... al over again!

It was the self-help book that sold an astonishing 50 million copies. Now, after the death of its inspirational author LOUISE HAY, we present the best of her advice

THE founder of the modern selfhelp movement inspired such devotion that her followers called her a ‘living saint’.

louise Hay, who died last week aged 90, claimed she could treat any emotional problem and even alleviate illnesses with positive thinking.

Today, more than 50 million copies of her groundbreaking book You Can Heal Your life, first published 33 years ago, have been sold. Millions of people still swear by its teachings. Here, we extract the best advice so many people used to change and heal their lives for ever . . .

LOUISE’S LIFE AND YOUR FIRST LESSON

lIFE is really very simple. What we give out, we get back. What we think about ourselves becomes the truth for us.

I believe everyone is responsible for everything in their life, good and bad.

Every thought we think forms our future. Each of us creates our experiences by our thoughts and feelings — or what I call our ‘ pattern’.

When we create peace and harmony in our minds, we will find it in our lives. No matter where we have come from, we can change our lives for the better.

I am living proof. When I was 18 months old, my parents divorced. I’ve never been able to determine if my mother loved my stepfather or whether she just married him in order to provide a home for us.

But it was not a good move. He had been brought up with much brutality, and had never learned another way to manage a family. We were stuck in a home of violence.

Then a neighbour sexually assaulted me when I was about five. All in all, my childhood was spent enduring physical and sexual abuse, with a lot of hard labour thrown in.

When I was 15, I could not take the sexual abuse any longer and ran away. Being starved of affection, I willingly gave my body to whoever was kind to me.

Just after my 16th birthday, I gave birth to a baby girl and felt it was impossible to keep her. I never experienced the joys of motherhood, just the loss, guilt and shame.

The violence I had experienced, combined with my sense of worthlessness, attracted men who mistreated me.

Gradually, however, through positive work experiences, my self-esteem grew. Those kind of men began to leave my life.

My old pattern of unconsciously believing I deserved abuse was gone, and they did not fit any more.

I don’t condone their behaviour, but if it were not for my ‘pattern’ they would not have been attracted to me.

I moved to New York and became a model. I married a wonderful, educated English gentleman (the businessman Andrew Hay).

We travelled the world, met royalty and even had dinner at the White House. But though I was a model and had a lovely husband, my self- esteem remained low.

Then, after 14 years of marriage, my husband announced his desire to marry another, just when I was beginning to believe good things can last. Of course, I was crushed.

USING MY PAIN TO HELP OTHERS

EvENTuAllY I became a counsellor, and developed my theory that your mental patterns cause illness and traumatic events. Then I was diagnosed with cervical cancer and at that point I decided to take responsibility for my own healing. I expressed all of my old, bottled-up anger by beating pillows and howling with rage. This made me feel cleaner.

Then I began to piece together the stories my parents had told me of their own childhoods.

I began to have compassion for their pain and, with a lot of work, the blame dissolved. I changed my diet to a strict one with lots of green vegetables. Six months after my diagnosis, I was cancer-free.

Now personal experience had shown me that disease can be healed — if we are willing to change the way we think, believe and act.

Sometimes what seems to be a big tragedy turns out to become the greatest good in our lives.

Emotional happiness and great personal and financial success has come to me through the power of positive thought. I value life in a new way.

With my help, you can heal your life too.

let’s start with a simple exercise. Which of these statements sounds like you?

‘ People are out to get me’ or ‘ Everyone is always helpful’. Each of these beliefs will create quite different experiences. What you choose to think about yourself and life becomes true. When we know this, it makes sense to choose ‘everyone is always helpful’ over ‘people are out to get me’.

If I want to believe nobody loves me, that’s what I will find in my world.

However, if I am willing to affirm for myself that ‘love is everywhere, and I am loving and lovable’, and to hold on to that new affirmation, it will become true.

The fact is that when we grow up, we have a tendency to recreate the emotional environment of our early home life.

We also tend to recreate in our personal relationships those we had with our mother or father, or what they had between them. Think how often you have had a lover or a boss who was ‘ just like’ your mother or father.

We also treat ourselves as our parents treated us. We scold and punish ourselves in the same way. ‘ You never do anything right.’ ‘It’s all your fault.’ How often have you said these to yourself?

But we can also love and encourage ourselves in the same way, if we were loved and encouraged as children. ‘You are wonderful.’ ‘I love you.’ How often do you tell yourself this?

With this knowledge comes an opportunity to change. The only thing we are ever dealing with is a thought. Change the thought, and the bad feeling must go.

The past has no power. It doesn’t matter how long we have had a negative pattern. The point of power is in the present moment. What a wonderful thing to realise. We can begin to be free this moment!

It’s vital we do so, because our thoughts are creating our world — and our physical state, too. As I’ve already discussed, longheld resentment can eat away at the body.

All disease comes from a state of unforgiving. Whenever we are ill, we need to search our hearts to see who we need to forgive.

Forgiveness means letting go. It has nothing to with condoning behaviour. We do not have to know how to forgive. All we need to do is to be willing to forgive. The universe will take care of the hows.

But before you can forgive, you must learn to love yourself. Then love, health, happiness and success will flow your way.