The Grace of the Human Spirit

“All of us are on a journey whether we know it or not.”

“We are all on a journey of learning to express our full potential in this world.”

“Every thought we think and every word we speak is creating our future.”

(Excerpts from the video You Can Heal Your Life by Louise L. Hay, 2007)

Louise L. Hay is a best-selling author and founder of Hay House publishing, who is in her 80s and who has helped hundreds of people shed the fears of life to find healing. Success did not come easy for her, however. Her upbringing was less than nurturing. Given away at 18 months, abused as a child and as a young adult, leaving home at 15 to escape the abuse, made her senses rise. She learned to listen and listen well to the words people said, which brought her to an understanding of people that was – still is – groundbreaking. She learned that the common denominator for those she counseled was a feeling of unworthiness, a feeling of being less than, a feeling of being undeserving – basically unlovable.

Because Louise listened for words between the lines, she began to compile a list of physical illnesses that aligned with a person’s emotional issues. In 1984, she published her book You Can Heal Your Life, which includes a list of many illnesses and the emotional issue aligned with it. The common denominator, underlying feelings of unworthiness, was actually the inability for persons to love themselves. Louise’s self-prescribed antidote is the use of affirmations such as: “I love and approve of myself,” “I accept myself just as I am” and “My body now restores itself to its natural state.” Many people get uncomfortable with statements such as these; however, one must push past that feeling of discomfort because it is tremendously healing – it is not vanity nor narcissism. It is purely loving oneself.

Much of this unworthiness begins very early on when we've been zinged with negative statements by others. Those hurts get buried deep inside and begin to pile up; eventually, the physical body reacts to those feelings deep inside. Because of this, it is truly important to look for these negative thoughts in children and cleanse them before they fester. Tell a child how beautiful he is or compliment her creativity. Allow a child to use her imagination in order to let her soul’s desire exude or commend him for his playfulness. Look for any limiting beliefs a child is holding and share the strengths you see in him/her.

Limiting beliefs get carried into adulthood and often turn into blame, criticism or judgment of others and ourselves, which weakens our life energies. This opens the door for “dis-ease.” When negative thoughts creep in, recognize them, accept them and determine how they came about. Reframe the situation – find positive attributes such as: acceptance, love, joy, peacefulness, appreciation, gratitude. This will lift your spirit and provide your body energy to heal. Louise Hay says “…think of an external challenge as simply a reflection of your own internal resistance to change.” This is where she would create an affirmation, such as: “I choose to see the light in me/him/her instead of the darkness.”  The love/light in us runs much deeper than the darkness. When we lift the obstacles from us, the energy flows.

Finally, a couple beautiful statements I wanted to share, related to this:

“Life challenges give us the opportunity to express and thus know ourselves more deeply as love in all its many facets: empathy, forgiveness, patience, nonjudgment, courage, balance, acceptance and trust. Our earthly experience of ourselves as love may also take the form of understanding, serenity, faith, willingness, gratitude and humility, among other virtues.” (Robert Schwartz, Your Soul’s Plan, 2007)

“We must will into the world the love in our hearts, not through self-will but through surrender to God’s will. That is our spiritual as well as our psychological maturity. Love, to be God’s love, is not a passive but a participatory emotion.”  (Marianne Williamson, The Healing of America, 1997)

Thank you, Louise Hay, for uplifting your Human Spirit and for uplifting the Human Spirit of the World!