Author and personal-growth seminar leader Jay D. Allen has written a comprehensive guidebook for building a stronger inner foundation. Consider his book HIT: Humans In Training a sort of training manual for the mental and spiritual muscles, for even as you have to work out your body to stay in shape, Allen argues that the same effort is required to keep our emotions, beliefs and spirituality in shape.

Packed to the gills with motivational concepts, usable tools and common sense, this book teaches the art of balance and harmony in life by promoting strategies for dealing with the inner solutions to life’s outer problems, a must in today’s chaotic and distressing world. The book asks the questions, what are we as humans training for? What is our purpose, and how can we live a life of balance, harmony and meaning? By focusing on the concept that what we need we already possess within, and then showing us how to access that which lies within, the author succeeds mightily in providing readers with a solid exercise routine sure to sharpen and build the most atrophied inner musculature.

Allen leads seminars called InnerPower, The Science of Whole-Being Conditioning, and much of this book utilizes what he teaches in his hands-on seminars. His ideas and tools for personal growth are presented in an enthusiastic and inspiring style that is simply infectious, something often missing from many self-growth books. You cannot read this book and sit idle – he really grabs you with his own passion for personal improvement and makes you want to improve as well.

Each chapter contains special Realizations and Life Skills that compliment the basic theme discussed, whether it be reconditioning our mind to think the kinds of thoughts that move us forward; learning to meditate and enrich our spiritual life and connection with the Divine; raising our level of consciousness; getting our lives “on purpose” and staying the course; getting out of our own way; making connections with others; and honoring every part of our life journey – the good, the bad and the ugly.

I have read dozens of personal growth books and got so much out of this one, including a sense of excitement about the possibilities of life that jumps off the page, thanks to the author’s clearly evident passion for his work. HIT: Humans In Training is a field guide to living our best life possible, and will whip the body, mind and spirit back into tip-top shape, and make the process fun to boot.