This article is an excerpt from the Shortform book guide to "You Can Heal Your Life" by Louise Hay. Shortform has the world's best summaries and analyses of books you should be reading.
Like this article? Sign up for a free trial here.
Do you believe in the power of positive thinking? How can you train your mind to think more positively?
According to self-help guru Louise Hay, positive thinking can help you solve any problem you encounter in your life, including problems involving relationships, money, work, and even illness. Hay says that you can imprint positive thoughts on your subconscious mind using positive affirmations.
Here’s how positive thoughts can help you solve all your problems.
Relationship Problems
In her book, You Can Heal Your Life, Louise Hay asserts that the things we don’t like about other people are simply reflections of the things we don’t like about ourselves: Our relationships are reflections of our beliefs. Therefore, if we learn to love our own flaws and quirks, we will no longer be frustrated or annoyed when we encounter those qualities in others.
For example, if you have a friend who you feel is selfish and unreliable, this could be because you believe that you can be selfish and unreliable, and you are projecting your beliefs about yourself onto your friend. Or it could be because you learned as a child that everyone is selfish and unreliable. To address the problems in your relationship, you could use mirror work and positive affirmations to learn to love the selfish and unreliable aspects of yourself, which will translate to forgiveness toward them. Alternatively, you could use these techniques to affirm to yourself that people are generous and reliable, until you believe it—your positive outlook will attract generous, reliable people into your life as a result.
(Shortform note: While Hay’s method for solving relationship problems appears to encourage some reflection about the cause of the problems, it primarily focuses on positive affirmations. One of the risks of using positive affirmations to address relationship challenges, however, is that it encourages people to ignore their problems, focus on the positive, and not communicate with the other person. But all relationships (except your relationship with yourself) involve at least two people, and failure to acknowledge shared issues, much less discuss them with the other person, can destroy interpersonal communication and lead to further relationship breakdown.)
Money Problems
Like relationship problems, money problems are rooted in a lack of self-love, says Hay. If you want to be wealthy, you first need to feel that you deserve it. If you have negative beliefs about money or your relationship with it, it will be hard for you to accumulate wealth.
Money is in endless supply, asserts Hay, and the only thing keeping us from having money is ourselves. She suggests various ways to change your negative beliefs about money into positive ones:
- Show gratitude: Be grateful for everything you do have.
- Clear the way for abundance: Get rid of old possessions that you don’t use in order to clear the way for new material goods to enter your life.
- Appreciate your bills: Appreciate the bills you receive rather than resenting or fearing them. See bills as evidence that a creditor believes you have the money to pay them.
- Demonstrate generosity: Be happy for other people’s prosperity and generous with the money you do have.
- Accept compliments: If you learn to accept the gift of a compliment, you will attract other types of prosperity to you as well.
Hay claims that each of these approaches will change your negative mindset about finances into a positive one, opening the door for more money to flow into your life.
(Shortform note: Hay’s belief that changing your negative thoughts about money into positive ones can attract more wealth into your life is similar to Napoleon Hill’s theory in Think and Grow Rich. He says that if you fill your mind with thoughts of financial success, you can achieve riches. Both Hay and Hill believe that your thoughts create your reality. However, Hill’s recipe for prosperity includes a few steps that Hay omits: He says that in addition to thoughts and desires, wealth also requires planning, work, and persistence. It’s not enough to believe you can become rich— you also need a plan for how to make money, and you must push through obstacles without quitting until you achieve your goals.)
Work Problems
Hay says you can also solve work problems by focusing on the positive. She claims that if you don’t like your job or a particular aspect of your work, the solution is not to think about how much you hate it. Instead, you should bless it with love and express positive affirmations about what you want in your career.
For example, you could say, “I have the best boss,” “I am using my talents to their utmost,” or, “I am in a leadership role.” These positive affirmations will eventually change your belief system and, accordingly, lead to improvements in your work situation.
(Shortform note: While having a positive attitude is undoubtedly beneficial in any work environment, research indicates that many of the factors that contribute to a positive work experience are outside of an employee’s immediate control. Workplaces that are able to retain the best employees often share characteristics such as fair pay, work-life balance, meaningful work, and empowering employees to provide input and develop their skills.)
Illness and Disease
According to Louise Hay, positive thinking can even help cure physical illness. Hay says that there are specific thought patterns that correspond to every conceivable ailment, and she provides a list of mental and physical health issues and the thoughts that likely caused each one of them. For example, she says that deafness results from refusing to listen to someone and sore throats are caused by feeling angry. Hay believes that our thoughts even cause cancer and AIDS. She claims that AIDS is caused by thinking that you’re not good enough and no one cares about you, as well as by sexual guilt.
To heal any condition, says Hay, you need to first affirm to yourself that you’re letting go of the thoughts that created the condition. Then, you need to repeat the affirmation Hay provides to create new beliefs.
Hay also claims that harmful accidents aren’t really accidental; they are caused by our anger at ourselves. The degree of bodily harm caused by an accident correlates with the extent to which we want to punish ourselves. In fact, Hay believes that at the root of every disease are variations on just two emotions: anger and fear.
(Shortform note: Attempting to cure illness using positive thinking alone can be dangerous or even deadly: It can result in psychological and physical harm. While research doesn’t support this course of action, it does validate the broader concept of a mind-body connection—the idea that our thoughts, emotions, and overall outlooks can affect our physical health, just as our physical health can affect our mental states. While some mind-body practices, such as talk therapy, address the “mind” side of the equation, many focus instead on the “body” side, using practices such as Tai chi, yoga, meditation, and relaxation techniques to help alter your mental state and reduce your stress, leading to better health.)
———End of Preview———
Like what you just read? Read the rest of the world's best book summary and analysis of Louise Hay's "You Can Heal Your Life" at Shortform.
Here's what you'll find in our full You Can Heal Your Life summary:
- The causes and effects of negative beliefs
- How to transform your negative thoughts into positive ones
- How to solve your problems with relationships, money, work, and even illness
