A conversation with Louise Hay
Louise L. Hay is a much-loved spiritual teacher and the best-selling author of over 30 books including You Can Heal Your Life and I Can Do It. Her works have been translated into 26 different languages in 35 countries throughout the world. She is the owner and founder of Hay House, Inc., a publishing company devoted to producing materials that help heal the planet.
Michael James was invited to take part in a rare and revealing conversation with Louise to celebrate the release of You Can Heal Your Life The Movie on DVD.
Q: Who were your mentors when you first got started on your path?
A: There are so many… but one of the big ones in the early days of my life was an author named Florence Scovel Shinn who was very powerful in the 1920s. She was very much like me; she was very declarative and she knew what she was talking about and had perfect faith in it. And I studied her work for quite a bit… she was a big influence in the early days. She wrote a book called The Game of Life and How to Play It and it made a lot of sense to me and it’s still in print.
Q: In the movie, you talked about how you healed your life through your thoughts. What do you find the medical establishment’s response to this to be? Do you find they are gravitating to this belief?
A: Yes, gradually. There are a lot of people who have had my little blue book Heal Your Body in their desk drawer for many, many years and would pull it out and check things- but they didn’t want their colleagues to know. Now it’s more and more but there’s still a large part of the medical establishment that think we’re crazy!
I don’t really work with medical establishments, I work with people who are very open to this and just want to know more rather than trying to break through the barriers- because I’m not a salesperson I’m a teacher and there’s a big difference! Dr Christiane Northrup could probably give you the names of many people who are involved with this but I personally don’t know.
Q: Louise, you were so gracious in your movie, You Can Heal Your Life by giving us some intimate and very personal experiences. I would like to go back to the early days when you were grappling with or maybe experimenting with the idea that “maybe affirmations really do make a change in my life”. Could you give us some examples of how you might have fallen off your path and what you did to get back on it?
A: Well I did what most people did- I was very judgemental, I was full of resentment and very frightened. And that was my normal pattern. Then I started to learn about affirmations and I realised that if I wanted to change my life I had to make changes- not only in what I said but in my thinking. And I would start out every day with great intentions and then somewhere along the line I’d find out I was either being judgemental or I was resentful or I was frightened. So if I caught myself I’d pull myself back. Sometimes I wouldn’t even notice it and I’d start the next day with great intentions.
I think all of us on the pathway will do that. You know, we do the best we can but the old patterns are strong and it’s like if you want to do an exercise plan: We’re exercising mental muscles and how many repetitions are we going to do in a day? Or are we just going to do one push up and then just forget it for the rest of the day? The more we give and the more we practice the easier it becomes and the more our life changes.
Q: What’s the most essential part of your own daily practice? I wondered if you could share anything from that with us? I know you’ve shared quite a lot of this in books before...
A: But of course daily practices change from time to time! I don’t necessarily do the things I did ten or fifteen years ago, but I am much more conscious of affirmations and I try to think in positive affirmations; it’s one thing to say positive affirmations, it’s another one to think constantly and when I have nothing else to do mentally I will do little things like “I really love myself and all is well in my world” and I’ll just repeat that a few times- because that covers a lot and it just smoothes out the edges. And I have another one that I use a lot if a problem comes up; I have one which I say: “All is well, everything is working out for my highest good and out of this experience only good will come and I am safe”. And I will babble that several times so I will get my own nerves out of the way and allow the Universe to find the solution to the problem. You can use that too.
Q: If there is one thing that you could tell people to try to do which may help them on their journey, what would it be?
A: Look in the mirror and say: “I love you. I really, really love you”. It’s the most powerful statement we can make and when we look in our own eyes and do it we connect with that inner child. And what the inner child in us really, really wants is to be loved and to feel safe. When you do that it’s like miracles happen in your life. All the pieces fall into place. So do it at least two or three times a day, just say “I love you. I really, really love you”. Simple but powerful!
Q: A problem that I find a lot of people have is when they’ve got very addictive thoughts- they know about Law of Attraction and yet still keep thinking the same thought over and over and over. I wondered when people are in that kind of rut or if you’re ever in that kind of rut what affirmation or what do you do to get out of it and back on track?
A: Well the image that has just come into my mind is taking a glass of water and pouring it over one’s head to shock you into “look you’re really doing the wrong thing!” I haven’t done it to myself but it sounds like a great idea! Remember it’s like a diet or an exercise plan- you know what’d good for you, you know what’s best for your body but you don’t always do it. But you just get back on track as quickly as you can. It’s the best thing to do. There’s nothing magical, it’s all simple and straightforward.
Q: It was just alluded to a few moments ago about the simplicity of this technique. I’ve found that I, like everyone else in this society, seems to want to complicate everything and cannot validate it unless it has ten thousand points to follow. How can you address that and what kind of thoughts do you have about simplistic techniques?
A: Well the simplistic techniques always work the best because that’s where life is. You know life is supposed to be easy, life is supposed to be smooth. We make these soap operas and dramas around us but they’re not necessary. Doing simple affirmations and just understanding that on a deep level you’re really a wonderful person. And yes, you may have learnt some nonsense along the way but that doesn’t mean you’re a bad person it just means you have a few things to unlearn. We need to know that we’re really wonderful, divine, magnificent beings doing the best we can.
Q: I think it’s interesting because as a spiritual counsellor when I work with people I will tend to do the most simple words for them and try to get them back into reality. But they’ll go “yes, but…”
A: Well you have to point out to them what they’re saying. You just have to point it out because they don’t know what they’re doing. It’s like you ask people “what do you want in life?” and they give you a long list of what they don’t want. And they don’t realise that they really need to allow themselves to express what they want in life. It is that simple, because the Universe has to hear what you want. You know, “I don’t want this job and I don’t want this relationship”- well that doesn’t give the Universe any clues as to what you do want! We just have to simply declare what we want and then say also simple things like: “I deserve it. I’m worthy of having this. I’m worthy of being loved”. Because many of us really have learned in childhood that we didn’t deserve anything good so we have to unlearn that.
Q: How do you give back to yourself?
A: One of the things I love doing is gardening and I grow a lot of vegetables because I like to feed myself really good healthy food and I have lovely friends who I break bread with and I fulfil myself that way. And I’m always studying and learning more because the more I learn the more I can share- it’s a lovely cycle.
Q: I have a good friend who studies NLP and I’m wondering what you think about the theory that your mind, your subconscious doesn’t hear the word “don’t”, so when you say something like “Oh I really don’t want to gain weight” that what you’re really telling your subconscious is “Oh I want to gain weight” because it doesn’t hear the don’t part.
A: Well I’ve heard many times that the subconscious mind does not understand the word “no”- and so “don’t” comes under that category. And you never want to make jokes about yourself because the subconscious mind really has no sense of humour and takes everything you say literally.
I think if you have a general tone of “All is well and life is good and I am a wonderful person” you’ll go through life very well- we don’t have to get too nit picky about the exact words, it’s the tone and the feeling that goes with them.
Q: I got your book You Can Heal Your Life and I was having an issue with my parents, mostly my mum and I heard you say about forgiveness and healing your parents and you said “Imagine your mother as a little girl about 4 years old and she was innocent and sweet, put her into your heart”. So I did the visualisations and that has helped me with forgiveness and loving and being open. You’ve given us all these explanations of every ailment we could ever possibly have and all we have to do is read about it and keep saying the affirmation for it…
A: Well you know we keep making new diseases, it’s like we don’t have enough. But I’ve learned really over time that the underlying issue for almost all dis-ease is anger and resentment. And love and forgiveness is the healer. And it really doesn’t matter what it is. The thing about putting your parents in your heart as small children is often we totally forget that they were small children. They were born as babies, they were absolutely pure and innocent and what on earth happened in their childhood that would make them be the sort of people that were so mean to us. Something happened there- and if we can go back to that place and forgive them and realise that they need love and they need healing too, it works wonders. And it doesn’t mean that we condone their behaviour later on- I mean if the behaviour was not good- but the reasons of how they got there is very important to understand.
Q: I’ve got a question about mid-life. You mentioned that you really got into this in your mid-life time- was there a certain event or something that brought you into this?
A: Yes there was, a friend of mine called me up and said “I hear there’s a really good lecture at noon in someplace, I don’t want to go by myself do you want to go with me?” and I said “okay” so I went and he never showed up. And I heard somebody say “if you are willing to change your thinking, you can change your life” and it was like “really? I didn’t know that?!” It’s like a penny dropped in my mind and from that moment on I was on a pathway of searching and learning and wanting to find out “Is this true?” and “What is it?” and “How do I do it?”
Q: What are your hopes or expectations that this movie will bring, not only to the metaphysical and spiritual community but also to the mainstream- because it’s catching on. Can you comment on that?
A: I think we just have to watch and see. What’s going to happen? We’ll just see what happens. Because it will, it will unfold, this is going out more and more and I seem to be a catalyst for getting it to the world. My book You Can Heal Your Life has sold, in the twenty years it has been around, 35 million copies worldwide, and I feel like I’ve had nothing to do with it, that life has said “this book must go out”. So let’s see what Life does with this movie. You see, I never have goals. I just wake up in the morning and say “What’s today?” and there’s plenty!
Q: Thank you Louise. Anything you’d like to add before we conclude?
A: Enjoy life… Life is meant to be fun. And keep that in mind. You’re wonderful and you deserve only the best and just accept it, allow it. You know we don’t have to force things, just allow them to happen. Life loves us!
For more information about Louise visit her website louisehay.com.
REVIEW: YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE The Movie
The New Thought movement has had its fair share of criticism recently, with accusations of being obsessed with ‘stuff’; the manifesting of big money, big cars etc at the expense of everything else.
Of course there is nothing wrong with material comforts- but You Can Heal Your Life The Movie redresses the balance, focusing on discovering the love within ourselves rather than the quest for happiness outside via the gathering of more ’stuff’.
Blending drama with documentary, You Can Heal Your Life The Movie brings together some eloquent and familiar faces of the spiritual world: Wayne Dyer, Doreen Virtue and Louise Hay, in addition to some lesser-known teachers. It’s fitting that Jerry and Esther Hicks/ Abraham were edited out of The Secret yet now find a comfortable place here, which is in many ways that former movie’s natural successor.
The film opens with a woman making her way to work. She is attractive and smartly dressed. But then we hear her stream of thoughts: “I’m such an idiot”, “I’m so tired of being late”, “I’m not good enough”. The camera pans across the crowded city street as we hear the similar inner-talk of other commuters: “Why can’t I lose weight?”, “I’m all by myself”, “I never do anything right”. It’s an incredible scene, and an effective way of depicting an unspoken truth we can all relate to; one face presented to the world and yet inside torturing ourselves with self-criticism. The original woman stumbles across an affirmation card that a visibly happy passer-by drops, and her journey to healing her life begins…
One of the many things I liked about the film is how it seamlessly mixes Louise Hay’s inspirational life story with the journey of the ‘everywoman’ protagonist- both move from the misery of negative thinking to the revelation of their own personal power. All the while, some wonderful tips for ‘creating your own reality’ are added via the contributing authors’ anecdotes.
Full of moving stories and an abundance of ‘ah-ha’ moments, You Can Heal Your Life is a triumphant movie which would make an excellent gift to both newcomers and those already established on their spiritual path.
First published January 2008. You Can Heal Your Life The Movie is available now on DVD from all good bookshops. For more details see Youcanhealyourlifemovie.com.
