IN CLOSING THIS BOOK, I want to say a few things about diet. If you haven't heard it before, you need to hear it now. What you put in your body, how you fuel your soul's physical vehicle, is important. The bottom line is, if you are going to be serious about this "spiritual awakening" thing, if you want to make best progress on this path of empowerment, if you want to stay healthy and attain full bodily power, you are going to have to pay close attention to what you put into your body. As I emphasized earlier, awakening your body and mind, powering up and driving safely on the roadways of creation is not about soul evolution or moral evolution or being a better child of God or declaring Jesus Christ as your savior or anything like that. Spiritual awakening is about bringing your full consciousness into your physical body and learning to use the physical vehicle properly. Basically, spiritual awakening is about turning on your engines, firing up your chakra systems, and fine-tuning your physical body and mind enough to allow your soul, your higher self, your full consciousness, a.k.a. the "divinity within," full expression.

Tune in, turn on, power up as I like to say.

Bottom line, spiritual awakening is a physical process and as such, you have to treat it like any other physical process. If you want the physical process to work, you have to take care of it and fuel it properly. So, if you want my advice, treat your body/mind with respect.

Treat your soul's vehicle (your body) like the temple that it is.

Breathe properly, balance the energies, drive safely, and don't put toxic junk into the gas tank. You wouldn't put garbage in your car's gas tank would you? So why do think it is appropriate to put junk in your body's gas tank?

Think about this.

How the heck is your body and mind going to handle the high vibration of your spirit if it's not fed and watered properly?

Answer? It's not.

Bottom line, your body and mind need to be strong and while it is true that your body is a finely tuned, self-balancing instrument of creation, it can only deal with so much. If you are going to feed it constant garbage, if you are going to blithely ignore its nutritional requirements, and if you are going to harass it with excessive drugs, alcohol, and sugar, it is going to break down eventually and when it does, it won't be pretty.

Remember this.

What you put in your mouth goes to your brain, your Central Nervous System, and to the rest of your body. If you want your body and mind to work properly, put good fuel in, especially these days. Proper diet is important at all times, but the closer we get to 2012, the more people awaken, and the more of your own high consciousness enters into your body and mind, the more important proper diet is going to be. As your higher consciousness embraces the cells of your body, and as the energy levels of this planet continue to rise and finally skyrocket, your body and mind will do a lot better if you feed and water them properly. When you do, when you take care of them and keep them operating at peak efficiency, energy will flow, toxins will be released, cells will regenerate, and the entire fabric of your physical and mental existence will just work better.

So, question before us now is, how do you keep your body and mind healthy?

Well, I say, listen to the experts. They say, eat a proper diet and exercise.

So do that.

Exercise and eat properly.

Now, exercise is self explanatory; but, what's a proper diet? It's an important question and it can be hard to figure out a "right answer" these days. The "experts" are still battling about what's best and the diet gurus are all keeping their "diet secrets" a secret so they can sell them for profit. However, based on my own experience, and a little bit of common sense nutrition, I think it's safe to say that a healthy dietary regime consists, in addition to regular exercise, rest, lots of water, and a balanced diet. Allow me to elaborate on each of these three points for a few moments.

As you already know, rest is important so the body can regenerate. We all need lots of sleep, adults, yes, but children and teenagers even more so. Children need a lot of sleep because their bodies and brains are growing and teenagers need a lot of sleep because their brains and bodies are growing. Children and teenagers suck in loads of energy during the day (through food, through breathing) and use that energy at night to transform and grow. You must give their growing bodies and minds the rest they need. Children need between ten and twelve hours of rest each day, teenagers twelve or more. The sleep they get is critical. If your children aren't getting enough sleep, you are stunting their physical and mental growth. Indeed, for the child's body and the teenager's mind, sleep is more important than socialization, soccer, swimming, music lessons, or whatever else you do for your kids. Children need to go to bed early (especially if they wake up early) and teenagers should be allowed full cycles, within parental reason.

Sleep is important for adults as well, not so much because we need the sleep to grow and develop but because it is during our sleep cycles that our bodies recover from the physical, social, political, psychological, and spiritual assaults we endure every day we exist within The System. Sleep is where a lot of the toxic negativity we experience during the day is washed away and where your cells regenerate themselves. As a general principle, I would say that the uglier your day has been, the more sleep you'll need at night in order to recover. Personally, I would consider seven or eight hours as a minimum. I would recommend more if you're doing any "heavy lifting," if you find yourself working in toxic environments, or if you feel you need the extra rest. A very few of us may need less, but in general, we all benefit from nice long sleeps. Sleep is critical. If you are not getting enough sleep, you are not allowing your body to recover, and if you don't allow your body to recover, then over the short (and longer term) your body will weaken, sicken, and die.

Now, the other thing you need to do for your general health, and especially as you go through the awakening and ascension process, is drink more water. In fact, drink lots of water. Consciousness, vibration, your soul, your light, your higher self, whatever you want to call it, is bright and powerful, while the cells of your body (and your body includes your brain) are fragile and easily damaged by the intensity of your consciousness. Think about X-rays for a moment. Compared to your consciousness, X-rays aren't a particularly potent form of energy. Even so, an X-ray can cause your body's cells to *pop* and fizzle. Imagine the strain that occurs as your consciousness settles in and "fills up" your body! In order to avoid the strain on your cells, drink more water.

How much water?

Well, everybody's needs are different, of course. Your water intake will vary by body size, temperature, altitude, exercise levels, current health, the amount of sleep you're getting, the type of food you're eating (more toxic foods require more water to flush), and any previous cellular damage done. The Institute of Medicine advises roughly about thirteen cups of liquid a day for men and nine cups a day for women. Consider this your minimum daily intake. Remember, your body is 70% water. Don't ignore this advice.

Finally, in addition to better sleep and more fluid intake, you need to eat better. Ideally this means a diet rich in low fat protein, fruit, vegetables, nuts, and smoothies with no processed foods whatsoever (or in extremely limited quantities) and no "white bread" or pastas. Your body needs a certain amount of protein, and since our current commercial delivery system is set up to deliver protein via dead animal flesh, you're going to need to eat some meat. Consult a dietician about how much. However, keep in mind this fact. If you are North American, chances are you are currently eating way too much meat, so be prepared to cut down. Going Vegan is a good option if you get the protein you need. It is hard now, but it will get easier with time. You may also want to consider drastically reducing your intake of dairy. Some people are starting to think that the pasteurization process is dangerous and even if it is not, dairy animals are routinely injected with hormones and other chemicals and you want to keep that stuff out of your ascending body.

I also recommend you give up coffee and other forms of CNS stimulation immediately. Decaf is fine (Swiss Water process preferred), and a regular coffee once in a while is okay, but consuming caffeine at the rates many of us drink it these days is not. Coffee is bad for you for lots of health and spiritual reasons. It is a drug, for one, and like any drug it's unhealthy and dangerous to consume in large quantities on a regular basis. It also mucks around with your metabolism and speeds up your analytical brain processes. Now, speeding up your linear processes can be a good thing if you're working in a left-brain, linear type job. However, it is a bad thing in terms of opening yourself intuitively and spiritually. Bottom line is, if you want to open that channel of yours wider than mere intuition, you need to consider cutting out the stimulants and slowing down that chatty left-brain of yours. Although we don't talk about full-blown channeling in this book, you'll get to that point sooner or later. Might as well start the process of riding your body of addictions now.

Now, I know that some of you may be going into shock at this point given how radical a diet change I may be suggesting, but what can I say?

Tough.

I don't know what it's like in other parts of the world, but our average North American diet and lifestyle is about as toxic as you can get. In North America, we are literally poisoning ourselves with nutritionally void and heavily damaged processed foods. We don't sleep well, we don't drink enough water, we eat crap, and we fill up daily with chemical stimulants designed to keep us going despite the fact that our bodies are on the verge of breaking down and we should be stopping and resting in order to repair. Is it any wonder that as we age we bloat up, dry up, crack up, and break down? It doesn't have to be that way. It shouldn't be that way. As many are already beginning to find out, our bodies can stay healthy and functioning well beyond the arbitrary checkpoints of the "labor force script" we follow as we travel through the lifecycle. The truth is, your body and mind can stay healthy as long as you want, as long as you feed, water, and rest.

As far as the transition to a healthy diet goes, this doesn't have to be a dramatic transition. You can go slow. You can do a little bit at a time. Move from regular coffee to decaf or green tea. Add a piece of fruit in the morning and at lunch. Replace the meat on your sandwiches with tomatoes, guacamole, and sprouts every once in a while. Drink more plain water without the additives (pop, caffeine beverages, juices) and when you do drink other than water, drink smoothies, herbal teas, and the like.

Little steps is fine.

You do not have to sacrifice.

Just set your intent to transition to a healthier lifestyle and diet and then make the right choices when they come your way. Keep your intent pure and persistent. Visualize a healthy body and mind and the transition to a healthier eating style will occur naturally, spontaneously, and with minimal effort. Even better, it will get easier over time. Even now, grocers, restaurants, and other food-type establishments are starting to provide healthier alternatives. These alternatives will only grow and become more visible as more of us make the choice to live healthy lifestyles.

You'll see.

A new marketplace will emerge as if by magic.

A final comment: this chapter is too short to give comprehensive nutritional advice and can really only function as an introduction. This is not a problem though because these days, more and more dieticians and food experts are recognizing the dangers of processing, sugars, fats, huge meals (as opposed to grazing behavior), and the like. Read and educate yourself about healthy eating patterns. If you are eating properly, your body should settle into a normal weight with only moderate activity. If you are not eating properly, your body will gain weight, or lose too much weight, and you will be sickly and prone to disease and depression. Judge eating patterns for yourself by observing your body's physical and mental responses to the food you eat. Figure out what foods work for you and stick with them. As an example, I consume only in limited quantities anything that makes me feel heavy. You do the same. Stay away from things that make you feel icky.

Pay attention to your body. Find your own way. This really is the only way forward.