You can heal your life
You can heal your life
Louise L. Hay, Eden Grove Editions
This book was reviewed by Alex Dargie, Ovacome's then chief administrator, for the winter 1997 newsletter
Having studied Diane's long list of recommended books at the end of With complements, I decided to select the above to read and review. I have long been a reader of holistic health books and knew that Louise Hay's philosophy was respected and admired throughout the world and had inspired and transformed the lives of millions of people. 'You can heal your life' was not written specifically to help cancer patients and their families but is aimed at anyone who wants greater acceptance, love and fulfilment in their life. The book has been a renowned success throughout the world and, as the author herself overcame terminal cancer through her own philosophy, I expected an inspiring read.
The book begins with Louise Hay's philosophy on life and on this very first page I begin wrestling with some of her beliefs. For example, she says that 'we create every so-called illness' in our body and that 'releasing resentment will dissolve even cancer'. Although I believe that we are, to a certain extent, responsible for our life experiences, I do believe that much of what happens to us is not of our creating or within our control. From my father's experience of cancer, I suspect that most patients do enough soul-searching and work through powerful emotions of guilt and self-blame without needing to read that they are responsible for their own illnesses, let alone that simply 'releasing resentment' will cure cancer. I am not sure that this helps patients who may already be feeling extremely vulnerable. It seemed a rather simplistic philosophy but, determined not to be too sceptical on the first page, I continued reading with an open mind and hoped to find more depth to substantiate her philosophy.
The book discusses the areas of ourselves and our life that we need to work on to heal ourselves. Each chapter begins with a relevant affirmation which, it is recommended, the reader says or even sings aloud several times each day. Although I found these affirmations interesting, I felt that they were not that dissimilar to the daily thoughts we each have that reaffirm the choices we have made in our lives. However, there was something empowering in actually repeating the affirmations, although making up one's own or repeating a particular quote that you find helpful works in a similar way. There are exercises through the book that the reader takes time to work through and, although they are very simple, in practice they were sometimes extremely difficult, particularly those that involve staring at your image in the mirror and repeating positive feelings. The affirmations and exercises really need to be done in conjunction with one another in order to maximise benefits.
We learn of the importance of looking deep into ourselves and our childhood to find the reasons for our disease, the need to relinquish the past and forgive all that has gone before, and the need to recognise all the patterns that we create in our lives and our choice to change these patterns in order to create a healthy life. The book encourages us to adopt a new outlook on life and practice our daily affirmations to reinforce our new approach. We learn of the importance of our attitude to relationships, work, money and our bodies in helping us to make the transition to a new healthier life. At the end of the book we are presented with a comprehensive list of diseases and the attitudes that cause them along with affirmations to cure them. Although I found this quite fascinating, I was not convinced of its absolute authority.
Whilst the first reading left me somewhat bemused at some of the suggestions in the book, on a second reading following the exercises carefully I can see that it could have value to a reader who believed fully in its principles and their own power over their life. It certainly helps to share your thoughts on the philosophy of the book with someone else who has read it, as it helps to clarify one's own understanding of the author's beliefs. I often feel that the value of books such as this is the sharing of its ideas, as it can be very easy to take everything that is written as a universal truth.
However, many of its ideas are valuable and I am sure most readers take something positive from it. For me, I did not find the depth I wanted and found the philosophy too simplistic and often rather idealistic. I feel that the reader of such a book would need to be feeling emotionally very strong to take some of what is advocated and to be dedicated in working thoroughly through the book and in continuing with its philosophy in order to gain all that it claims is possible. As with many similar books, the theory may be inspiring and leave the reader on an emotional high, but the reality of life makes it extremely hard to obtain, and maintain, such an ideal.
