by Louise Hay
7-T Storing pain. Refusal to enjoy. I willingly let go. I allow sweetness to fill my life.
8-T Obsession with failure. Resisting your good. I am open and receptive to all good. The Universe loves me and supports me.
9-T Feeling let down by life. Blaming others. A victim. I claim my own power. I lovingly create my own reality.
10-T Refusal to take charge. Needing to be a victim. “It’s your fault.” I open myself to joy and love, which I give freely and receive freely.
11-T Low self-image. Fear of relationships. I see myself as beautiful and lovable and appreciated. I am proud to be me.
12-T Disowning the right to live. Insecure and fearful of love. Inability to digest. I choose to circulate the joys of life. I am willing to nourish myself.
Lumbar Spine
1-L A crying for love and a need to be lonely. Insecurity. I am safe in the Universe and all Life loves me and supports me.
2-L Stuck in childhood pain. See no way out. I grow beyond my parents’ limitations and live for myself. It is my turn now.
3-L Sexual abuse. Guilt. Self-hatred. I release the past. I cherish myself and my beautiful sexuality. I am safe. I am loved.
4-L Rejection of sexuality. Financial insecurity. Fear of career. Feeling powerless. I love who I am. I am grounded in my own power. I am secure on all levels.
5-L Insecurity Difficulty in communicating. Anger. Inability to accept pleasure. I deserve to enjoy life. I ask for what I want and I accept with joy and pleasure.
Sacrum Loss of power. Old stubborn anger. I am the power and authority in my life. I release the past and claim my good now.
Coccyx Out of balance with yourself. Holding on. Blame of self. Sitting on old pain. I bring my life into balance by loving myself. I live in today and love who I am.
FURTHER COMMENTS
I’ve learned that children—and animals, too, because they’re so open—may be largely influenced by the consciousness of the adults around them. Therefore, when working for children or pets, use the affirmations both for them and for also clearing the consciousness of the parent, teacher, relative, and so on, who may be surrounding and influencing them.
Remember, the word metaphysical means to go beyond the physical to the mental cause behind it. As an example, if you told me that you had a problem with constipation, I’d know that you had some sort of belief in limitation and lack and, therefore, were frightened to let go of anything out of fear of not being able to replace it. It could also mean that you were holding on to an old, painful memory of the past and wouldn’t let go. You might have a fear of letting go of relationships that no longer nourish you, a job that’s unfulfilling, or some possessions that are now unusable. You might even be stingy about money. Your dis-ease would give me many clues to your mental attitude.
I’d try to make you understand that a closed fist and a tight attitude cannot take in anything new. I’d help you develop more trust in the Universe (the power that supplies your breath) to provide for you so that you could flow with the rhythms of life. I’d help you release your patterns of fear and teach you how to create a new cycle of good experiences by using your mind in a different way. I might ask you to go home and clean out your closets, giving away all the useless stuff to make room for new things. And as you were doing this, I’d ask you to say aloud, “I am releasing the old and making room for the new.” Simple, but effective. And as you began to understand the principle of release and letting go, the constipation, which is a form of gripping and holding on, would take care of itself. The body would freely release that which was no longer useful in a normal way.
Perhaps you’ve noticed how often I’ve used the concepts of love, peace, joy, and self-approval. When we can truly live from the loving space of the heart, approving of ourselves and trusting the Divine Power to provide for us, then peace and joy will fill our lives, and illness and uncomfortable experiences will cease to be in our experience. Our goal is to live happy, healthy lives, enjoying our own company. Love dissolves anger, love releases resentment, love dissipates fear, and love creates safety. When you can come from a space of totally loving yourself, then everything in your life must flow with ease, harmony, health, prosperity, and joy.
A good way to use this book when you have a physical problem is to:
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 create this?”
2. Repeat to yourself (aloud, if you can): “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.
Whenever you think of the condition, repeat the steps.
LOVING TREATMENT
This closing meditation is helpful to read daily, as it creates a healthy consciousness and, therefore, a healthy body.
DEEP AT THE CENTER OF MY BEING, there is an infinite well of love. I now allow this love to flow to the surface. It fills my heart, my body, my mind, my consciousness, my very being, and radiates out from me in all directions and returns to me multiplied. The more love I use and give, the more I have to give; the supply is endless. The use of love makes ME FEEL GOOD. It is an expression of my inner joy. I love myself; therefore, I provide a comfortable home for myself, one that fills all my needs and is a pleasure to be in. I fill the rooms with the vibration of love so that all who enter, myself included, will feel this love and be nourished by it.
I love myself; therefore, I work at a job that I truly enjoy doing, one that uses my creative talents and abilities, working with and for people whom I love and who love me, and earning a good income. I love myself; therefore, I behave and think in a loving way to all people, for I know that that which I give out returns to me multiplied. I only attract loving people in my world, for they are a mirror of what I am. I love myself; therefore, I forgive and totally release the past and all past experiences, and I am free. I love myself; therefore, I live totally in the now, experiencing each moment as good, and knowing that my future is bright, joyous, and secure. I am a beloved child of the universe, and the universe lovingly takes care of me now and forever more.
And so it is.
I love you.
EPILOGUE
The last major revision of Heal Your Body was in 1988. I still get mail asking for the mental patterns for the latest dis-eases of the moment, such as fibromyalgia; however, I see no reason to add any more patterns.
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. Do you relate to any of this stuff? We must learn to substitute faith for fear if we are to heal.
Faith in what? Faith in life. I believe that we live in a “Yes” Universe. No matter what we choose to believe or think, the Universe always says yes to us. If we think poverty, the Universe says yes to that. If we think prosperity, the Universe says yes to that. So we want to think and believe that we have the right to be healthy, that health is natural to us. The Universe will support and say yes to this belief. Be a “Yes” person, and know that you live in a “Yes” world, being responded to by a “Yes” Universe.
If you find yourself with some sort of dis-ease that’s not listed in Heal Your Body, become your own investigator and healer. Ask yourself: Is it one of the forms of fear, or is it one of the forms of anger? Are you willing to release those thoughts? Are you willing to replace those thoughts with positive affirmations?* Loving yourself will also contribute greatly to healing your body, for love heals.
So how do you love yourself? First of all, and most important: Cease all criticism of yourself and others. Accept yourself as you are. P
raise yourself as much as you can. Criticism breaks down the inner spirit; praise builds it up. Look into a mirror often, and simply say: I LOVE YOU, I REALLY LOVE YOU. It may be difficult at first, but keep practicing, and soon you will mean and feel what you say. Love yourself as much as you can, and all of life will mirror this love back to you.
By the way, fibromyalgia is fear showing up as extreme tension due to stress.
—Louise Hay, 2008
(*My book I CAN DO IT ® will give you a lot of affirmations to get you started until you learn to create your own.)
The
Power Is
Within
You
Dedication
I lovingly dedicate this book to all those who have attended my lectures, my staff at Hay House, all the wonderful people who have written to me over the years, and to Linda Carwin Tomchin, whose help and input into the creation of this book was indispensable. My heart has grown so much just knowing each and every one of you.
Preface
There is a great deal of information in this book. Do not feel you have to absorb it all at once. Certain ideas will leap out at you. Work with those ideas first. If I say anything that you disagree with, just ignore it. If you can get just one good idea out of this book and use it to improve the quality of your life, then I feel complete in writing it.
As you read you will become aware that I use many terms such as Power, Intelligence, Infinite Mind, Higher Power, God, Universal Power, Inner Wisdom … and so on. This is done to show you that there is no limitation on what you choose to call that Power that runs the Universe and is also within you. If any name disturbs you, then substitute another that feels right for you. In the past I have even crossed out words or names that did not appeal to me when I read a book and wrote in the word that I liked better. You could do the same.
You will also notice that I spell two words differently than they are normally spelled. Disease is spelled dis-ease and denotes anything that is not in harmony with you or your environment. AIDS is spelled in lower-case letters—aids—to diminish the power of the word, and therefore, the dis-ease. This idea was originally created by the Reverend Stephan Pieters. We at Hay House heartily endorse this concept, and urge our readers to do so as well.
This book was written as an extension of You Can Heal Your Life. Time has passed since the writing of that book and many new ideas have revealed themselves to me. Those ideas I wish to share with all of you who have been writing over the years asking for more information. I feel an important thing to be aware of is that the Power we are all seeking “out there” is also within us and readily available to us to use in positive ways. May this book reveal to you how very powerful you really are.
Introduction
I am not a healer. I do not heal anyone. I think of myself as a stepping stone on a pathway of self-discovery. I create a space where people can learn how incredibly wonderful they are by teaching them to love themselves. That’s all I do. I’m a person who supports people. I help people take charge of their lives. I help them discover their own power and inner wisdom and strengths. I help them get the blocks and the barriers out of the way, so they can love themselves no matter what circumstances they happen to be going through. This doesn’t mean that we will never have problems, but it is how we react to the problem that makes a tremendous difference.
After years of individual counseling with clients and conducting hundreds of workshops and intensive training programs across the country and around the world, I found that there is only one thing that heals every problem, and that is: to love yourself. When people start to love themselves more each day, it’s amazing how their lives get better. They feel better. They get the jobs they want. They have the money they need. Their relationships either improve, or the negative ones dissolve and new ones begin. It’s a very simple premise—loving yourself. I’ve been criticized for being too simplistic, and I have found that the simple things are usually the most profound.
Someone said to me recently, “You gave me the most wonderful gift—you gave me the gift of myself.” So many of us hide from ourselves and we don’t even know who we are. We don’t know what we feel, we don’t know what we want. Life is a voyage of self discovery. To me, to be enlightened is to go within and to know who and what we really are, and to know that we have the ability to change for the better by loving and taking care of ourselves. It’s not selfish to love ourselves. It clears us so that we can love ourselves enough to love other people. We can really help the planet when we come from a space of great love and joy on an individual basis.
The Power that created this incredible Universe has often been referred to as love. God is love. We have often heard the statement: Love makes the world go ‘round. It’s all true. Love is the binding agent that holds the whole Universe together.
To me, love is a deep appreciation. When I talk about loving ourselves, I mean having a deep appreciation for who we are. We accept all the different parts of ourselves—our little peculiarities, the embarrassments, the things we may not do so well, and all the wonderful qualities, too. We accept the whole package with love. Unconditionally.
Unfortunately, many of us will not love ourselves until we lose the weight, or get the job, or get the raise, or the boyfriend, or whatever. We often put conditions on our love. But we can change. We can love ourselves as we are right now!
There is also a lack of love on this planet as a whole. I believe our whole planet has a dis-ease called aids, and more and more people are dying every day. This physical challenge has given us the opportunity to overcome barriers and go beyond our morality standards and differences of religion and politics and to open our hearts. The more of us who can do it, the quicker we are going to find the answers.
We are in the midst of enormous individual and global change. I believe that all of us who are living at this time chose to be here to be a part of these changes, to bring about change, and to transform the world from the old way of life to a more loving and peaceful existence. In the Piscean Age we looked “out there” for our savior: “Save me. Save me. Please take care of me.” Now we are moving into the Aquarian Age, and we are learning to go within to find our savior. We are the power we have been seeking. We are in charge of our lives.
If you are not willing to love yourself today, then you are not going to love yourself tomorrow, because whatever excuse you have today, you’ll still have tomorrow. Maybe you’ll have the same excuse 20 years from now, and even leave this lifetime holding on to the same excuse. Today is the day you can love yourself totally with no expectations.
I want to help create a world where it is safe for us to love each other, where we can express who we are and be loved and accepted by the people around us without judgment, criticism, or prejudice. Loving begins at home. The bible says, “Love thy neighbor as thyself.” Far too often we forget the last couple of words—as thyself. We really can’t love anyone out there unless the love starts inside us. Self-love is the most important gift we can give ourselves, because when we love who we are, we will not hurt ourselves, and we will not hurt anyone else. With inner peace, there would be no wars, no gangs, no terrorists, and no homeless. There would be no dis-ease, no aids, no cancer, no poverty, and no starvation. So this, to me, is a prescription for world peace: to have peace within ourselves. Peace, understanding, compassion, forgiveness, and most of all, love. We have the power within us to effect these changes.
Love is something we can choose, the same way we choose anger, or hate, or sadness. We can choose love. It’s always a choice within us. Let’s begin right now in this moment to choose love. It’s the most powerful healing force there is.
The information in this book, which has been a part of my lectures over the past five years, is yet another stepping stone on your pathway to self-discovery—an opportunity to know a little bit more about yourself and to understand the potential that is your birthright. You have an opportunity to love yourself more, so you can be a part of an incre
dible universe of love. Love begins in our hearts, and it begins with us. Let your love contribute to the healing of our planet.
Louise L. Hay
PART ONE
Becoming Conscious
When we expand our thinking and beliefs, our love flows freely. When we contract, we shut ourselves off.
Chapter 1
The Power Within
The more you connect to the Power within you, the more you can he free in all areas of your life.
Who are you? Why are you here? What are your beliefs about life? For thousands of years, finding the answers to these questions has meant going within. But what does that mean?
I believe there is a Power within each of us that can lovingly direct us to our perfect health, perfect relationships, perfect careers, and which can bring us prosperity of every kind. In order to have these things, we have to believe first that they are possible. Next, we must be willing to release the patterns in our lives that are creating conditions we say we do not want. We do this by going within and tapping the Inner Power that already knows what is best for us. If we are willing to turn our lives over to this greater Power within us, the Power that loves and sustains us, we can create more loving and prosperous lives.