Book Therapy | You Can Heal Your Life : A Manifesto on Self-Acceptance

mama jenny
Sep 27, 2021
3 min read

Updated: Nov 22, 2021

You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay

In 1984 Louise Hay's second book, You Can Heal Your Life, was a ground-breaking self help book. Today, the shelves at the bookstore are overflowing in this genre. A genre which I think sounds less 'icky' if I call it "Self-Improvement" or "Mindfulness". I feel life 'Self-Help' has developed such a stigma leaving it feeling more helpLESS than helpFUL. But really, those who are reading this genre are often just trying to improve themselves, be pro-active or take a hold of life and embrace all that it has to offer while we have it.

There is good reason why Louise Hay's book has sold more than 50 million copies. It's simple and basic in it's text but the overall message runs deep. People have trauma. Our trauma is often passed down from the generations before us. Our environments, either within each of our households, or nationally or globally are often filled with negativity - and have been for many generations. When our environment is negative it often effects the way we parent and help our families and communities. We are consumed so much by the negative that it's hard to live positively when we are not conditioned that way. Positivity is an uphill battle and it is not the norm. So how can we love and accept ourselves when it's a language that we are not used to hearing. This book is all about self-acceptance and loving yourself and the words that we need to hear to start those processes.

This is not a book you have to read back to back or all at once. You can skim through it all and come back to read each chapter separately or just take your time one section at at time. It's written in clear and simple language which is easy to digest. The concepts are not that foreign and quite easy to comprehend. She believes that it's our own limiting beliefs which are the cause of our own illnesses, 'dis-eases' and life's internal challenges.

So simply put...if you change your thinking you can change your lens on life and the quality of it. If you are willing to put in the mental work almost anything can be healed. Trauma, physically or mentally. Illness. Mindset. We often tell ourselves messages on a daily basis and hold emotion that negatively impacts our minds and bodies. We need to change the narrative of the story that we are telling ourselves on a daily basis. She provides affirmations to say to yourself to help 'cure' our ailments - as she believe each ailment or dis-ease is a reflection of the way we view ourselves. I am coming around to the power of affirmations knowing that if we really truly do believe them, our bodies and brains will believe them too. “I do not fix problems. I fix my thinking. Then problems fix themselves.” - Louise Hay.

There are some parts which I have chosen to gloss over and take with a grain of salt as I'm not sure that I can fully agree with them. But I feel like if every person who was put here to teach us something was 100% accurate in there thinking - and their solutions could provide a 'blanket cure' for everyone, then there would likely be no problems in this world. Rather, I believe, we can collectively help each other on this earth, providing each other with what works for us in the hopes that some of it can heal someone else too. So although Louise Hay may have a few extreme thoughts about cancer and other things, I truly believe you cannot 'throw the baby out with the bath water'.

This was a book that a wise friend recently gifted me. I am so thankful for it, but I believe it should have been something I read a long time ago. It was full of many 'ah-ha' moments for me and I feel like it's a staple in the amazing genre of 'Self-Improvement'.

Enjoy!