visualizing what you want. While this has clear
applications in moving toward greater health, one can also utilize this technique toward more satisfying relationships, greater wealth,
even developing a more efficient way to dealing with day-to-day stress. Highly recommended.
