The Essential Louise Hay Collection

by Louise Hay

  The totality of possibilities connects everything, including our Universe and beyond. What are you connecting with? Prejudice is a form of fear. If you’re prejudiced, you are connecting with other prejudiced people. If you open your consciousness and do the best you can to work on a level of unconditional love, then you connect with the curve on the graph that is climbing upwards. Do you want to be left behind? Or do you want to go up with the curve?

  Often there is a crisis in the world. How many people send positive energy to the troubled area and do affirmations that everything works out as quickly as possible and that there is a solution for the highest good of all concerned? You need to use your consciousness in a way that will create harmony and plenty for all people. What sort of energy are you sending? Instead of condemning and complaining, you can connect with the Power on the spiritual level and affirm the most positive results imaginable.

  How far are you willing to expand the horizons of your thinking? Are you willing to go beyond your neighbors’? If your neighbors are limited, make new friends. How far will you stretch? How willing are you to change I can’t to I can.

  Every time you hear that something is incurable, know in your mind that it isn’t true. Know that there is a Power greater. “Incurable” to me means that the medical profession simply hasn’t yet figured out how to cure that particular illness. It doesn’t mean that it’s not possible. It means that we go within and find a cure. We can go beyond statistics. We are not numbers on a chart. Those are someone else’s projections, somebody’s limited-mind thinking. If we don’t give ourselves possibilities, we don’t give ourselves hope. Dr. Donald M. Pachuta at the National Aids Conference in Washington, D.C., said that “we have never had an epidemic—ever—that was 100 percent fatal.”

  Somewhere on this planet, someone has been healed of every single disease that we have been able to create. If we just accept doom and gloom, we are stuck. We need to take a positive approach so we can find some answers. We need to begin to use the Power within us to heal ourselves.

  Our Other Powers

  It is said that we use only 10 percent of our brain—only 10 percent! What is the purpose of the other 90 percent? I think having psychic ability, telepathy, clairvoyance, or clairaudience are all normal and natural. It’s just that we don’t allow ourselves to experience these phenomena. We have all sorts of reasons why we don’t, or why we don’t believe we can. Little children are often very psychic. Unfortunately, parents immediately say, “Don’t say that,” or “That’s your imagination,” or “Don’t believe in that foolish nonsense.” The child inevitably turns off these abilities.

  I think the mind is capable of remarkable things, and I know for certain that I could go from New York to Los Angeles without a plane if I only knew how to dematerialize and rematerialize there. I don’t know how yet, but I know it is possible.

  I think that we are capable of accomplishing incredible achievements, but we haven’t the knowledge yet because we won’t use it for our good. We will probably hurt others with the knowledge. We have to get to a point where we really can live in unconditional love, so we can begin using the other 90 percent of our brains.

  Fire Walking

  How many have heard about fire walking? Whenever I ask this question at seminars, several hands always go up. We all know that it is totally impossible to walk on hot coals, right? Nobody can do it without burning their feet. Yet people have done it, and they aren’t extraordinary people; they are people like you and me. They probably learned it in one evening by attending a fire-walking workshop.

  I have a friend, Darby Long, who works with Dr. Carl Simonton, the cancer specialist. They do a week-long workshop for people with cancer, and during the week, they have a fire-walking demonstration. Darby has done it herself many times, and has even carried people across the hot coals. I always think how incredible it must be for people with cancer to see and experience such a process. It probably blows a lot of people’s minds. Their concepts about limitation would somehow be different afterward.

  I believe Anthony Robbins, the young man who started fire walking in this country, is here to do something really extraordinary on the planet. He studied NLP, Neurolinguistic Programming, a process whereby he could observe someone’s patterns of behavior and then repeat that person’s responses and cues of behavior to achieve similar results. NLP is based on the hypnotic techniques of Milton Erickson, M.D. which were systematically observed and recorded by John Grinder and Richard Bandier. When Tony heard about fire walking, he wanted to learn it, and, in turn, to teach it to others. He was told by a yogi that it would take years of study and meditation. However, using NLP, Tony learned it within a few hours. He knew that if he could do it, anyone could do it. He has been teaching people how to walk on coals, not because it is a wonderful parlor trick, but because it shows them how to go beyond their limitations and fears.

  Everything Is Possible

  Repeat with me: “I live and dwell in the totality of possibilities. Where I am there is all good. “ Think about these words for a minute. All good. Not some, not a little bit, but all good. When you believe that anything is possible, you open yourself up to answers in every area of your life.

  Where we are is the totality of possibilities. It is always up to us individually and collectively. We either have walls around us or we take them down and feel safe enough to be totally open to allow all good to come into our lives. Begin to observe yourself objectively. Notice what is going on inside you—how you feel, how you react, what you believe—and allow yourself to observe without comment or judgment. When you can, you will live your life from the totality of possibilities.

  PART FIVE

  Letting Go of the Past

  The planet is becoming conscious as a whole. It is becoming self-conscious.

  Chapter 14

  Change and Transition

  Some people would rather leave the planet than change.

  Change is usually what we want the other person to do, isn’t it? When I speak about the other person, I want to include the government, big business, the boss or coworker, the Internal Revenue Service, foreigners; the school, husband, wife, mother, father, children, et cetera—anyone other than ourselves. We don’t want to change, but we want everybody else to change so our lives will be different. And yet, of course, any changes that we are going to make at all have to come from within ourselves.

  Change means that we free ourselves from feelings of isolation, separation, loneliness, anger, fear and pain. We create lives filled with wonderful peacefulness, where we can relax and enjoy life as it comes to us—where we know that everything will be all right. I like to use the premise that “Life is wonderful, all is perfect in my world, and I always move into greater good.” In that way, it doesn’t matter to me which direction my life takes, because I know it’s going to be wonderful. Therefore, I can enjoy all sorts of situations and circumstances.

  Someone at one of my lectures was going through a lot of turmoil, and the word pain kept coming up in the conversation. She asked if there was another word that she could use. I thought about the time I had smashed my finger by slamming a window on it. I knew if I gave into the pain, I was going to go through a very difficult period. So when it happened, I started to do some mental work right away and referred to my finger as having a lot of sensation. By viewing what happened in that particular way, I think it helped to heal the finger much more quickly and to handle what could have been a very unpleasant experience. Sometimes if we can alter our thinking a little bit, we can completely change a situation.

  Can you think of change as an internal housecleaning? If you do a little bit at a time, it will eventually all get done. You don’t have to do it all, however, before you begin to see results. If you change just a little bit, you’ll begin to feel better soon.

  I was at the Reverend O.C. Smith’s City of Angels Science of Mind Church on New Year’s Day, and he said something that made me think. He said:

  “
It’s the new year, but you’ve got to realize that the new year is not going to change you. Just because it’s a new year, it’s not going to make any difference in your life. The only way there’s going to be a change is if you are willing to go within and make the change. “

  That’s so true. People make all sorts of New Year’s resolutions, but because they don’t make any internal changes, the resolutions fall away very quickly. “I’m not going to smoke another cigarette,” or whatever, someone says. Right away, it’s put in a negative phrase rather than one that will tell the subconscious mind what to do. In this situation you could say instead, “All desire for cigarettes has left me and I am free.”

  Until we make the inner changes, until we are willing to do the mental work, nothing outside of us is going to change. Yet, the inner changes can be so incredibly simple because the only thing we really need to change are our thoughts.

  What can you do for yourself this year that you didn’t do last year that could be positive? Take a moment and think about this question. What would you like to let go of this year that you clung to so tightly last year? What would you like to change in your life? Are you willing to do it?

  There is a lot of information available that will give you ideas once you are willing to change. The moment you are willing to change, it is remarkable how the Universe begins to help you. It brings you what you need. It could be a book, a tape, a teacher or even a friend making a passing remark that suddenly has deep meaning to you.

  Sometimes conditions will get worse before they get better, and that’s okay because the process is beginning. The old threads are untangling, so flow with it. Don’t panic and think its not working. Just keep working with your affirmations and the new beliefs you are planting.

  Making Progress

  Of course, from the moment you decide to make a change until you get the demonstration, there is a transitional period. You vacillate between the old and the new. You go back and forth between what was and what you would like to be or to have. It is a normal and natural process. Often I hear people saying, “Well, I know all this stuff.” My answer is, “Are you doing it?” Knowing what to do and doing it are two separate steps. It takes time until you are strong in the new and have gone the complete shift. Until then, you must be vigilant in your efforts to change.

  For instance, many people say their affirmations maybe three times and give up. Then they say that affirmations don’t work, or they’re silly, or whatever. We have to give ourselves time to practice to make the changes; change requires action. As I said, it’s what you do after you say your affirmations that counts the most.

  As you go through this transitional phase, remember to praise yourself for each small step forward that you make. If you beat yourself up for the step backward, then change becomes oppressive. Use all the tools available to you as you move from the old to the new. Assure the little child inside that he or she is safe.

  Author Gerald Jampolsky says that love is letting go of fear, and that there is either fear or there is love. If we are not coming from the loving space of the heart, then we’re in fear, and all those states such as isolation, separation, anger, guilt, and loneliness are part of the fear syndrome. We want to move from fear into love and make love a more permanent position for us.

  There are a variety of ways to change. What do you do on a daily basis to make yourself feel good inside? You’re not going to do it by blaming other people or by being a victim. So what is it you do? How are you experiencing peace within you and around you? If you are not doing it now, are you willing to begin? Are you willing to start creating inner harmony and peace?

  Another question to ask yourself is: Do I really want to change? Do you want to continue to complain about what you don’t have in your life? Do you want to really create a much more wonderful life than you have now? If you are willing to change, you can. If you are willing to do the work involved, then you can change your life for the better. I have no power over you, and I can’t do it for you. You have the power and you need to keep reminding yourself of that.

  Remember, maintaining inner peace will help us connect with like-minded, peaceful people all over the world. Spirituality connects us all over this planet on a soul level, and the sense of cosmic spirituality that we are just beginning to experience is going to change the world for the better.

  When I speak of spirituality, I don’t necessarily mean religion. Religions tell us who to love and how to love and who is worthy. To me we are all worthy of love, and we are all lovable. Our spirituality is our direct connection with our higher source, and we don’t need a middleman for that. Begin to see that spirituality can connect us all over the planet on a very deep soul level.

  Several times during the day, you might stop and ask yourself, “What kind of people am I connecting with now?” Ask yourself periodically, “What do I really believe about this condition or situation?” And think about it. Ask: “What do I feel? Do I really want to do what these people are asking me? Why am I doing this?” Start to examine your thoughts and feelings. Be honest with yourself. Find out what you are thinking and believing. Don’t go on automatic pilot, living your life by routine: “This is the way I am, and this is what I do.” Why do you do it? If it isn’t a positive, nourishing experience, figure out where it came from. When did you first do it? You know what to do now. Connect to the Intelligence within you.

  Stress Is Another Word for Fear

  We talk a lot about stress these days. Everyone seems to be stressed out about something. Stress seems to be a buzzword and we use it to the point where I think it’s a copout. “I’m so stressed,” or “This is so stressful,” or “All this stress, stress, stress.”

  Stress, to me, is a fearful reaction to life’s constant changes. It is an excuse we use for not taking responsibility for our feelings. If we can equate the word “stress” with the word “fear,” then we can begin to eliminate the need for fear in our lives.

  The next time you think about how stressed you are, ask yourself what is scaring you. Ask: “How am I overloading or burdening myself? Why am I giving my power away?” Find out what you are doing to yourself that is creating this fear within you that keeps you from achieving inner harmony and peace.

  Stress is not inner harmony. Inner harmony is being at peace with yourself. It’s not possible to have stress and inner harmony at the same time. When you’re at peace, you do things one at a time. You don’t let things get to you. When you feel stressed, do something to release the fear, so you can move through life feeling safe. Don’t use the word “stress” as a copout. Don’t give a little word like “stress” a lot of power. Nothing has any power over you.

  You Are Always Safe

  Life is a series of doors closing and opening. We walk from room to room having different experiences. Many of us would like to close some doors on old negative patterns, old blocks, situations that are no longer nourishing or useful to ourselves. Many of us are in the process of opening new doors and finding wonderful new experiences.

  I think that we come to this planet many, many times, and we come to learn different lessons. It’s like coming to school. Before we incarnate at any particular time on the planet, we decide the lesson we are going to learn so that we can evolve spiritually. Once we choose our lesson, we choose all the circumstances and situations that will enable us to learn the lesson, including our parents, sexuality, place of birth, and race. If you’ve gotten this far in your life, believe me, you’ve made all the right choices.

  As you go through life, it is essential to remind yourself that you are safe. It is only change. Trust your Higher Self to lead you and guide you in ways that are best for your spiritual growth. As Joseph Campbell once said, “Follow your bliss.”

  See yourself opening doors to joy, peace, healing, prosperity, and love; doors to understanding, compassion, forgiveness and freedom; doors to self-worth, self-esteem and self-love. You are eternal. You will go on forever from experience to experience. Ev
en when you pass through the last doorway on this planet, it is not the end. It is the beginning of another new adventure.

  Ultimately, you cannot force anyone to change. You can offer them a positive mental atmosphere where they have the possibility to change if they wish. However, you cannot do it for or to other people. Each person is here to work out his or her own lessons, and if you fix it for them, then they will eventually do it again because they haven’t learned for themselves. They haven’t worked out what they needed to do.

  Love your sisters and brothers. Allow them to be who they are. Know that the truth is always within them, and they can change at any moment that they want.

  Chapter 15

  A World Where It’s Safe to Love Each Other

  We can either destroy the planet or we can heal it. Send some loving, healing energy to the planet every day. What we do with our minds makes a difference.

  The planet is very much in a period of change and transition. We’re going from an old order to a new order, and some people say it began with the Aquarian Age—at least the astrologers like to describe it in that way. To me, astrology, numerology, palmistry, and all those methods of psychic phenomena are merely ways of describing life. They explain life to us slightly differently.

  So the astrologers say that we are moving out of the Piscean Age into the Aquarian Age. During the Piscean Age, we looked to other people to save us. We looked for other people to do it for us. In the Aquarian Age, which we are now entering, people are beginning to go within, acknowledging that they have the ability to save themselves.

  Isn’t it wonderfully liberating to change what we don’t like? Actually, I’m not so sure that the planet is changing, as much as we are becoming more conscious and aware. Conditions that were brewing for a long time are coming to the surface, such as family dysfunction, child abuse, and our endangered planet.