Many patient’s often ask me, “how do I learn more about spirituality or consciousness?”

Consciousness being the awakening, becoming more conscious of yourself, your beliefs, your values, what drives you, what holds you back. Consciousness empowers us to move forward with more clarity, more intention, more compassion and more love.

Spirituality has many different meanings to us all. I love Martin Kipp’s definition.  “Spirituality is the measure of how willing we are to allow Grace—some power greater than ourselves—to enter our lives and guide us along our way.”

There are many tools we can activate and many people we can connect with in order to learn more about spirituality and consciousness. One such tool comes from the power of books. Reading is such a wonderful reflective tool in which to increase our knowledge. So with that in mind and the holiday season upon us, I thought I would give you a list of some of my favourite books on spirituality and consciousness and maybe some of them might inspire you.

You can heal your life by Louise Hay

I often suggest this book as a place to start if you are just delving into the concept of conscious thinking and manifestation. Louise Hay was among the founders supporting conscious thinking. She herself started off in this process after a diagnosis of cancer from which she cured herself and lived well into her 90’s inspiring people and empowering people to heal themselves. Her key message in this book is “If we are willing to do the mental work, almost anything can be healed.” This book works through relationships, health, wealth and success and looks at where our limiting beliefs may lie and gives tools for creating the life we deserve.

The big leap by Gay Hendricks

One of my all-time favourites for driving us forward to reach and live our true potential. Gay encourages us to discover what is either holding us back or keeping us in a holding pattern from living in our ‘zone of genius’. The zone of genius is that place where we feel free, inspired, creative and successful, it is in essence truly living our potential.
This is a wonderful book if you are feeling stuck in any aspect of your life, but especially around career. This was the book that inspired me to let go of my fear and take the leap into creating and running Centered Health.

The untethered soul by Michael Singer

This book is a wonderful book in helping us understand our mental mind and that constant stream of thoughts that can be overwhelming. It is, therefore, an empowering book for anyone suffering from anxiety, struggling to let go of negative thought patterns, or for anyone wishing to take control of their thoughts (surely everyone).
Michael starts by taking us through his own journey of understanding the constant stream of chatter in his head and how that chatter can often be negative and disempowering. He then provides tools to release this constant stream of thought and adopt more peace of mind.
I believe that one of the best aspects of this book is helping us understand that these thoughts are not real, while it is our voice in our head, it is not our truth and absolutely does not have to be our reality.

A new earth by Eckhart Tolle

My all-time favourite spiritual book. Described as a “profoundly spiritual manifesto for a better way of life.”Eckhart provides powerful ideas to show “how transcending our ego-based state of consciousness is not only essential to personal happiness, but also the key to ending conflict and suffering throughout the world.”
I found this book incredibly empowering in identifying my ego and becoming more conscious of when my ego was activated. This then provided me with the choice to act from a place of ego or act from a place of consciousness. 
My personal goal is to connect with this book every year as it offers me the opportunity to surrender more and connect more with a peaceful way of being.
[Oprah Winfrey and Eckhart Tolle did a 10 part podcast series on this book if you are more of a listener than a reader. You can access this from Oprahs supersoul conversations.]

Many lives, many masters by Brain Weiss

This is the true story of a traditional psychotherapist who through the use of hypnotherapy was amazed when patients started recalling past-life traumas. He went on to develop past life regression therapy which provided a platform for many patients to heal from their current life issues.
This book might not be for everyone but I found it fascinating on many levels and really connected with it.

Mans search for meaning by Viktor Frankl

This is a beautiful book by psychiatrist Victor Frankl who survived the Nazi death camps and through this experience he gives in his memoirs lessons for spiritual survival. “Based on his own experience and the stories of his patients, Frankl argues that we cannot avoid suffering but we can choose how to cope with it, find meaning in it, and move forward with renewed purpose.”
For me this is the truth of life, hardship and difficult times are inevitable, however if we can lean into it, get support and have compassion for ourselves, it will provide the opportunity for great spiritual growth.

The Choice by Edith Eger

A truly empowering book and a remarkable story of resilience. This is a fantastic book if you are more attracted to novels. Like Frankl, Edith Eger survived the unimaginable experience of Auschwitz. Edith takes us through her story of not only surviving the horrors of Auschwitz but of moving to America and dealing with her post-traumatic stress. Edith really encourages us to understand that we all have choices in our lives. We can choose how to view something, we can choose how to act, we can choose to deal with our traumas and we can choose to heal.

Happy reading.