ALSO BY LOUISE HAY
BOOKS/KIT
All Is Well (with Mona Lisa Schulz, M.D.)
Colors & Numbers
Empowering Women
Everyday Positive Thinking
Experience Your Good Now! (book-with-CD)
A Garden of Thoughts: My Affirmation Journal
Gratitude: A Way of Life (Louise & Friends)
Heal Your Body
Heal Your Body A-Z
Heart Thoughts (also available in a gift edition)
I Can Do It® (book-with-CD)
Inner Wisdom
Letters to Louise
Life! Reflections on Your Journey
Love Your Body
Love Yourself, Heal Your Life Workbook
Meditations to Heal Your Life (also available in a gift edition)
Modern-Day Miracles (Louise & Friends)
The Power Is Within You
Power Thoughts
The Present Moment
The Times of Our Lives (Louise & Friends)
You Can Create an Exceptional Life (with Cheryl Richardson)
You Can Heal Your Life (also available in a gift edition)
You Can Heal Your Life Affirmation Kit
You Can Heal Your Life Companion Book
FOR CHILDREN
The Adventures of Lulu
I Think, I Am! (with Kristina Tracy)
Lulu and the Ant: A Message of Love
Lulu and the Dark: Conquering Fears
Lulu and Willy the Duck: Learning Mirror Work
CD PROGRAMS
All Is Well (audio book)
Anger Releasing
Cancer
Change and Transition
Dissolving Barriers
Embracing Change
The Empowering Women Gift Collection
Feeling Fine Affirmations
Forgiveness/Loving the Inner Child
How to Love Yourself
Meditations for Personal Healing
Meditations to Heal Your Life (audio book)
Morning and Evening Meditations
101 Power Thoughts
Overcoming Fears
The Power Is Within You (audio book)
The Power of Your Spoken Word
Receiving Prosperity
Self-Esteem Affirmations (subliminal)
Self-Healing
Stress-Free (subliminal)
Totality of Possibilities
What I Believe and Deep Relaxation
You Can Heal Your Life (audio book)
You Can Heal Your Life Study Course
Your Thoughts Create Your Life
DVDs
Dissolving Barriers
Receiving Prosperity
You Can Heal Your Life Study Course
You Can Heal Your Life, THE MOVIE (also available in an expanded edition)
You Can Trust Your Life (with Cheryl Richardson)
CARD DECKS
Healthy Body Cards
I Can Do It® Cards I Can Do It® Cards … for Creativity, Forgiveness, Health, Job Success, Wealth, Romance
Power Thought Cards
Power Thoughts for Teens
Power Thought Sticky Cards
Wisdom Cards
CALENDAR
I Can Do It® Calendar (for each individual year)
and
THE LOUISE L. HAY BOOK COLLECTION
(comprising the gift versions of Meditations to Heal Your Life, You Can Heal Your Life, and You Can Heal Your Life Companion Book)
All of the above are available at your local bookstore, or may be ordered by visiting:
Hay House USA: www.hayhouse.com®
Hay House Australia: www.hayhouse.com.au
Hay House UK: www.hayhouse.co.uk
Hay House South Africa: www.hayhouse.co.za
Hay House India: www.hayhouse.co.in
Louise’s Websites: www.LouiseHay.com® and www.HealYourLife.com®
Copyright © 2013 by Louise Hay
Published and distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com® • Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au • Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk • Published and distributed in the Republic of South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.za • Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast: www.raincoast.com • Published in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in
Cover design: Aeshna Roy
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval system, transmitted, or otherwise be copied for public or private use—other than for “fair use” as brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews—without prior written permission of the publisher.
The author of this book does not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician, either directly or indirectly. The intent of the author is only to offer information of a general nature to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the information in this book for yourself, which is your constitutional right, the author and the publisher assume no responsibility for your actions.
Library of Congress Control Number: 2013942780
Hardcover ISBN: 978-1-4019-4419-3
16 15 14 13 4 3 2 1
1st edition, September 2013
Printed in the United States of America
CONTENTS
YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE
Acknowledgments
Foreword
Part I: Introduction
Suggestions to My Readers
Some Points of My Philosophy
Chapter 1: What I Believe
Part II: A Session with Louise
Chapter 2: What Is the Problem?
Chapter 3: Where Does It Come From?
Chapter 4: Is It True?
Chapter 5: What Do We Do Now?
Chapter 6: Resistance to Change
Chapter 7: How to Change
Chapter 8: Building the New
Chapter 9: Daily Work
Part III: Putting These Ideas to Work
Chapter 10: Relationships
Chapter 11: Work
Chapter 12: Success
Chapter 13: Prosperity
Chapter 14: The Body
Chapter 15: The List
Part IV: Conclusion
Chapter 16: My Story
Afterword
Deep at the Center
Holistic Healing Recommendations
HEAL YOUR BODY
Acknowledgments
Preface
Introduction
The Point of Power Is in the Present Moment
Mental Equivalents
Replacing Old Patterns
Healing Affirmations
Spinal Section
Further Comments
Loving Treatment
Epilogue
THE POWER IS WITHIN YOU
Preface
Introduction
Part I: Becoming Conscious
Chapter 1: The Power Within
Chapter 2: Following My Inner Voice
Chapter 3: The Power of Your Spoken Word
Chapter 4: Reprogramming Old Tapes
Part II: Dissolving the Barriers
Chapter 5: Understanding the Blocks That Bind You
Chapter 6: Letting Your Feelings Out
Chapter 7: Moving Beyond the Pain
Part III: Loving Yourself
Chapter 8: How to Love Yourself
Chapter 9: Loving the Child Within
Chapter 10: Growing Up and Getting Old
Part IV: Applying Your Inner Wisdom
Chapter 11: Receiving Prosperity
Chapter 12: Expressing Your Creativity
Chapter 13: The Totality of Possibilities
Part V: Letting Go of the Past
Chapter 14: Change and Transition
Chapter 15: A World Where It’s Safe to Love Each Other
Afterword
Appendix A: Meditations for Personal and Planetary Healing
Appendix B: Self-Help Resources
Recommended Reading
About the Author
You Can Heal Your Life
Dedication
May this offering help you find the place within where you know your own self-worth, the part of you that is pure love and self-acceptance.
Acknowledgments
I acknowledge with joy and pleasure:
My many students and clients who taught me so much and who first encouraged me to put my ideas down on paper.
My dedicated staff at Hay House, who share my dream of disseminating books, audios, and videos that help to heal the planet spiritually, emotionally, and physically.
My wonderful readers and listeners, who have shown their loving support for my work and who continue to be a source of inspiration for me.
All those whose hearts are opening more and more each day.
My dear friends throughout the world, who surround me with unconditional love, laughter, and just plain fun!
Foreword
If I were cast away on a desert island and could have only one book with me there, I might well choose Louise L. Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life.
Not only is it the essence of a great teacher, it is also the powerful and very personal statement of a great lady.
Louise shares some of her journey to where she is in her evolvement now in this wonderful new book. I resonated in admiration and in compassion to her story—too briefly sketched here, in my view, but perhaps that’s another book.
It’s all here, is my point. All you need to know about life, its lessons and how to do the work on yourself is right here. And this includes Louise’s reference guide to probable mental patterns behind dis-ease, which is truly remarkable and unique—in my experience. A person on a desert island who found this manuscript in a bottle could learn all he or she needs to know to make this life be the one that gets the job done.
Desert island or not, if you have found your way to Louise Hay, perhaps even “accidentally,” you’re well on your way. Louise’s books, her remarkable healing tapes, and her inspired workshops are wonderful gifts to a troubled world.
It was my own deep investment in working with persons with aids that led me to meeting Louise and utilizing concepts from her healing work.
Each aids person I worked with and for whom I played Louise’s tape, A Positive Approach to AIDS, got Louise’s message on the first hearing—and many made playing this tape part of their daily healing ritual. One man named Andrew told me, “I go to bed with Louise, and I get up to her every day!”
My respect and love for Louise grew as I observed my beloved aids people make their transitions enriched and at peace and complete—more full of love and forgiveness for themselves and everyone else for having had Louise in their lives—and with a quiet respect for having created that precise learning experience.
I have been gifted in my life with many great teachers, some of them saints, I’m sure, and even avatars, perhaps. Yet Louise is a great teacher one can speak with and be with because of her enormous capacity to listen and to be in unconditional love while sharing doing the dishes. (In the same way another teacher I hold as great makes terrific potato salad.) Louise teaches by example and lives what she teaches.
I am deeply honored to invite you to make this book part of your life. You—and it—are worth it!
DAVE BRAUN
VENTURES IN SELF-FULFILLMENT
DANA POINT, CALIFORNIA
Part I
INTRODUCTION
I have written this book to share with you, my readers, that which I know and teach. It incorporates portions of my little blue book, Heal Your Body, which has become widely accepted as an authoritative work on the mental patterns that create diseases in the body.
I have had hundreds of letters from readers asking me to share more of my information. Many persons who have worked with me as private clients, and those who have taken my workshops here and abroad, have requested I take the time to write this book.
I have set up this book to take you through a session, just as I would if you came to me as a private client and attended one of my workshops.
If you will do the exercises progressively as they appear in the book, by the time you have finished, you will have begun to change your life.
I suggest you read through the book once. Then slowly read it again, only this time do each exercise in depth. Give yourself time to work with each one.
If you can, work through the exercises with a friend or with a member of your family.
Each chapter opens with an affirmation. Each of these is good to use when you are working on that area of your life. Take two or three days to study and work with each chapter. Keep saying and writing the affirmation that opens the chapter.
The chapters close with a treatment. This is a flow of positive ideas designed to change consciousness. Read over this treatment several times a day.
I close this book by sharing with you my own story. I know it will show you that no matter where we have come from or how lowly it was, we can totally change our lives for the better.
Know that when you work with these ideas, my loving support is with you.
Some Points of My Philosophy
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.
In the infinity of life where I am, all is perfect,
whole, and complete, and yet life is ever changing.
There is no beginning and no end,
only a constant cycling and recycling
of substance and experiences.
Life is never stuck or static or stale,
for each moment is ever new and fresh.
I am one with the very Power that created me, and this Power
has given me the power to create my own circumstances.
I rejoice in the knowledge that I have the power
of my own mind to use in any way I choose.
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.
Chapter One
WHAT I BELIEVE
“The gateways to wisdom and knowledge are always open.”
Life Is Really Very Simple. What We Give Out, We Get Back
What we think about ourselves becomes the truth for us. I believe that everyone, myself included, is responsible for everything in our lives, the best and the worst. Every thought we think is creating o
ur future. Each one of us creates our experiences by our thoughts and our feelings. The thoughts we think and the words we speak create our experiences.
We create the situations, and then we give our power away by blaming the other person for our frustration. No person, no place, and no thing has any power over us, for “we” are the only thinkers in our mind. When we create peace and harmony and balance in our minds, we will find it in our lives.
Which of these statements sounds like you?
“People are out to get me.”
“Everyone is always helpful.”
Each one of these beliefs will create quite different experiences. What we believe about ourselves and about life becomes true for us.
The Universe Totally Supports Us in Every Thought We Choose to Think and Believe
Put another way, our subconscious mind accepts whatever we choose to believe. They both mean that what I believe about myself and about life becomes true for me. What you choose to think about yourself and about life becomes true for you. And we have unlimited choices about what we can think.
When we know this, then it makes sense to choose “Everyone is always helpful,” rather than “People are out to get me.”
The Universal Power Never Judges or Criticizes Us
It only accepts us at our own value. Then it reflects our beliefs in our lives. If I want to believe that life is lonely and that nobody loves me, then that is what I will find in my world.
However, if I am willing to release that belief and to affirm for myself that “Love is everywhere, and I am loving and lovable,” and to hold on to that new affirmation and to repeat it often, then it will become true for me. Now, loving people will come into my life, the people already in my life will become more loving to me, and I will find myself easily expressing love to others.
Most of Us Have Foolish Ideas about Who We Are and Many, Many Rigid Rules about How Life Ought to Be Lived
This is not to condemn us, for each of us is doing the very best we can at this very moment. If we knew better, if we had more understanding and awareness, then we would do it differently. Please don’t put yourself down for being where you are. The very fact that you have found this book and have discovered me means that you are ready to make a new, positive change in your life. Acknowledge yourself for this. “Men don’t cry!” “Women can’t handle money!” What limiting ideas to live with.