The Essential Louise Hay Collection Page 11

  We want to release the “fixed income” mentality. Do not limit the Universe by insisting that you have “ONLY” a certain salary or income. That salary or income is a CHANNEL; IT IS NOT YOUR SOURCE. Your supply comes from one source, the Universe itself.

  There are an infinite number of channels. We must open ourselves to them. We must accept in consciousness that supply can come from anywhere and everywhere. Then when we walk down the street and find a penny or a dime, we say “Thank you!” to the source. It may be small, but new channels are beginning to open.

  “I am open and receptive to new avenues of income.”

  “I now receive my good from expected and unexpected sources.”

  “I am an unlimited being accepting from an unlimited source in an unlimited way.”

  Rejoice in the Small, New Beginnings

  When we work for increasing prosperity, we always gain in accordance with our beliefs about what we deserve. A writer was working to increase her income. One of her affirmations was, “I am making good money being a writer.” Three days later, she went to a coffee shop where she often had breakfast. She settled into a booth and spread out some paper she was working on. The manager came over to her and asked, “You are a writer, aren’t you? Will you do some writing for me?”

  He then brought over several little blank tent signs and asked if she would write, “TURKEY LUNCHEON SPECIAL, $3.95,” on each card. He offered her a free breakfast in return.

  This small event showed the beginning of her change in consciousness, and she went on to sell her own work.

  Recognize Prosperity

  Begin to recognize prosperity everywhere, and rejoice in it. Reverend Ike, the well-known evangelist from New York City, remembered that as a poor preacher he used to walk by good restaurants and homes and automobiles and clothing establishments and say out loud, “That’s for me, that’s for me.” Allow fancy homes and banks and fine stores and showrooms of all sorts—and yachts—to give you pleasure. Recognize that all this is part of YOUR abundance, and you are increasing your consciousness to partake of these things if you desire. If you see well-dressed people, think, “Isn’t it wonderful that they have so much abundance? There is plenty for all of us.”

  We don’t want someone else’s good. We want to have our own good.

  And yet we do not own anything. We only use possessions for a period of time until they pass on to someone else. Sometimes a possession may stay in a family for a few generations, but eventually it will pass on. There is a natural rhythm and flow of life. Things come, and things go. I believe that when something goes, it is only to make room for something new and better.

  Accept Compliments

  So many people want to be rich, and yet they won’t accept a compliment. I have known many budding actors and actresses who want to be “stars,” and yet they cringe when they’re paid a compliment.

  Compliments are gifts of prosperity. Learn to accept them graciously. My mother taught me early to smile and say, “Thank you” when I received a compliment or a gift. This advice has been an asset all my life.

  It is even better to accept the compliment and return it so the giver feels as though he or she has received a gift. It is a way of keeping the flow of good going.

  Rejoice in the abundance of being able to awaken each morning and experience a new day. Be glad to be alive, to be healthy, to have friends, to be creative, to be a living example of the joy of living. Live to your highest awareness. Enjoy your transformational process.

  In the infinity of life where I am,

  all is perfect, whole, and complete.

  I am one with the Power that created me.

  I am totally open and receptive to the abundant flow of prosperity

  that the Universe offers.

  All my needs and desires are met before I even ask.

  I am Divinely guided and protected,

  and I make choices that are beneficial for me.

  I rejoice in others’ successes, knowing there is plenty for us all.

  I am constantly increasing my conscious awareness of abundance,

  and this reflects in a constantly increasing income.

  My good comes from everywhere and everyone.

  All is well in my world.

  Chapter Fourteen

  THE BODY

  “I listen with love to my body’s messages.”

  I believe we create every so-called illness in our body. The body, like everything else in life, is a mirror of our inner thoughts and beliefs. The body is always talking to us, if we will only take the time to listen. Every cell within your body responds to every single thought you think and every word you speak.

  Continuous modes of thinking and speaking produce body behaviors and postures and “eases” or dis-eases. The person who has a permanently scowling face did not produce that by having joyous, loving thoughts. Older people’s faces and bodies show so clearly a lifetime of thinking patterns. How will you look when you are elderly?

  I am including in this section my list of Probable Mental Patterns that create illnesses in the body, as well as the New Thought Patterns or Affirmations to be used to create health. They appear in my book Heal Your Body. In addition to those short listings, I will explore a few of the more common conditions to give you an idea of just how we create these problems.

  Not every mental equivalent is 100 percent true for everyone. However, it does give us a point of reference to begin our search for the cause of the dis-ease. Many people working in the alternative healing therapies use Heal Your Body all the time with their clients and find that the mental causes run 90 to 95 percent true.

  THE HEAD represents us. It is what we show the world. It is how we are usually recognized. When something is wrong in the head area, it usually means we feel something is very wrong with “us.”

  THE HAIR represents strength. When we are tense and afraid, we often create those bands of steel that originate in the shoulder muscles and come up over the top of the head and sometimes even down around the eyes. The hair shaft grows up through the hair follicle. When there is a lot of tension in the scalp, the hair shaft can be squeezed so tightly that the hair can no longer breathe, and it dies and falls out. If this tension is continued, and the scalp is not relaxed, then the follicle remains so tight that the new hair cannot grow through. The result is baldness.

  Female baldness has been on the increase ever since women have begun entering the “business world” with all its tensions and frustrations. We are not aware of baldness in women because women’s wigs are so natural and attractive. Unfortunately, most men’s toupees are still discernible at quite a distance.

  Tension is not being strong. Tension is weakness. Being relaxed and centered and peaceful is really being strong and secure. It would be good for us to relax our bodies more, and many of us need to relax our scalps, too.

  Try it now. Tell your scalp to relax, and feel if there is a difference. If you notice that your scalp visibly relaxes, then I would suggest you do this little exercise often.

  THE EARS represent the capacity to hear. When there are problems with the ears, it usually means something is going on you do not want to hear. An earache would indicate that there is anger about what is heard.

  Earaches are common with children. They often have to listen to stuff going on in the household they really don’t want to hear. Household rules often forbid a child’s expression of anger, and the child’s inability to change things creates an earache.

  Deafness represents longstanding refusal to listen to someone. Notice that when one partner has a hearing impairment, the other partner often talks and talks and talks.

  THE EYES represent the capacity to see. When there are problems with the eyes, it usually means there is something we do not want to see, either about ourselves or about life: past, present, or future.

  Whenever I see small children wearing glasses, I know there is stuff going on in their household they do not want to look at. If they can’t cha
nge the experience, they will diffuse the sight so they don’t have to see it so clearly.

  Many people have had dramatic healing experiences when they have been willing to go back into the past and clean up what it was they did not want to look at a year or two before they began wearing glasses.

  Are you negating what’s happening right now? What don’t you want to face? Are you afraid to see the present or the future? If you could see clearly, what would you see that you don’t see now? Can you see what you are doing to yourself?

  Interesting questions to look at.

  HEADACHES come from invalidating the self. The next time you get a headache, stop and ask yourself where and how you have just made yourself wrong. Forgive yourself, let it go, and the headache will dissolve back into the nothingness from where it came.

  Migraine headaches are created by people who want to be perfect and who create a lot of pressure on themselves. A lot of suppressed anger is involved. Interestingly, migraine headaches can almost always be alleviated by masturbation if you do it as soon as you feel a migraine coming on. The sexual release dissolves the tension and the pain. You may not feel like masturbating then, but it certainly is worth a try. You can’t lose.

  SINUS problems, felt right in the face and so close to the nose, represent being irritated by someone in your life, someone who is close to you. You might even feel they are bearing down on you.

  We forget that we create the situations, then we give our power away by blaming the other person for our frustration. No person, no place, and no thing has any power over us, for “we” are the only thinkers in our mind. We create our experiences, our reality, and everyone in it. When we create peace and harmony and balance in our mind, we will find it in our lives.

  THE NECK AND THROAT are fascinating because so much “stuff” goes on there. The neck represents the ability to be flexible in our thinking, to see the other side of a question, and to see another person’s viewpoint. When there are problems with the neck, it usually means we are being stubborn about our own concept of a situation.

  Whenever I see a person wearing one of those “collars,” I know this person is being very self-righteous and stubborn about not seeing the other side of an issue.

  Virginia Satir, the brilliant family therapist, said that she did some “silly research” and found that there are more than 250 different ways to wash dishes, depending upon who is washing and the ingredients used. If we are stuck in believing there is only “one way,” or “one viewpoint,” then we are shutting out most of life.

  THE THROAT represents our ability to “speak up” for ourselves, to “ask for what we want,” to say “I am,” etc. When we have throat problems, it usually means we do not feel we have the right to do these things. We feel inadequate to stand up for ourselves.

  Sore throats are always anger. If a cold is involved, then there is mental confusion, too. LARYNGITIS usually means you are so angry you cannot speak.

  The throat also represents the creative flow in the body. This is where we express our creativity, and when our creativity is stifled and frustrated, we often have throat problems. We all know many people who live their whole lives for others. They never once get to do what they want to do. They are always pleasing mothers/fathers/spouses/lovers/bosses. TONSILLITIS and THYROID problems are just frustrated creativity, resulting from not being able to do what you want to do.

  The energy center in the throat, the fifth chakra, is the place in the body where change takes place. When we are resisting change or are in the middle of change or are trying to change, we often have a lot of activity in our throats. Notice when you cough, or when someone else coughs. What has just been said? What are we reacting to? Is it resistance and stubbornness, or is it the process of change taking place? In a workshop I use coughs as a tool for self-discovery. Every time someone coughs, I have that person touch the throat and say out loud, “I am willing to change,” or “I am changing.”

  THE ARMS represent our ability and capacity to embrace the experiences of life. The upper arms have to do with our capacity, and the lower arms have to do with our abilities. We store old emotions in our joints, and the elbows represent our flexibility in changing directions. Are you flexible about a changing direction in your life, or are old emotions keeping you stuck in one spot?

  THE HANDS grasp, hands hold, hands clench. We let things slip through our fingers. Sometimes we hold on too long. We are handy, tightfisted, openhanded, penny pinchers, butterfingers. We give handouts. We can handle ourselves, or we can’t seem to handle anything.

  We put a handle on something. It’s hands down. It’s hands off, hanky panky. We give someone a hand, are hand in hand, it’s on hand or out of hand, underhanded or overhanded. We have helping hands.

  Hands can be gentle or they can be hard, with knotty knuckles from overthinking, or gnarled with arthritic criticism. Grasping hands come from fear—fear of loss, fear of never having enough, fear that it won’t stay if you hold lightly.

  Tightly grasping a relationship only has the partner run away in desperation. Tightly clenched hands cannot take in anything new. Shaking the hands freely from the wrists gives a feeling of looseness and openness.

  That which belongs to you cannot be taken from you, so relax.

  THE FINGERS each have meaning. Problems in the fingers show where you need to relax and let go. If you cut your index finger, there is probably anger and fear that has to do with your ego in some current situation. The thumb is mental and represents worry. The index finger is the ego and fear. The middle finger has to do with sex and with anger. When you are angry, hold your middle finger and watch the anger dissolve. Hold the right finger if your anger is at a man and the left if it is at a woman. The ring finger is both unions and grief. The little finger has to do with the family and pretending.

  THE BACK represents our support system. Problems with the back usually mean we feel we are not being supported. Too often we think we are only supported by our job or by our family or spouses. In reality, we are totally supported by the Universe, by Life itself.

  The upper back has to do with feeling the lack of emotional support. My husband/wife/lover/friend/boss doesn’t understand me or support me.

  The middle back has to do with guilt. All that stuff that is in back of us. Are you afraid to see what is back there, or are you hiding what is back there? Do you feel stabbed in the back?

  Do you feel real “burnt out”? Are your finances in a mess, or do you worry about them excessively? Then your lower back may be bothering you. The lack of money or the fear of money will do it. The amount you have has nothing to do with it.

  So many of us feel that money is the most important thing in our lives, and that we could not live without it. This is not true. There is something far more important and precious to us without which we could not live. What is that? It is our breath.

  Our breath is the most precious substance in our lives, and yet we totally take for granted when we exhale that our next breath will be there. If we did not take another breath, we would not last three minutes. Now if the Power that created us has given us enough breath to last for as long as we shall live, can we not trust that everything else we need will also be supplied?

  THE LUNGS represent our capacity to take in and give out life. Problems with the lungs usually mean we are afraid to take in life, or perhaps we feel we do not have the right to live life fully.

  Women have traditionally been very shallow breathers and have often thought of themselves as second-class citizens who did not have the right to take up space and sometimes not even the right to live. Today, this is all changing. Women are taking their place as full members of society and breathing deeply and fully.

  It pleases me to see women in sports. Women have always worked in the fields; but this is the first time in history, as far as I know, that women have gone into sports. It is wonderful to see the magnificent bodies that are emerging.

  Emphysema and heavy smoking are ways of deny
ing life. They mask a deep feeling of being totally unworthy of existing. Scolding will not change the habit of smoking. It is the basic belief that must change first.

  THE BREASTS represent the mothering principle. When there are problems with the breasts, it usually means we are “over-mothering” either a person, a place, a thing, or an experience.

  Part of the mothering process is to allow the child to “grow up.” We need to know when to take our hands off, when to turn over the reins and let them be. Being overprotective does not prepare the other person to handle his or her own experience. Sometimes our “overbearing” attitudes literally cut off nourishment in a situation.

  If cancer is involved, then there is also deep resentment. Release the fear and know the Intelligence of the Universe resides in each one of us.

  THE HEART, of course, represents love, while our blood represents joy. Our hearts lovingly pump joy throughout our bodies. When we deny ourselves joy and love, the heart shrivels and becomes cold. As a result, the blood gets sluggish, and we creep our way to ANEMIA, ANGINA, and HEART ATTACKS.

  The heart does not “attack” us. We get so caught up in the soap opera and dramas we create that we often forget to notice the little joys that surround us. We spend years squeezing all the joy out of the heart, and it literally falls over in pain. Heart attack people are never joyous people. If they do not take the time to appreciate the joys of life, they will just recreate another heart attack in time.

  Heart of gold, cold heart, open heart, black heart, loving heart, warmhearted—where is your heart?

  THE STOMACH digests all the new ideas and experiences we have. What or who can’t you stomach? What gets you in the gut?

  When there are stomach problems, it usually means we don’t know how to assimilate the new experience. We are afraid.

  Many of us remember when commercial airplanes first became popular. That we could get inside a big metal tube that would carry us safely through the sky was a new idea we found hard to assimilate.