You Can Heal Your Life

Every moment of life is a new beginning point as we move from the old. This moment is a new point of beginning for me right here and right now. All is well in my world. – Louise Hay

If Google is to search engine, then Hay House is to healing. Louise Hay (You Can Heal Your Life) has become a household name in this field. I refer to her as the “Grandmomma of Self-help,” and “Queen of Affirmations”. And I know that her works, including this bestseller, will continue to impact the generations to come.

In fact, You Can Heal Your Life was published in the year I was born, 1984. It has sold over 50 million copies since then. That made Louise Hay among the bestselling authors in history and one of the women at the top following J. K. Rowling and Danielle Steel.

The book is a spin-off from its predecessor, Heal Your Body, a pamphlet that Louise used to hand out to the attendees of her workshops. And so portions of it were included in the last section.

It also later evolved into a documentary film of the same title starring Louise herself and other leading experts. I’ll post the link below so you can watch it later. It’s a must-see!

In between the chapters are affirmation statements to instill new mental patterns about the topics covered, which include relationships, work, success, and prosperity, aside from body health.

Louise sets the tone of the discussion by laying her points of philosophy, so that’s where we’ll pick up from as well. Here they are:

• We are each responsible for all of our experiences.
• Every thought we think is creating our future.
• The point of power is always in the present moment.
• Everyone suffers from self-hatred and guilt.
• The bottom line for everyone is, “I’m not good enough.”
• It’s only a thought, and a thought can be changed.
• We create every so-called illness in our body.
• Resentment, criticism, and guilt are the most damaging patterns.
• Releasing resentment will dissolve even cancer.
• We must release the past and forgive everyone.
• We must be willing to begin to learn to love ourselves.
• Self-approval and self-acceptance in the now are the keys to positive changes.
• When we really love ourselves, everything in our life works.

Incurable

The word incurable, which is so frightening to so many people, means to me that this particular condition cannot be cured by any outer means and that we must go within to find the cure.

Ooh! AWE-HA moment right there. Time to reframe our minds around that word – incurable.

That’s why it didn’t sit well with me when the doctor told me 12 years ago that my thyroid condition was “incurable.” My mind resisted it right away. And devastated as I was at the time, I also cannot accept the idea of taking medication for the rest of my life. I was only 21 years old then. Too young for an elderly lifestyle!

It finally got cleared up, thanks to Louise’s insight from having to deal with “incurable” cancer. Yup, her own teachings were put to test when she was diagnosed with cancer. And yup, her teachings worked! She fully recovered cancer-free 6 months after the diagnosis.

Incurable means the cure doesn’t come from the outside but inside.

Let’s break down the word to make clearer sense: in-cure-able

So when somebody tells you. “It’s incurable.” Reframe your mind right away with its more empowering concept: It’s able to cure from within.

It doesn’t mean that we won’t do any other outside approach. Louise is telling us that while we treat the disease with whichever approach applies, we must go within to heal the cause of the disease – our thinking.

Louise writes it all in capital letters: “DIS-EASE CAN BE HEALED, IF WE ARE WILLING TO CHANGE THE WAY WE THINK AND BELIEVE AND ACT!”

Love Thy Self

Loving the self, to me, begins with never ever criticizing ourselves for anything. Criticism locks us into the very pattern we are trying to change. Understanding and being gentle with ourselves helps us to move out of it. Remember, you have been criticizing yourself for years, and it hasn’t worked. Try approving of yourself and see what happens.

There it is. To be incurable, to heal from the inside out means one thing: loving yourself.

When people came to Louise with a problem, whatever that may be – poor health, lack of money, unfulfilling relationship, or any other – the only thing she works on is guiding them how to love themselves.

So what does it entail? The primary thing is forgiveness. Then there’s self-acceptance and self-approval.

But we cannot get there with the same mindset or thought patterns that we’ve acquired from all of our past.

Those thoughts are based on fear, which create resentment, guilt, and criticism. These states are what’s creating the problems we have and keeping us locked in until we break the pattern.

The good news is we can! Louise reminds us that they are just thoughts and nothing more. And thoughts can be changed!

When? Right now! This present moment is your point of power, adds Louise.

Past is past. No amount of resentment, guilt, and criticism will change that.

This moment is all that matters now. You can create your life anew from here on out.

Start loving yourself. And see what happens.

Mental Housecleaning

We are always perfect, always beautiful, and ever changing. We are doing the best we can with the understanding, awareness and knowledge we have. As we gain more understanding, awareness and knowledge, then we will do things differently.

Time to do some cleaning!

But Louise says we must look at what’s there before we can clean it out. That looking is what awareness is.

It bears repeating over and over: no awareness, no change. You can only change what you’re aware of.

Now, when you haven’t had that awareness before and you’re starting to uncover it, you might give yourself a bit of a shocker: “Oh, what a mess?!”

There to confront you are your unexamined fears and limiting beliefs that have been running the show all this time.

This could bring out a lot of issues you’ve probably kept hidden in your past. And the process could be painful, but Louise tells us it need not be.

Do the mental housecleaning as you would your room. No need to get angry when you find the old stuff (i.e. old beliefs and stories) that no longer serve you. You simply pick them up, thank them for their use at a certain time in your life, and put them away into the trashcan (or recycle bin if you were Jon Bernie).

Whenever the process pisses you off, remind yourself that you only knew what you knew in the past. It has given you the lessons you needed to take you where you need to be now and where you need to go next.

The past has served you well. Now, let it go.

Be gentle with yourself in the process.

Is It True?

Remember: you are the only person who thinks in your mind! You are the power and authority in your world!

Your thoughts and beliefs of the past have created this moment, and all the moments up to this moment. What you are now choosing to believe and think and say will create the next moment and the next day and the next month and the next year.

If it’s true, then how come others are having a different experience? It must not be true for them. There must be something wrong with them!

Or with me??? Hah! Here’s the thing: you are always right. Whatever you believe to be true is true… for you. The same goes for others.

But just because it’s true for you doesn’t mean it’s true for everyone. (This is where religion and science gets all tangled up)

So as we do the housecleaning, our self-examination or self-inquiry, when we come across our beliefs (what we think is true), we question them one by one: Is it really true?

“I’m not good enough.” – Is it really true? Where did you learn that?

“I’m a sinner.” – Is it really true? Says who, Moses? Are you friends on Facebook?

Louise reminds that you, only you get to think for yourself, no one else! Stop believing what others tell you because it’s also a projection of their own beliefs. (Don Miguel calls it “mitote”)

I think you should really consider unfriending Moses. Try Abraham… Abraham Hicks, my goodness!

Be Willing to Change

We all want to have our lives change, to have situations become better and easier, but we don’t want to have to change. We would prefer that they change. In order to have this happen, we must change inside. We must change our way of thinking, change our way of speaking, change our way of expressing ourselves. Only then will the outer changes occur.

Funny when we ask “Do you want to change your life?”, we’re quick and easy to respond YES.

But if the question is, “Are you willing to change?”, uh-oh, we’re suddenly tongue-tied.

We want life to change for us without any effort coming from ourselves. That in itself renders us powerless because we’re in reactive mode, rather than responsive to life.

Louise encourages us to have the willingness to change. If life beckons us, our response must be: “I am willing to change.”

And it only takes a little. Maria Felipe, in her book, relays A Course in Miracles lesson that to Live Your Happy, what’s required of us is just a little willingness.

Then, we keep adding a little bit more each time by affirming to ourselves: “I am willing to change.”

That’s how BIG changes can happen in your life – little by little: “I am willing to change.”

I Am! Now What?

This usually takes a little while to work out. If you are gently persistent and are willing to give yourself a few quiet moments each day to reflect on your process of change, you will get the answers. The Intelligence within you is the same Intelligence that created this entire planet. Trust your Inner Guidance to reveal to you whatever it is you need to know.

One of the great things is that we do not have to know how. All we need is to be willing. The Universal Intelligence or your subconscious mind will figure out the hows.

The hows will be shown to you in the same manner – little by little. You don’t need to figure out everything. Again, you just have to be willing to show up and take the next step in front of you.

Case in point, I didn’t know before any of these tools or techniques I get to share with you now. All I knew back then was I wanted to recover from my illness and be healthy. That’s it. I was willing to do anything – ANYTHING to regain my health… And then, little by little, I was shown The Path to Awesomeness.

Important to bear in mind though, which Louise also noted in the book, is the crucial part of this process – the healing crisis: it might get worse first before it gets better. It could be awful first before it gets awesome. And that’s perfectly okay. It’s part of the process. (Get your FREE copy of The Awesome Life to learn more)

Cheer up! Louise says it’s a sign that the process is working.

Now, her process involves 3 things:

• Nurturing the willingness to let go,
• Controlling the mind, and
• Learning how forgiveness of self and others releases us.

And she only has a single tool: the mind. Which she uses to what she’s well-known for: affirmations. She sharpens them through mirror work: affirming in front of the mirror.

Another great option I highly recommend that would complement Louise’s is The Sedona Method, which specializes in the releasing process. Check it out and try it yourself.

The change process starts with and returns to you all throughout. Be committed. Stay the course no matter what. It’s going to be so much worth it, I promise.

Plant the Seed

The soil you plant in is your subconscious mind. The seed is the new affirmation. The whole new experience is in this tiny seed. You water it with affirmations. You let the sunshine of positive thoughts beam on it. You weed the garden by pulling out the negative thoughts that come up. And when you first see the tiniest little evidence, you don’t stomp on it and say, “That’s not enough!” Instead, you look at this first breakthrough and exclaim with glee, “Oh boy! Here it comes! It’s working!”

Then you watch it grow and become your desire in manifestation.

Let’s get one thing clear: affirmations work. The only reason why they won’t is that people don’t give it time.

Louise likens it to the time necessary for a seed to grow fully into a fruit-bearing plant. We can’t expect harvest to come in just a few days after planting the seed. Unless you’re using GMO, of course!

Change goes through a natural process and we have to go through it because that’s where the learning takes place. Everything we learn from it is what will take us to the life we desire.

As with anything else, there’s a learning curve or more aptly said, an unlearning curve. We have to unlearn the old ways of thinking and doing, and learn and grow a new way of being.

And that will take time.

But come harvest season, oh boy… you better be ready for a truckload of AWESOMENESS!

Failure is Not An Option

Only by practicing over and over do we learn the new and make it a natural part of us.

Learning is making mistakes until our subconscious mind can put together the right pictures.

It doesn’t matter how long you have been thinking of yourself as a failure; you can begin to create a “success” pattern now. It doesn’t matter what field you want to operate in. The principles are the same. We need to plant the “seeds” of success. These seeds will grow into an abundant harvest.

We must learn to see failure as part of the process and not an end result in itself. When we shift our perspective as such, then failure would definitely not become an option for we understand that it’s just a phase, not an outcome.

If every baby considered themselves a failure while learning to walk, we wouldn’t see anyone walking today!

So let’s clear that fear of failure (and/or success) out of the way.

Another roadblock that stops most people is knowing how to have this new way of being, thinking, and doing differently. Sam Bennett in her book, Start Right Where You Are, couldn’t say it any funnier: “Honey, of course you don’t know how. You’ve never done it before.” Haha! Never fails to tickle me.

And Sam also has an awesome term for failure not being an option: Un-screw-up-able. You cannot screw-up. You’re always learning, always growing, always succeeding.

Here are a few of Louise’s success affirmations to put you in the right track:

• Everything I touch is a success.
• There is plenty for everyone, including me.
• There are plenty of customers for my services.
• I establish a new awareness of success.
• I am a magnet for Divine Prosperity.
• I am blessed beyond my fondest dreams.
• Golden Opportunities are everywhere for me.

Allow these ideas to fill your consciousness. Don’t worry about “how” to accomplish this; the opportunities will come your way. Trust the intelligence within you to lead you and guide you. You deserve to be a success in every area of your life.

Spiritual Security

Your security is not your job, or your bank account, or your investments, or your spouse or parents. Your security is your ability to connect with the cosmic power that creates all things.

True story: Back in October 2019, I attended this live seminar on building an online business. It was awesome! It ended with the presenter offering an online course to delve deep into the mentoring. There was no doubt in my heart that I enroll. The doubt was in my pocket!

Thank God, they offered a more flexible payment plan and I took it. So now, I’m paying the monthly bills.

Then it hit me. I’m making the payments, a monthly contribution to a charity, and having extra left for other things. Hmm, I must be rich to afford this. Abundance is flowing in my life!

It’s the realization that Louise wanted us to have: love your bills. Stop resenting them because bills are an acknowledgment of our ability to pay. Pay your bills with an attitude of gratitude for it opens the channels of abundance.

From now on, let’s treat money as our friend. Let’s invite it into our lives with joy in our hearts. If we do so gladly, do you think they will come? You bet!

The same principle applies to any other areas, particularly health. As mentioned in the Corona Formula, we can follow the precautionary measures to provide a sense of peace. But it’s not the precautionary measures that will keep us safe from sickness. It is the sense of peace that does.

Have Faith, YES!

I’ve learned that there are really just two mental patterns that contribute to dis-ease: fear and anger. Anger can show up as impatience, irritation, frustration, criticism, resentment, jealousy, or bitterness. These are all thoughts that poison the body. When we release this burden, all the organs in our body begin to function properly. Fear could be tension, anxiety, nervousness, worry, doubt, insecurity, feeling not good enough, or unworthiness. We must learn to substitute faith for fear if we are to heal.

Bashar (another mutual friend of ours like Abraham) shared an interesting concept: we never lose faith. We always have faith in something. The question is, as Jesus asked, “Where is your faith?”

In fear or in love? In richness or in poorness? In sickness or in health? Till death do us part… Okay, I got carried away. But you get the idea.

Louise says we live in a YES Universe. So whether you have faith in sickness or in health, the Universe will always do your bidding. Like a genie to his master, your beliefs are its command. Meaning, whatever we believe in becomes our reality.

Those beliefs are formed by our mental patterns. And so in the last sections of the book, taken from Heal Your Body, Louise enumerates a long list (35 pages) of diseases, their corresponding mental cause, and an affirmation to correct it.

The general guideline is as follows:

1. Look up the mental cause. See if this could be true for you. If not, sit quietly and ask yourself, “What could be the thoughts in me that created this?”

2. Repeat to yourself, “I am willing to release the pattern in my consciousness that has created this condition.”

3. Repeat the new thought pattern to yourself several times.
4. Assume that you are already in the process of healing.

You Can Heal Your Life is a great entry point to your path of healing, as it has been for me.

You Can Heal Your Life DocumentaryYou Can Heal Your Life

PS: Thank you for taking the time to read. Tell me, what insight most resonated with you?

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

LOUISE HAY (1926-2017) was an inspirational teacher who educated millions since the 1984 publication of her bestseller You Can Heal Your Life, which has more than 50 million copies in print worldwide. Renowned for demonstrating the power of affirmations to bring about positive change, Louise was the author of more than 30 books for adults and children, including the bestsellers The Power Is Within You and Heal Your Body. In addition to her books, Louise produced numerous audio and video programs, card decks, online courses, and other resources for leading a healthy, joyous, and fulfilling life.

Visit her at LouiseHay.com