I read the book that was to change my life when I was 35.
You can see my copy in the photo above, well worn and well loved!
Although I was happy, I was not fulfilled.
I wanted more.
I wanted the dream.
A chance encounter with “the book” changed this.
I remember walking into a book shop and moving towards the self-help section: the one area of any book shop I had seriously avoided until that point.
I charged towards the colourful rainbow patterned book and grabbed it off the shelf.
I bought the book and took her home to read (I’ve since named my book) and I didn’t stop reading her until I had finished.
The book was called You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay and I can honestly say that it changed my life.
I’m not going to divulge the details of the book to you but what I will say; is that it convinced me to start on a personal journey that ultimately led to me to leaving my hugely successful career of 15 years (much to the shock and horror of most of my family and friends) and gave me the encouragement to follow my career dreams which have now come true.
The book took me in direction that have led me to my wonderful husband and to ultimately live the prosperous dream life I’m living today.
I’m now one of those truly fulfilled people.
You see, You Can Heal Your Life is all you need to know about life.
It’s your own personal Life Coach which I probably shouldn’t promote, being a Life Coach myself now, but it truly is.
The book taught me many lessons, but ultimately taught me how to live a better life.
It changed the way I thought, acted, ate and lived.
It changed who I was. For the better.
The real me was always there of course, I’d always had flashes of clarity about who I was meant to be, but it kept being buried under the BS of wanting more money and success.
Plus, by ignoring my gut instinct.
Big lesson there.
I’ve since gone on and read other equally brilliant books, but this one has stayed close to my heart due to its innocent yet powerful “Ah Ha” moments in every one of the 250 pages.
As I said above, I’m not going to divulge the details because that would rob you of a truly magical experience, but I will give you the key highlights for me:
1. Our thoughts create our future
Powerful, right? Louise says:
“Every thought we think and every word we speak is creating our future, it’s as though our thoughts go out into the universe and are accepted and are bought back to us as experience. If you accept the fact that every time you think a thought and every time you speak a word you are literally painting your future, you are creating and you’re creating your own life.”
I won’t go into the “whys” and how this works, but trust me it does. I’ve been practising this ever since I’ve read You Can Heal your Life and my life has been transformed. Literally.
However, this is not as simple as just thinking. You have to be able to consciously monitor thoughts and flip the bad ones.
Sound exhausting, I know, but I promise you it’s not. Once you make the monitoring of your thoughts a habit, it becomes second nature and you won’t even realise you doing it.
2. We are responsible for every experience in our life
Louise says that every human is responsible for every experience in their live: good and bad. This shook me at first. How could I have attracted some of the bad things that I’ve encountered in my life?
Through the thoughts we think and words we speak, we shape what the universe delivers to us because the universe supports us in every thought we choose to think and every word we say. Again, I won’t go into the “how’s” here, but I do encourage you to research this yourself. There is science behind it. But needless to say, if you’re thinking positive thoughts and imagining positive things, you will attract positivity. But on the flip side if you’re thinking negatively, imagining negative outcomes, then guess what? You will attract the negative,
3. Forgiveness
The power is in in the present, right now. The thoughts you think now are shaping the future. But if you’re holding onto past resentments, regardless of how justified you feel, you can’t be happy. If you’re choosing to be angry and resentful, this creates bitterness which overrides any feelings of joy.
This can be a hard one to accept and it takes practice to master it (from personal experience) but if you choose to stay stuck and resentful, no good can come to you. You will literally be radiating bitterness and anger. It’s imperative to learn the art of forgiveness. It’s imperative to learn the art of letting go. It’s imperative to move on.
If you give yourself permission to forgive and let go, a huge weight will be lifted from your shoulders and a new, brighter, positive life path opens.
4. Gratitude
Louise says that by feeling Grateful we can instantly change our “state” and by changing our “state” we will attract good things to us. In a nutshell, “Like Attracts Like”. If we think good thoughts or more importantly feel good, we will attract good things.
In my opinion, the Number 1 way to instantly change a person’s state is to feel Gratitude. Notice I’ve highlighted to feel. It’s not enough to think of something you are Grateful for, you have to feel the Gratitude and feel emotion.
I can easily feel gratitude by answering the following questions: Think of those people who you love. Why do you love them? Why are you grateful for them being in your life? Think of the last time someone was kind to you. How did it make you feel? Why were you grateful they were kind? Think of your life through somebody else’s eyes. What are you grateful for and why?
5. Self-Love
Louise states that there is only one thing that heals every problem and that’s to know how to love yourself. Often loving ourselves is put on hold until certain conditions are met: until you’ve lost the weight, or got the husband or got the dream job and this stands in the way of loving yourself today. Today is the day you can love yourself with no expectations. Loving yourself is a choice you need to make. If you’re not willing to love yourself today, then you’re not going to love yourself tomorrow or twenty years’ time. It’s a case of choosing to love yourself now regardless of conditions. Regardless of anything.
Loving yourself is not a selfish act. Loving yourself is a deep appreciation of who you are; the good bits and the bad. When you start to love yourself, amazing things will happen. You will feel better, live better and look better.
If you are still reading this article, then I’m (politely) shouting at you to stop and go out and buy Louise Hay’s You Can Heal Your Life.
If you’re not, I can only hope you are on your way to buy it now and will shortly be changing your life for good.
When the student is ready the master appears.
Love
Gemma
xxxxx