“It was my teacher ’s idea that I draw the Buddha, and I
couldn’ t have done it without his gentle encouragement.”
Louise finished drawing the Buddha after many sessions and then set
about painting the figure. “I started to paint it by myself, but I wasn’ t happy
with it,” she said, so she set the drawing aside. It sat on an easel in her
painting room for a couple of years. “One day I remember thinking, When
the student is ready, the teacher appears ,” Louise recalled. “Shortly after
that I met my next teacher , Linda Bounds.” Louise formed a close
friendship with Linda, a local artist. “Linda brought out artistic abilities inme that I didn’ t know I possessed,” Louise told me. “We took a journey
together that I will treasure forever .”
Linda taught Louise to paint by brushing layer upon layer of color onto
the canvas. Painting Blessing Buddha  took about two years. It was during
this time that the painting became a meditation for Louise. She began to
tune in to the life of the Budd ha. She was struck by what she called “a
universal benevolence” that moved through him, and this gave her the idea
to name her painting Blessing Buddha . “I began to have a conversation with the Buddha,” Louise told me. “What did you talk about?” I asked. “Everything,” she said with a smile. “Be specific,” I said. “I asked the Buddha to help me with my painting,” she said. “Wise move.”
“I told the Buddha I was afraid I couldn’ t do the painting,” she added. “What did the Buddha say?”
“He said, ‘Remember that the Universe loves you and wants you to
succeed at everything you do.’”
Each time Louise worked on the painting, she tuned in more to the
Buddha’ s experience of enlight enment. “First I asked the Buddha to help
me paint the Buddha. He was very helpful with that, and so I started to ask
for help with other things. I asked for support with loving myself more,
forgiving others , being grateful, and being open to guidance. I didn’t ask the
Buddha for material things; I asked for help with my mind. I see the
Buddha as very compassionate and as a universal friend who is here to help
us all.”
When I asked Louise to sum up her experience of painting  Blessing
Buddha , she said, “Blessing Buddha  taught me to be very patient with
myself and also very kind. To paint this picture I had to find the little-girl
me—the girl I call Lulu—who paints without any fear or self-criticism or
self-doubt. Above all, I had to be more open and more willing to receive. This painting was done through  me, not by me. That’ s why the full name
for my painting is Blessing Buddha: Ask and Y ou Shall Receive.”
The Alr eady Principle“I remember when I first discov ered I was truly prosperous,” Louise tells
me. “When was that?” I ask. “It was when I realized I could afford to buy any book I wanted,” she
says. “How old were you?”
“I was in my mid-40s or so,” she says. “Why books?”
“I had very little money . I didn’ t even own a watch. Books felt like a
luxury , but they were af fordable,” she tells me. “What were you reading?”
“Florence Scovel Shinn’ s book The Game of Life and How to Play It was
a big inspiration. I liked her practical, no-nonsense approach,” says Louise. “You and Florence could easily be soul sisters,” I tell her . “I’ve always felt a strong kinship with her ,” Louise says, smiling. “What else did you read?”
“Emmet Fox’ s works were a big help,” she says. “Why did these books help you feel prosperous?”
“They spoke of an innate potential for love and prosperity that exists in
all of us,” she says. “How did you feel about that?”
“Well, at first I thought it was ridiculous!” she says with a big laugh. “Why?”
“The abundance of the universe had nothing to do with me. I could
believe it existed for others, but not for me.”
“You didn’ t feel loveable,” I say . “I had very poor self-esteem back then. I was also very angry ,” she says. “Why were you angry?”
“These books told me that I was the one who was blocking my potential
for love and prosperity ,” she says, laughing again. “Yet still you kept turning the pages.”
“Yes. These books were my lifelines. I remember telling myself that now
that I’d found these books I would find a way to experience this potential
for love and prosperity , and that I wouldn’ t let myself forget about this
potential ever again,” she says.I reflect on Louise’s story about when she first felt truly prosperous. Those books were her Aladdin’ s lamps. They woke up a potential that
already existed in her. This potential was waiting for her to take the first
step on her healing journey . And here she is now, some 40 years later, one
of the best-selling authors on the planet. “When did you first feel truly prosperous?” Louise asks me. “When I was 18 years old,” I tell her . “You were very young,” says Louise. “I elected to take my midlife crisis early ,” I say . “We shouldn’ t compare our journeys, I know , but sometimes I wish I’d
learned what I know now a lot sooner ,” she says. “‘There is a Divine Design for each man!’” I say, quoting Florence
Scovel Shinn, which makes Louise smile. “So what happened when you were 18 years old?” she asks. “I met A vanti Kumar , my first spiritual mentor .”
“What did he tell you?”
“Well, he gave me a lot of books to read. Books like the Tao Te Ching ,
the Bhagavad Gita, The Dhammapada , and Autobiography of a Yogi, which
is where I first learned about af firmations. These books were my lifelines.”
“Did you struggle like I did?” she asks. “Yes. Just like you, I believed in a divine potential that exists in everyone
else but not in me,” I tell her . “You felt unloveable,” she says. “Yes, but I kept on turning the pages.”
“You were listening to your inner ding,” Louise says with a smile. “I’m so grateful that I did.”
“So how did this help you feel prosperous?” she asks. “Avanti was the first person to tell me that I am already abundant,” I tell
her. “Did you believe him?” she asks. “I asked Avanti, ‘If I’m already  abundant, why can’t I feel it?’ And he
said it was because I was blocking it!”
“I hope you got angry ,” Louise says, laughing. “Yeah, I did some pillow bashing,” I tell her . “And then what?”
“Avanti said something that blew my socks of f!”
“What did he say?”“He said the reason I didn’ t feel abundant already is that I didn’ t expect
to feel abundant now; I expected to feel abundant in the future.”
“That’ s very good,” says Louise. “Avanti helped me take my first step on the spiritual path.”
“What was that first step?” asks Louise. “It was the willingness to seek the blocks to love inside myself.”
“Dissolving our barriers,” says Louise. “Amen.”
Avanti Kumar taught me what I call The Already Principle . The
Unconditioned Self, which is our true nature, is already blessed. “From the
very beginning, all beings are Buddha,” said Hakuin, a Japanese Zen
Master . We carry with us a timeless wisdom that exists already in us and
helps us to reme mber what we forgot. In the depths of our soul,  we find our
divine inheritan ce. We discover that we already are the person we most
want to be. Divine potential exists now, not in the future. This potential is our divine
mirror . We see our God-given talents in this mirror . This is where we find
the big happines s, the timeless wisdom, and the boundless love. Somehow ,
though, we forget about this mirror . It gets covered over with a thousand
Post-it notes. These notes have terrible messages written on them, like I’m
not loveable  and I’m not enough. They are full of our judgments and self-
criticism, self-rejection and unworthiness. Pablo Picasso is often quoted as
saying that “[e]very child is an artist. The problem is how to remain an
artist once we grow up.”
According to the Already Principle, you have already been given
everything you need for your journey in this life. No matter which road you
take, divine guidance will meet you there. ”I am fully equipped for the
Divine Plan of my life; I am more than equal to the situat ion,” wrote
Florence Scovel  Shinn. Florence’ s affirmation reminds me of the scene in
the film Mary Poppins  in which, before Jane’ s and Michael’ s eyes, Mary
Poppins pulls item after item from her bottomless carpetba g. Our real
potential is like this. It reveals itself when it is needed and when we ask for
it. It’ s bigger than anything our ego can carry . What about our darkest moments, when our ego is on its knee s? When
we doubt that love exists? When we can see “only one set of footprints” andfeel utterly alone? In terrible times, it’s virtually impossible for anyone to
say the right thing. Words are probably not appropriate, anyway . They make
a wound sting even more. You can’t possibly know it then, but even in the
most forsaken place, the healing has already begun. That’ s how reality
works. Nothing takes place outside the Oneness. Love abandons no one. The Already Principle reminds us of our true nature and the nature of
reality . It teaches us that there is more to this world than meets the eye. Even in a world of fear, there is love. Even when you are in lack, there is
abundance. Even when you experience conflict, there is peace. Even when
you are alone, there is help. Even when you are confused, there is guidance. Everything you need is here, and it’s here now. That’ s why Louise always
encourages us to pray and af firm in the present tense. Just like this:
I am willing to let life love me today . Everything I need to know is revealed to me. I gratefully accept all the good I have  
in my life now . I release all struggle now , and I am at peace. My healing is already in progress. I now accept and appreciate the  
abundant life the Universe of fers me. Beyond Independence
I teach a modul e called “Life Loves You” in my three-day Loveability
program. In this module, we explore the blocks to love. We look especially
at the ways we make it difficult to be loved. We see how our lack of self-
love makes it harder for others  to love us. We examine fears about love,
roles we play in relationships, old grievances we carry , and defenses that
stop us from letting love in. One block to love we pay special attention to is
independence. How independent are you? I ask my studen ts this question at the start of
the “Life Loves You” module. I follow that question up with this one: Areyou a H.I.P . or a D.I.P . ? I explain that H.I.P . stands for Healthy Independent
Person and D.I.P . stands for Dysfunctional Independent Person. On the
spectrum of independence, there is a healthy range and a dysfunctional
range. It’s impor tant that you know the difference and that you choose well,
if you want to let life love you. Healthy independence is a creative force that moves through everyone
and everything. This creative force comes from the Oneness. It’s how the
Unified Field—the energy of the universe—grows flowers and whales,
rainbows and stars, amethysts and people. It gives form to life and makes
embryos into babies. It helps children take their first steps and stand on
their own two feet. “I can do it all by myself,” cries the child. Soon he can
run and play. And all of this happens not in isolation but in a holding
environment of support and love. Healthy independence helps you to take your place in the collective. It
helps you to express yourself as I Am. You know deep inside yourself that I
am blessed  and I am loved  and I am loveable. You are an I that is made out
of everything. Everything helped to create you. This isn’t just poetry, by the
way; this is science. In the “Life Loves You” module, I show my students a
short film featuring Carl Sagan , the astrophysicist and cosmologist. In it
Sagan says, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first
invent the universe.”
Healthy indepen dence promote s freedom of thought. It helps you to
know your own mind, which is, in its purest form, an express ion of your
Unconditioned Self. It helps you to be “independent of the good opinion of
others,” as the psychologist Abraham Maslow explained in his work on the
hierarchy of needs. Healthy independence helps you to be free of
conditioning and to express yourself freely . It helps you to individuate, to
become fully yourself, and to be the wise woman or wise man that you are. “Healthy independence saved my life,” Louise once told me. “It gave me
the courage to leave home at 15 and to escape from abuse.” Healthy
independence can get you out of a bad situation. It helps you to rely on an
innate wisdom that is your true power . It saves you from losing yourself in
unhealthy depen dency , giving up on yourself, or throwing yourself away . Without healthy independence, family patterns wouldn’ t be healed, and
humanity could not evolve in the direction of love. So what about dysfunctional independence? In basic terms, dysfunctional
independence is a mistake. It takes a good thing too far. We stop relating toourselves as an individual expression of the universe. Instead, we believe
we are self-made. W e exist in isolation. This is how the eyes of the body see
it. However , when you look through the eyes of the heart, or through the
lens of quantu m physics, you discover that all forms of separation,
including a personal ego, are “an optical delusion,” as Albert Einstein put it. Dysfunctional independence is very lonely . It puts you outside of the
Oneness in a place you could call hell. The problem with being a D.I.P . is
that it separates you from everything, including yourself. As you lose
conscious conta ct with others, you lose contact with yourself as well. Your
sense of self breaks apart. When  it gets really bad, you can’t feel your heart,
you are physical ly disembodied,  your mind is at odds with itself , and you’re
not sure anymore if you have a soul. Your ego tries to be everyth ing that the
Unconditioned Self is, but without the support of that Self, it ends up
feeling lonely , tired, and unloved. Dysfunctional independence is very frightening. It’s a choice we make
out of fear, and it also causes a lot of fear. Most commonly , dysfunctional
independence is a reaction to a wound. Once upon a time, you got hurt. You
withdrew inside yourself and you felt safe. You decided to build a castle
wall around yourself. The wall was designed to protect you from  being hurt
again. The wall did its job. It kept the world out. Unfortunately , this left you
alone with your original wound. Nothing could get through to you: not help,
not the people who love you, not even the angels. Dysfunctional independence is a block to love. The more of a D.I.P . you
become, the more closed off you are from everything. This should make
you safe, accord ing to your ego, but it doesn’ t. The more closed  off you are,
the more  fearful  you are of everything, including love. That’ s why it’s so
hard for anyone to love you. You fear that love will hurt you, and you don’t
want to get hurt again. The truth  is, however , that love has never hurt you. It’s only what is not love that hurts. Love can only ever love you, and it’s
only love that can save you. Dysfunctional independence is the end of the road. You can go only so
far by yourself. Being a D.I.P . blocks your growth. You are trying to do life
by yourself, without feedback,  without help, without love, and it’s not
working. “Individuality is only possible if it unfolds from wholeness,” said
physicist David Bohm. In other words, it’s only when we go back to the
Oneness—and when we let life love us—that we can fulfill our true destiny
and be who we truly are.Louise once told me, “All the doors of the universe are always  open for
you. The door to wisdom is open. The door to healing is open. The door to
love is open. The door to forgiveness is open. The door to prosperity is
open. This is true whether you are having a great day or not!” The Oneness
is open at all hours. On the other side of dysfunctional indepe ndence is a
universe of inspiration and love. Life is waiting for you. All you have to do
is knock a hole in your wall, install a door , and start to let the love in. Your Unconditioned Self, which rests in a state of basic openness, is
always open to love. In the “Life Loves You” module, I share with my
students one of Louise’ s favorit e exercises on love. The idea is to stand in
front of a mirror with arms open wide and say, “I am willing to let the love
in. It is safe to let the love in. I say yes to letting love in.” Louise
recommends you do this three times a day. It’s a very simple exercise that
helps to open doors and, eventually , to bring down walls. I end my “Life Loves Y ou” module with a wonderful prayer by Louise on
basic openness:
In the infinity of life where I am,  
all is perfect, whole, and complete. I believe in a power far greater than I am  
that flows through me every moment of every day . I open myself to the wisdom within,  
knowing that there is only One Intelligence in this Universe. Out of this One Intelligence comes all the answers,  
all the solutions, all the healings, all the new creations. I trust this Power and Intelligence,  
knowing that whatever I need to know is revealed to me,  
and that whatever I need comes to me  
in the right time, space, and sequence. All is well in my world. Letting Go of StruggleEven  
After  
All this time
The sun never says to the earth,  
“You owe  
Me.”  
Look  
What happens  
With a love like that,  
It lights the  
Whole  
Sky. This poem, The Sun Never Says, is another beautiful collaboration
between Hafiz and Daniel Ladinsky . It gives us a glimpse of the
unconditional nature of love. It reminds us that true love is freely given, at
no cost, and that it is equally available to us all. This love is greater than
anyone can conceive because it has no limits. No one can get his or her
head around this love, so to speak. It’s not just an idea. It comes from the
Oneness. It is the original energy of the Unified Field. It is the basic
consciousness of life. It is the heart of the universe expressing its boundless
generosity . Love is unconditional. This is easy to remember when we are aligned
with our Uncond itioned Self. Then we live with a natural awareness of the
basic truth I am loveable  and with the basic trust that I am loved. However ,
when we fall from grace for whatever reason, we lose sight of who we are
and what love is. Love becomes a myth or, even worse, a religion. The
basic fear that I am not loveab le and the basic mistrust that I am not loved
distorts our perception, and the ego turns love into its own image. Now love
is separate from us. And we fear we must deserve love if we are ever to be
loved again. Love is never earned; it is freely given. To let love be love and to let life
love you, you have to accept that love has nothing to do with deserving. Love is not a bargain. It is not a coin to be spent. Love will never say to
you, “You owe me.” Love is not a judgment. No matter how terrible yourpast may be, love waits for you. Love exempts no one. Not even you. Not
even your worst enemy . The unconditional nature of love is what makes
love so powerful. It dissolves every barrier . It undoes every block. It brings
everyone home. As long as you believe that love has to be deserved, you will place a limit
on how much life can love you. Your self-image will set the conditions, not
love. Your ego will write the contract, not love. This contract is an internal
affair, full of personal rules and standards that love knows nothing about. The conditions of the contract vary from person to person. There are all
sorts of clauses, such as I can let life love me if … and I can let life love me
when … Three of the most common classifications of these clauses are the
work ethic, the suf fering ethic, and the martyr ethic. “Life loves us, and life will help us to write this book,” affirme d Louise
in an e-mail on the day we agreed to do Life Loves You. In the same e-mail
she wrote, “This book is already  written. All we have to do is let it happen.”
Her words reminded me of a Buddhist monk I met in Bodh Gaya, India. We
met by the Bodh i Tree, also known as the Bo Tree, which grows next to the
Mahabodhi Temple. It was at this spot—called the Immoveable Spot—that
Siddhartha Gautama experienced enlightenment and became known as the
Buddha—one who is awake. The monk was working on an elaborate thangka,  a painting on cotton and
silk of the Vajradhara Buddha, who represents the essence of universal love
and wisdom. When I commented on his beautiful artwork, the monk smiled
and said, “I am God’ s photocopy machine. God gives me the images. All I
do is faithfully copy the images onto the page.” He told me that a true artist
works with focus but not effort. “The effort comes not from ego but from
the Great Determination in the sky ,” he said. One reason I love to write is because every piece of writing  is a co-
creation and collaboration. Even  though writing is a solitary act, an author
never writes alone. On good days, the writing flows easily and without
much effort. On difficult days, of which I’ve had a few, the writing doesn’ t
flow. I can feel that the words are here, but they aren’ t lining  up on the
page. Usually the block is that I’m trying too hard. I’m trying to push the
flow. I’m trying to make it happen, rather than letting it happen. While writing this book I received many love notes from Louise
encouraging me to work without effort, to be open to inspiration, to let
myself be guided, and to trust the process. Just as she had done withBlessing Buddha , she wanted this work to come through  us. Early on we
created a list of affirmations to help us focus on our book. They included:
The life that loves us is writing this book; Everyday life helps us write  Life
Loves You; and We are grateful for all the suppo rt and guidance we receive
in writing  Life Loves You. I make a list of affirmations for every book  I
write, and it was especially fun to do this with Louise. Louise doesn’ t do work ethic. Not in the normal way, anyway. She
doesn’ t believe in the adage If you want something done properly , you have
to do it yourself. She doesn’ t subscribe to being an independent doer. “I
struggled so much in the first half of my life, because I didn’ t know a better
way,” she told me. “I tried to do everything by myself, and I ended up
divorced, unhappy , and with cancer . Gradually , as I let myself be helped and
became more open to receiving, my life became less of a struggle. Over
time I learned to love myself and to trust that life loves me too.”
Louise is adamant that, in truth, there are no barriers to love. “The
barriers we experience are imagined, not real,” she says. They are dreamed
up by our ego, not by love. “Life does not want us to suffer,” she says. Mostly we suffer because we are unaware of the Divine  Assistance
available to us in each moment. We think we have to do it all by ourselves. We suffer, we struggle, and we live in sacrifice, because we let life love us
only so much. In Bodh Gaya many centuries  ago, when Siddhartha sat beneath the
Bodhi Tree, he was tired of searching for enlightenment. He wanted his
enlightenment now. On his travels he had practiced asceticism, extreme
sacrifice, and noble suffering in an effort to achieve enlightenment. He had
not been successful. And then, as he sat upon the Immovable Spot, he
decided to end his search. He stopped trying. He relaxed. He didn’ t do
anything. In that moment he experienced the great blessings of the universe. It is said that the Buddha’ s first words upon awakening were “I am now
enlightened with all beings.” This is hugely significant. He didn’t say, “I am
more enlightened than you.” Or “I am enlightened and you are not.” He
experienced an enlightenment that exists, in potential, for all of us. And the
potential exists now, not in the future. Love makes itself available to us
when we make ourselves availa ble to love. We are all in the Oneness. We
are all part of love’ s great work. Universal love, like the sun, shines on everyone. Love leaves no one out. As Galileo Galilei, the Italian physicist and philosopher , is said to haveobserved,
The sun, with all those  
planets revolving around it  
and dependent upon it,  
can still ripen a bunch  
of grapes as if it had  
nothing else in  
the universe  
to do. PRACTICE 6: A R ECEIVING  JOURNAL
Louise and I are having breakfast in her kitchen. She brings over two
smoothies that she has whipped up in her blender . “Here,” she says, handing
me a glass. The smoothie is thick, and it smells like a vegetable patch. “What’ s in this?” I ask. Louise smiles. “Everything that’s good for you,”
she says. In other words, she’s not going to tell me. “All you have to do is
receive,” she says. She knows that receiving is our topic of conversation
this morning. Before taking my first sip I pray out loud, “Oh God, help me
to receive.”
While we drink our smoothies, Louise and I watch a short film of her art
exhibition at the ArtBeat Gallery on her iPad. The exhibit was hugely
popular . The original plan was for a two-week run. It was extended to six
weeks. Hundreds of prints of Blessing Buddha  were sold. Each one was
signed by Louise and raised money for her charity , the Hay Foundation. “I never expected to show my art,” Louise tells me. “Your art was a gift to yourself,” I say . “As a child, I wasn’ t encouraged to express my creativity ,” she says. “Me neither .”
“I was told I couldn’ t dance, so I stopped dancing,” Louise says. “I was put in the non-singing group in my class,” I tell her . “For years, I told myself ‘I am not creative,’” she says. “That’ s a powerful af firmation.”
“The creativity of the universe flows through everyone,” she af firms. “No exceptions!”“Everyone is creative, and we create our lives every day ,” she says. “Our life is the real canvas,” I suggest. “Yes. And by tapping into the creative flow of the universe, we express
our true potential, and we work miracles in our life,” she says. “How do we tap into this creativity?”
“By learning to receive,” she replies. Blessed are they who receive. Receiving, at the purest level,  is about
being open and receptive to your true nature. It’s not about things; it’s about
you. It’ s not about having or getting; it’ s about being. T o know who you are,
without conditio ns or pretenses, requires genuine receptivity . It’s about self-
acceptance. Who am I when  I am not judging and rejecting myself? This is
your inquiry. Follow the open road, and it will take you back home to your
Unconditioned Self. Here’ s where you experience the original blessing. It’s
like honey in your bones. Receiving is a spiritual practice. Each time you affirm I am open and
receptive to my highest good,  you are cultivating a state of basic openness. In the Buddhis t tradition, the word for basic openness is shunyata. It
describes the awareness of your original mind that is empty of ego, fear,
self-judgment, unworthiness, self-doubt, grievances, and complaining. Shunyata is what love feels like. This basic openness helps you to be
receptive to beauty , inspiration, guidance, healing, and love. Receiving is a great big Y es. “The universe says yes to you,” says Louise. “It want s you to experience your highest good. When you ask for your
highest good, the Universe doesn’ t say, ‘I’ll think about it’; it says yes. The
universe is always saying yes to your highest good.” And you have to say
yes, too. The key to receiving  is willingness, or readiness. When you
declare, “I am ready to receive my highest good in this situation,” it shifts
your perception and your circumstances. “When the stude nt is ready , the teacher appears,” Louise told herself, and
shortly afterward her art teacher , Linda Bounds, appeared. “I said the same
thing to myself when I wanted a really good local Pilates teach er,” Louise
told me. “And two days later I met Ahlea Khadro.” Ahlea is the mother of
Elliot, the little boy at our Than ksgiving lunch who kept going over to the
mirror to smile at himself. Ahlea now coordinates Louise’ s entire healthcare
plan. She and Louise have become great friends.In my book Authentic Success,  I wrote about the power of readiness and
how it can help you to experience a new level of success in every area of
your life. In the chapter on Grace,  I offered this meditation on readiness:
When the student is ready , the teacher appears. When the thinker is ready , the idea appears. When the artist is ready , the inspiration appears. When the servant is ready , the purpose appears. When the athlete is ready , the performance appears. When the leader is ready , the vision appears. When the lover is ready , the partner appears. When the disciple is ready , God appears. When the teacher is ready , the student appears. Receiving is the best psychotherapy . If you’re really serious about
receiving and you’re willing to make it a daily practice, you’ll find that
receiving will help dissolve all your barriers to love. By declaring I am
willing to be a better receiver , you activate a power within you that can heal
learned unworthiness, dysfunctional independence, unhealth y sacrifice,
financial insecurity , and every type of lack. Receiving helps you to know
your true worth and to live with ease and happiness. Receiving helps you to be prese nt. It helps you to be where you are, to
inhale deeply , and to take in everything that is here for you. “Often what’ s
missing in a situation is only our ability to receive,” says Louise. “The
Universe always provides, but we have to be open and receptive to see
this.” The willingness to receive opens you up inside and takes you beyond
your theories of what you believe you deserve and what you think is
possible. Receiv ing helps you to pay attention to what is already here for
you.In this chapter , our spiritual practice is to keep a receiving journal. We
invite you to spend 15 minutes a day, for the next seven days, cultivating an
even greater willingness to receive. In your receiving journal, we want you
to write down ten responses to the sentence One way life is loving me right
now is …  Don’ t edit your responses. Just let them flow . You may wish to do this exercise with a therapist, a friend, your partner ,
or your children. You can make it into a dialogue and take turns completing
the sentence. Once you have written down your ten responses, review your
list and let it sink in how life is loving you right now . One way life is loving me right now is … My wife, Hollie, and I have
been doing this exercise together at night when the children are asleep and
we have a mom ent to ourselves. We’ve been doing it all the way through
the writing of Life Loves You. This exercise has opened our eyes. On good
days, it makes everything sweeter . On difficult days, it lifts our spirits. The
more you do this exercise, the easier it is. The more you look, the more you
see. As our friend Chuck Spezzano says,
When the r eceiver is r eady, 
the gift appears. OceanofPDF .comCHAPTER 7
Healing the Future
Every thought we think is cr eating our futur e.
LOUISE  HAY
Louise and I are sitting down to dinner . We’ve spent the whole day
talking, walking, gardening, and doing lots of cooking. W e had no plans; we
just went with the flow. It’s one of those days that can’t be measured by
time. It happened fast and slow. We’re sitting at the edge of the universe—
the big round dining table that Louise painted full of stars and swirling
galaxies. The sun is setting over the sea. A hummingbird is drinking from a
fountain in Louise’ s garden. “What do you think about the friendly-universe idea?” I ask Louise. She
pauses for a moment as she lets the question sink in. “I think it’s a good
idea,” she says with a smile. The story goes that Albert Einstein once said that the most basic  question
we all must answer is, “Is the universe a friendly place?” Einstein was a
theoretical phys icist. He said he wanted to know the thoughts of God. He
recognized an “intelligence manifested in Nature” and a “marvelous
structure behind  reality .” He saw the universe as a “unified whole” and the
world as an expression of a “lawful harmony” that supports everyone and
everything equally . “God is subtle, but he is not malicious,” Einstein wrote.“Is the universe friendly?” I ask Louise. “There’ s only one way to find out,” she says. “What way is that?”
“Say yes,” she says with a smile. “What do you mean?”
“If you answer no, you’ll never find out if the universe is friendly ,” she
says. “Because if you say no you won’ t see it.”
“Exactly . But if you say yes then you might.”
“It’s all in the answer .”
“The answer is in us,” says Louise. Louise’ s answer  reminds me of Pascal’ s Wager. Blaise Pascal was a 17th-
century French physicist and philosopher . Meditating on the question of
whether God exists, he recogniz ed that reason was of no use here: we can’t
see non-physical reality—atoms or our own soul. “God is, or He is not,”
said Pascal. What we must do, he concluded, is wager . In other words, we
must decide to say yes or no to the existence of God. He recomm ended that
we wage r without hesitation that God exists. “If you gain, you gain all. If
you lose, you lose nothing,” he said. Once a week, I host a radio program for Hay House Radio called Shift
Happens! On a recent show, a woman called in wanting help with finding a
romantic partne r. She had divorced her husband six-and-a-half years ago
and had been on her own ever since. “Does love even exist?” she asked me. I told her, “If you wait for love, you’ll never find out.” If all we do is wait,
we end up like Vladimir and Estragon, the two characters  in Samuel
Beckett’ s absurdist play Waiting for Godot , who don’t even know what
they’re waiting for . Only by loving will we know if love exists or not. “Life is always trying to love us, but we need to be open if we are to see
it,” Louise tells me. “How do we stay open?” I ask. “By being willing to love yourself,” she says. “Loving yourself is the key to letting life love you,” I tell her . “When you project your lack of self-love onto others you accus e them of
not loving you enough, and all you see is an unfriendly universe,” Louise
explains. “‘Projection makes perception,’” I say, sharing a line from A Course in
Miracles.“Fear shows us one world; and love shows us another world,” says
Louise. “We decide which world is real. And we decide which world we
want to live in.”
Albert Einstein also said, “Whether you can observe a thing or not
depends on the theory which you use. It is the theory which decides what
can be observe d.” What we see depends on how we look. Einstein
encouraged us to burst open our mind so as to escape the prison of our own
ideas. He used his intellect, but he warned us not to make the intellect into a
god because of its limitations. “I believe in intuitions and inspi rations,” he
said. He also famously said, “Imagination is more important than
knowledge. Knowledge is limited. Imagination embraces the entire world.”
Philosophers and schools of philosophy throughout history have explored
theories and ideas related to the friendly-universe theory . For instance, Plato
referred to an Essential Universe  and a Perceived Universe. He said that the
Essential Universe is perfec t, good, and whole (just like your
Unconditioned Self). He recognized, however , that the ego (the sense of a
separate self) can’t see the whole picture, and so it lives in a Perceived
Universe, and it’s here that we often lose sight of what he called the
“absolute beauty” and “friendly harmony” of creation. Thomas Jefferso n was a farmer , a lawyer , and a politician. In his youth,
he studied mathematics, metaphysics, and philosophy . As well as being
president of the United States, he was also president of the American
Philosophical Society . He saw in creation a “benevolent arrangement of
things” that influenced much of his thinking. He described God as a
“benevolent governor” of the world. He referred to Jesus’ s work as “the
most sublime and benevolent code of morals which has ever been offered to
man,” that, if followed, would help everyone, without exception, to
experience full and free liberty . A benevolent universe is also at the heart of Buddhist philoso phy. The
Buddha taught about a universal  friendliness and loving-kindnes s that is the
essential consci ousness of creation. “Life is a good teacher and a good
friend,” says Pema Chödrön. This natural benevolence is expressed through
each of us when we are aligned with our Unconditioned Self. We lose sight
of this benevolence, however , when we stop practicing loving-kindness. And then we suf fer. The recognition of suffering is also at the heart of Buddhism. “Life is full
of suffering,” says the first of the Four Noble Truths. Nowhe re does theBuddha say that life wants us to suffer. The Buddha pointed to the cause of
suffering coming not from life but from us. He taught us that we suffer
because of what we do to oursel ves and what we do to each other . Through
loving-kindness and compassion we experience healing and are reunited
with the natural harmony of the universe. “If the universe is friendly , why do we suf fer?” I ask Louise. “Well, I don’ t believe the universe wants us to suf fer,” she says. “And yet there is suf fering.”
“We heal suf fering by identifying the cause of suf fering,” she says. “So, what causes us to suf fer?” I ask. “Well, if we are honest with ourselves, we have to accept that we cause a
lot of suf fering ourselves,” she says. “Life isn’ t judging us,” I say , referring to our earlier conversation. “Exactly ,” says Louise. “Life doesn’ t judge us, but we judge ourselves. Life doesn’ t criticize us, but we criticize ourselves. Life doesn’ t abandon us,
but we often abandon ourselves. “
“How else do we cause our own suf fering?” I ask. “When we stop loving ourselve s, we cause ourselves endless suffering,”
she says. We cause ourselves to suffer in 10,000 ways, mostly from a lack of self-
love. When we stop loving ourselves, we stop being kind to ourselves. The
loss of compas sion silences the wisdom of the heart. No kindness, no
wisdom. We follow the way of fear. We look for love in all the wrong
places. We search for happiness outside ourselves. We chase after success
but never feel like we have it. We make a million dollars, but we still feel
poor. A million dollars is not enough because it’s not two million dollars
and because money can’ t buy what we’re really looking for . “We also cause each other to suffer,” says Louise. It’s true, isn’t it? When
people stop loving themselves, they stop loving others, too. That’s the way
it works. Hurt people hurt people,  as the old saying goes. When we forget
about what’s real—the unified whole, our basic truth, the benevo lent way of
things—we fall from grace and get lost in 10,000 useless dramas. We
project our pain, we blame each other , we defend and attack, and we try to
win every ar gument by force. “Only love ends all ar guments,” says Rumi. There is another kind of suffering, too. It’s the suffering  we all
experience because of the impe rmanent nature of life. We mourn the death
of loved ones, we lament the end of a relationship, we grieve the loss of ajob, and we bear 10,000 other losses. We experience physical pain, illness,
old age, and the fear of our own death. The Buddha refer red to this
suffering as dukkha. It comes from grasping at what we want, pushing away
what we don’t want, wishing everything, including ourselves,  would last
forever , and forgetting our true nature. This attachment is utterly human,
and it deserves our compassio n and our love. Love is the cessation of
suffering. “There is another way to look at the friendly-universe theory ,” Louise
says. “What way is that?” I ask. “Instead of asking yourself, How friendly is the universe? you could ask
yourself, How friendly am I? ” she says with a smile. “I like that,” I say as I let it sink in. “We are not separate from the universe,” she says. “The universe isn’ t out ther e,” I say , pointing to Louise’ s dinner table. “The universe is us,” she says. “And how we are being is how we experience the universe,” I add. “The more we love ourselves, the more we can love each other,” says
Louise. “This is how we know that life loves us,” I suggest. “And how we know that the universe really is friendly ,” Louise says. Trusting in Love
On the day I started to write this book something extraordinary happened
that I can’t properly explain. It was such a surprise, and so delightful, that it
gave me all the faith I needed for the journey before me. I had planned to start writing on January 21, but I actually started on
January 20, the day before I thought I was ready! I woke up that morning
thinking I was going to do some more preparation before the Big Day when
I was due to sit in front of a blank page. Page number one. The Alpha page. The OMG page . The page you have to write before you can get to page
number two. During my morning meditation, however , I received an
internal memo that said, cryptically , “You were born ready . Begin today .”Over breakfast, I told Hollie and Bo and Christopher that I was going to
start writing Life Loves You that day. “I got a feeling that it would be good
to start before I was ready ,” I told Hollie. Hollie smiled. Christopher
chewed on a pancake. Bo got up from the table and ran upstairs. Two
minutes later, she came back with a rose quartz crystal angel in her hands. “Here you are, Daddy ,” she said. “Put her on your desk and she will help
you write.” Christopher jumpe d out of his seat. He came back with his
favorite tractor . “Here, Daddy ,” he said. “This tractor will be a big help.”
Later that morn ing, I sat at my desk looking at the blank page. Page
number one. The pink angel was standing next to the computer screen. The
tractor was downstairs. Christopher had changed his mind about that. “You
can have my tractor , Daddy , but only if I can keep it,” he told me. Now the
spirit of the tractor was with me, parked right next to the angel. Also on my
desk was a jasmine-scented candle, a cup of Kona coffee, and a card with
one of my favorite messages from A Course in Miracles :
It cannot be that it is hard to do  
the task that Christ appointed you to do,  
since it is He Who does it. As I stared at the blank page, an image came to mind of a painting of
Jesus Christ standing at a door holding a lantern in his left hand. I’d seen
this painting before, but I wasn’ t sure where. This image of Christ was all I
could think about. I convinced myself that a mystical vision was a valid
reason to delay writing and do a search on Google. I typed “Paintings of
Jesus Christ,” clicked on the Images tab, and there, at the top of the page,
was the painting I was looking  for: The Light of the World, by William
Holman Hunt. When I saw the painting, I reme mbered that I’d had a dream about it the
night before. I don’t remember many of my dreams, and I can’t tell you
much about this one. I simply remember that I dreamed about that painting. Maybe that was why it appeared  on my blank page. Anyway , I took it as a
sign that “unseen hands,” as Joseph Campbell described, were helping me
on my way. I bookmarked some articles about the painting to read later. I
also downloaded an image of the painting to use on my computer as a
screen saver . At the moment, however , I needed to get back to the blank
page. Page number one.Meanwhile, Hollie was downstairs in the kitchen. Something was on her
mind, too. She was looking for a gift of some kind to help me with my
writing. The way Hollie describes it, her body marched her upstairs and into
her office. She scanned the room. Her eyes fell upon a picture that was
resting on a bookshelf. She hadn’ t noticed the picture before. She didn’ t
know anything about it. She assumed it belonged to me. She put the picture
in a silver oval frame and then came upstairs to see me. “Close your eyes
and put out your hands,” Hollie said. “I have something for you.”
When I opened my eyes, I was looking at a framed picture of The Light
of the World,  by William Holman Hunt. How did this happen? I was
astonished. Hollie was “weirded out,” as she put it. Hollie often brings me
gifts when I write—smoothies, green juices, and home-baked muffins, but
not this. “Hi, honey, here’ s a religious icon” isn’t normal for us. Neither of
us had any prior knowledge of this painting. Now it’s the first thing I see
when I turn on my computer . And the framed picture sits next to the pink
angel and the spirit of the tractor . When I told Louise this story , she smiled. It was one of her knowing
smiles. “I experienced so many little miracles and coincidences when I
wrote You Can Heal Your Life,” she told me. “I had the strongest feeling
that I shouldn’ t go to a mainst ream publisher , even though I’d had some
offers. I felt like I was the custodian of important information that mustn’ t
be edited or watered down. I had no idea how to self-publish, but I trusted
the process, and doors opened for me every step of the way .”
Shortly after speaking to Louise, I stumbled across this affirmation by
Florence Scovel  Shinn: All doors now open for happy surprises, and the
Divine Plan of my life is speeded up under grace. The Light of the World by William Holman Hunt is inspired by two
verses in the Bible. At the foot of the painting is an inscr iption from
Revelation 3:20. It reads: “Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any
man hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with
him and he with me.” The title of the painting is from John 8:12, in which
Jesus says, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never
walk in darknes s, but will have the light of life.” Both verses call upon the
ego to be open and receptive to holy guidance and a higher plan. Hunt’ s painting is full of symbo lism and allegory . Christ represents our
Unconditioned Self. The door represents our ego mind. Christ’ s face is a
picture of infinite patience. Weeds grow at the foot of the door, which tellsus that the door has been shut for some time. Hunt described the
symbolism: “The closed door was the obstinately shut mind, the weeds the
cumber of daily neglect …” Most significant, the door has no handle, no
lock, and no bolt. It can be opened at any moment. It opens from the inside. Our soul waits for us. Our ego must be willing to let the light in. Our ego
has to open the door . “Once I took my first step on the spiritual path, I felt like I walked
through a door into a new world,” Louise tells me as we sit looking at
Hunt’ s painting. “Life took me by the hand and led me on my way. Life
said, ‘Do this,’ and I did. Life said, ‘Do that,’ and I did. When people want
to know how I created Hay House, I always tell them, ‘I opened my mind. I
listened to my inner voice. I followed the signs. I trusted the flow and
learned to move with it.’”
“I have faith in the universe,” said Albert Einstein to William Hermanns
in a conversation recorded in Einstein and the Poet. This book is one of my
favorites about Einstein. It features four conversations between Einstein and
Hermanns, a German poet, playwright, and sociologist, over the space of
thirty years. Einstein tells Hermanns, “Through my pursuit in science I have
known cosmic religious feelings.” Einstein insists he is a scientist, but he
also sounds like a poet. He makes reference to an inner voice. And he tells
Hermanns, “If I hadn’ t an absolute faith in the harmony of creation, I
wouldn’ t have tried for 30 years to express it in a mathematical formula.”
“When you know that life loves you, and that you live in a friendly
universe, it helps you in both the good times and the bad times,” says
Louise. Sometim es life doesn’ t go according to plan. Not to our plan, at
least. We all know what that’s like. We feel like life loves us when we get
what we want, but what about when we don’t? What about when we don’t
get that job we wanted? Or when that special person doesn’ t return our call? Or when something that felt so right goes wrong? This is when we have to
trust that life loves us always —and that even when things appear not to be
going our way , they still are going our way . “If you knew Who walks beside you on the way that you have chosen,
fear would be impossible,” states A Course in Miracles . When we’re afraid,
we feel alone. When one door closes all the other doors close, too, is how it
feels to our ego. “When you trust in love, it’s impossible to feel totally
alone,” says Louise. “Love introduces you to the totality of possibilities. It
opens you up to a power that is greater and wiser than your ego. Loveknows what’s best for you. It leads you to your highest good. Love will
show you the way .”
Whenever you feel stuck, lonely , or afraid, Louise and I recommend you
ask yourself this question: What good things could happen if I let life love
me even more? Anothe r way of doing this is to complete this sentence ten
times: One way I could let life love me even more right now is … Open the
door and let your soul lead the way. Open your mind and let the light in. Open your heart and trust in love to take you where you need to go. To
support you in this inquiry here is one of my favorite passages by Louise
from her book Heart Thoughts:
Trust that your inner guide is
leading you and guiding you in ways  
that are best for you, and that your  
spiritual growth is continuously  
expanding. No matter which door opens or  
which door closes, you  
are always safe. You are eternal. You will go on forever  
from experience to experience. See yourself opening doors to  
joy, peace, healing, prosperity , 
and love. Doors to understanding,  
compassion, and for giveness. Doors to freedom. Doors to  
self-worth and self-esteem. Doors to self-love. It is all here before you. Which door will you open first? Remember , you are safe;  
it is only change. Teach Only LoveOne afternoon, Louise and I took a walk in Balboa Park. We stopped off
at Daniel’ s Cof fee Cart to pick up my cappuccino. From there, we headed to
the Japanese Friendship Garden. As we walked, I ask Louis e about the
Hayride Reunion that had just taken place. It celebrated the 30th
anniversary of Louise’ s support group for AIDS that became known as the
Hayride. The Reunion was held at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los
Angeles. The theater was full of friends old and new who came from all
over the world to be there. Suddenly we heard someone shout, “Ms. Hay! Ms. Hay!” We looked up
and saw two men, arm in arm, waving at us. They were by the entrance to
the Japanese Friendship Garden . As they approached, one of the men said,
“Ms. Hay, I’m a Hayrider!” Louise and the man both burst into tears. They
hugged each other for a long time. I took lots of pictures. Louis e looked so
happy . This man had attended Hayride meetings back in 1988 when he was
preparing to die. “You healed my life,” he said. “No. You healed your life,”
Louise told him. Louise hosted a Hayride every Wednesday night for six-and-a-half years
in the 1980s. “A private client asked me if I’d hold a meeting for men with
AIDS. I said yes. That’ s how it began,” Louise told me. Six men showed up
for the first meeting, which Louise held in her living room. “I told the men
that we were going to do what I always do, which is to focus on self-love,
forgiveness, and letting go of fear. I also told them that we were not going
to sit there and play Ain’t it awful , because that won’ t help anybod y.” At the
end of the first meeting, Louise and her six men held each other  in a loving
embrace. They left Louise’ s home that night with a feeling of peace in their
hearts. “The week after, we had 12 men sitting in my living room. The following
week, we had 20 men. And it just kept growing,” Louise says, still
astonished by what happened. “Eventually , we had nearly 90 men squeezed
into my living room. I’m not sure what the neighbors thought! Each week
we talked, we cried, we sang songs together , we did mirror work and also
all sorts of heali ng meditations for ourselves, each other , and the planet. We
ended every evening with hugs, which was good for love, and also very
good for pick-ups,”  says Louise with a big smile. The meetings moved out of Louise’ s home into a gymnasium in West
Hollywood. “We went from 90 people to 150 people that first night,” she
recalls. They soon had to move again. This time the City of WestHollywood gave Louise a space that could hold hundreds of people. “Eventually , we had nearly 800 people at our Wednesday night meetings. Now it wasn’ t just men with AIDS who came. It was men and women. And
family members, too. Whenever someone’ s mother attended her first
meeting, she’d receive a standing ovation from us all.”
One of Louise’ s closest friends is Daniel Peralta. They first met in
January 1986, when Daniel attended the premiere of a film about the
Hayride called Doors Opening: A Positive Appr oach to AIDS. “Louise Hay
introduced me to unconditional  love,” Daniel told me. In an article about
the Hayride, Daniel wrote about Louise’ s infinite kindne ss and her
generosity of spirit:
Louise L. Hay was ushering in a new possibility , a new way of being. She introdu ced us to
loving ourselves and outlined practical steps to engage that process. She gently invited us to be
with ourselves in a new and different way, and practice self-acceptance and self-care. Not only
was it appealing, it was healing. I clearly remember how Louise had this incredible ability to
quickly create a sense of community and bring people together , one heart at a time. Louise cries freely when she talks about the Hayrides. “These young
people were terrified and lonely . They’d been rejected by their family and
by socie ty,” Louise tells me. “What they needed was a friend—someone
who wasn’t afraid, who wouldn’ t judge them, and who loved them for who
they are. I simply answered the call.” When I ask Louise about her tears,
she says, “We got through a lot of Kleenex at the Hayride. I made so many
friends. I lost a lot of friends, too. We attended far too many funerals. But
we also made sure no one died without knowing they were loved. And, of
course, many people lived on and created a future they never expected to
have.”
In the opening sequence of Doors Opening , Louise says, “I don’t heal
anybody . I just provide a space where we can uncover how absolutely
wonderful we are, and many people find that they’re able to heal
themselves.” Louise is consistent in her message. I’ve witnessed hundreds
of peopl e tell Louise personally , “Thank you for healing my life.” I smile
every time it happens because I know how Louise will respond. “ You healed
your life,” she tells them. “Louise, people have called you a lot of things,” I say . “I know ,” she says, laughing. “You tell everyone, I am not a healer .”
“That’ s right,” she says firmly .“So what are you?”
“Oh, I don’ t know .”
“You’ve been called a living saint.”
“Well, I can’ t help that,” she says, clearly embarrassed. “Oprah W infrey called you the Mother of the Law of Attraction.”
“Uh-huh.”
“You’ve been called a guru and a pioneer .”
“Uh-huh.”
“And a rebel.”
“Oh, I like that,” she says, laughing. “Have you ever painted a self-portrait?” I ask her . “Never!”
“Come on, Louise: tell me who you are.”
“Well, how would you describe me?”
“I have a couple of ideas.”
“I’ll take them both!”
“I think you’re a lioness,” I tell her . “Well, I have Leo rising in my chart,” she says. “I think you’re fierce about the truth.”
“Fierce and direct,” she says. “You’re also very protective of the people you love.”
“Extremely ,” she says. “I also think you’re a teacher ,” I tell her . “That’ s true,” she says. When I think about Louise and her work, there’ s a line from A Course in
Miracles  that immediately springs to mind: “Teach only love, for that is
what you are.” Louise is a teacher , and she teaches about love. She teaches
that in every given moment of your life you are choosing betwe en love and
fear, love and pain, and love and hate. “I teach one thing—an d one thing
only—love yourself,” says Louise. “Until you love yourself, you will never know who you really  are and
you won’ t know what you’re really capable of,” Louise told me on a recent
Skype call. She sees love as the miracle ingredient that helps you to grow
into the person you truly are. “When you love yourself, you grow up,” she
says. “Love helps you to grow beyond your past, beyond pain, beyondfears, beyond your ego, and beyond all your small ideas about yourself. Love is what you’re made of, and love helps you to be who you really are.”
One of the great joys of being Louise’ s friend is witnessing her passion
and commitment for growth. Louise Hay loves to learn. “If I hadn’ t learned
to love myself, none of what I’ve done since would have been possible,”
she tells me. Louise’ s message is, Love yourself now . Don’ t wait until you’r e
ready. “If you won’ t love yourself today , you won’ t love yourself tomorrow
either . But if you start today , you begin to create a better futur e, and your
future self will be so grateful to you,” she says. Louise is always on the looko ut for new growth and new adventures. After her first public art exhibit, she wrote a post on Facebook saying, “Life
goes in cycles. There’ s a time to do something new, and then there’ s a time
to move on. It’s never too late to learn something new.” After the Hayride
Reunion, she told me, “I feel like one door has closed and another door is
opening now. I am open and receptive to new opportunities to grow .” On
our most recent Skype call, Louise told me she has signed up for a course
on spiritual homeopathy . While we’ve been writing Life Loves You, Louise has felt as if she’s on
the threshold of a whole new chapter in her life. She told me that she has no
idea what this new chapter is about yet. She said, “I feel excited and
nervous, but I remind myself each day that life loves me, that I’m safe, that
life wants the best for me, and that it’s only change.” When I asked Louise
how she planned to welcome in her new chapter , she said, “I’m going to
rearrange some furniture. I’ll let go of a few things, and I’ll make room for
the new .”
Recently , I gave the opening keynote for the IGNITE! conference hosted
by Hay House UK in London. The conference featured 12 authors talking
about personal growth and global transformation. I asked Louise if she had
a message she’d like to share with the audience. She promptly shot me an e-
mail full of passion and high teaching. Here’ s what she asked me to share:
I ignite my life every time I do something new . Daring to step into new space is so exciting. I know that only good lies before me  
so I am ready for whatever Life has in store for me. New adventures keep us young. And sending loving thoughts in every direction  
keeps our lives filled with love. 87 is the new beginning of my life.A Loving Mirr or
When Louise Hay walks onto the stage at an I Can Do It! conference, the
audience rises to its feet in spontaneous appreciation. Thousand s of people
join as one to shower Louise with love and thanks. It happens every time,
all over the world, in cities like Vancouver , London, New York, Sydney ,
and Hambur g, Germany . I’ve stood in those audiences on many  occasions,
and I’ve been moved to tears pretty much each time. It’s wonderful to think
about what can happen in this world when one person makes a stand for
love. This time Louise and I are in Denver for another I Can Do It! We’re in
Louise’ s hotel room, reviewin g the early chapters of this book. “The
message I most want our readers to hear is Life loves you as you are, and it
wants you to do the same,”  Louise tells me. “We’re here on this planet to
learn about unconditional love, and it begins with self-acceptan ce and self-
love.” Pointing her finger at me, she says, “In your life you have to start
with loving you.” She then points to herself and says, “And in my life I
have to start with loving me.” She pauses for a moment and then says, “And
that’s how we love the world.”
When you teach  about self-love, like Louise and I do, you quickly get
used to dealing with any number of objections and concerns. The common
ones include “Self-love is selfish”; “Self-love is self-indulgent”; “Self-love
is narcissistic.”  Is this really true? My feeling is that narcissism is
narcissistic, but self-love isn’t narcissism. In other words, most of the
objections to self-love come from misperceptions of what love is. “Self-
love is not about vanity or arrogance, it’s about self-respect,” says Louise. “It’s a deep appreciation for how you’ve been made and for the life you are
here to live.”
In my Loveability  program, I tell my students who are afraid that self-
love is selfish to take a look at Louise Hay’ s life. Louise’ s story is a
wonderful example of how self-healing and self-love can be a blessing for
others. Look what happened after Louise embarked on her healing journey . She wrote the first version of her little blue book, entitled What Hurts , when
she was 50 years old. Three years later, she rewrote the book and published
it as Heal Your Body . When Louise was 56 years old, she started the
Hayride. She set up her charity , the Hay Foundation, when she was 59 yearsold. She founded Hay House when she was 60 years old. All this, and she
was just getting started. “We are here to be a loving mirror to the world,” Louise tells me. The
more we love ourselves, the less we project our pain onto the world. When
we stop judging ourselves, we naturally judge others less. When we stop
attacking ourse lves, we don’t attack others. When we stop rejecting
ourselves, we stop accusing others of hurting us. When we start loving
ourselves more, we become happier , less defended, and more open. As we
love ourselves, we naturally love others more. “Self-love is the greatest gift
because what you give yourself is experienced by others,” says Louise. When I founde d The Happiness Project in 1994, I created a mission
statement that was just two words: Talk happiness . Back then, there wasn’ t
much talk about happiness in psychology or in society . The goal of The
Happiness Project was to stimulate a conversation about happiness. We
talked about happiness in schools, hospitals, churches, busine sses, and in
halls of governm ent. The more we talked, the more I learned about what
happiness is, and the more convinced I became that happines s, like self-
love, benefits both self and society . After a few years, I created a new
mission statement for The Happiness Project. It reads:
It is because the world is so full of suf fering  
that your happiness is a gift. It is because the world is so full of poverty  
that your wealth is a gift. It is because the world is so unfriendly  
that your smile is a gift. It is because the world is so full of war  
that your peace of mind is a gift. It is because the world is in such despair  
that your hope and optimism is a gift. It is because the world is so afraid  
that your love is a gift. Love is always shared. It’s a gift, like true happiness and succes s. It ends
up benefiting you and others. “When I think about love, I like to visualize
myself standing in a circle of light,” says Louise. “This circle represents
love, and I see myself surrounde d by love. Once I feel this love in my heart
and in my body , I see the circle  expanding to fill the room, and then every
square inch of my home, and then the neighborhood, and then the whole
city, and then the whole country , and then the whole planet, and eventually ,
the whole universe. That’ s how love is, to me. That’ s how love works.”Listening to Louise talk about her circle of love reminds me of these
words by Albert Einstein: “A human being is a part of the whole, called by
us ‘Universe,’ a part limited in time and space. We experienc e ourselves,
our thoughts, and feelings as something separate from the rest. A kind of
optical delusion of consciousne ss. This delusion is a kind of prison for us,
restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons
nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by
widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatu res and the
whole of nature in its beauty .”
When Louise Hay founded Hay House in 1987, she told everyone who
came to work with her that the purpose of the publishing company was not
just to sell books and tapes. “Of course, I wanted us to be financially
successful, so that we could pay wages and look after everyone, but I also
had a higher vision,” Louise tells me. “What I knew then, and still believe
today , is that the real purpose of Hay House is to help create a world wher e
it is safe for us to love each other . With each book we print, we bless the
world with love.”
PRACTICE 7: B LESSING THE  WORLD
When Louise last appeared on The Oprah W infrey Show , she had recentl y
celebrated her 81st birthday , and she told Oprah that she’d just taken up
lessons in ballroom dancing. When Oprah asked Louise what advice she
had for anyone who thinks it’s too late to change and grow , Louise
responded empa thically , “Rethink! Just because you’ve believed something
for a long time doesn’ t mean you have to think it forever . Think thoughts
that supp ort you and uplift you. Realize that life loves you. And if you love
life, you get this wonderful thing going.”
Getting this “wonderful thing going,” as Louise puts it, isn’t just about
letting life love you; it’s also about you loving life.
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Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        “It was my teacher ’s idea that I draw the Buddha, and I
couldn’ t have done it without his gentle encouragement. ”
Louise finished drawing the Buddha after many sessions and then set
about painting the figure. “I started to paint it by myself, but I wasn’ t happy
with it,” she said, so she set the drawing aside. It sat on an easel in her
painting room for a couple of years. “One day I remember thinking, When
the student is ready, the teacher appears,” Louise recalled. “Shortly after
that I met my next teacher, Linda Bounds. ” Louise formed a close
friendship with Linda, a local artist. “Linda brought out artistic abilities inme that I didn’ t know I possessed,” Louise told me. “We took a journey
together that I will treasure forever. ”
Linda taught Louise to paint by brushing layer upon layer of color onto
the canvas. Painting Blessing Buddha  took about two years. It was during
this time that the painting became a meditation for Louise. She began to
tune in to the life of the Budd ha. She was struck by what she called “a
universal benevolence” that moved through him, and this gave her the idea
to name her painting Blessing Buddha. “I began to have a conversation with the Buddha,” Louise told me. “What did you talk about. ” I asked. “Everything,” she said with a smile. “Be specific,” I said. “I asked the Buddha to help me with my painting,” she said. “Wise move. ”
“I told the Buddha I was afraid I couldn’ t do the painting,” she added. “What did the Buddha say. ”
“He said, ‘Remember that the Universe loves you and wants you to
succeed at everything you do. ’”
Each time Louise worked on the painting, she tuned in more to the
Buddha’ s experience of enlight enment. “First I asked the Buddha to help
me paint the Buddha. He was very helpful with that, and so I started to ask
for help with other things. I asked for support with loving myself more,
forgiving others, being grateful, and being open to guidance. I didn’t ask the
Buddha for material things; I asked for help with my mind. I see the
Buddha as very compassionate and as a universal friend who is here to help
us all. ”
When I asked Louise to sum up her experience of painting  Blessing
Buddha, she said, “Blessing Buddha  taught me to be very patient with
myself and also very kind. To paint this picture I had to find the little-girl
me—the girl I call Lulu—who paints without any fear or self-criticism or
self-doubt. Above all, I had to be more open and more willing to receive. This painting was done through  me, not by me. That’ s why the full name
for my painting is Blessing Buddha: Ask and Y ou Shall Receive. ”
The Alr eady Principle“I remember when I first discov ered I was truly prosperous,” Louise tells
me. “When was that. ” I ask. “It was when I realized I could afford to buy any book I wanted,” she
says. “How old were you. ”
“I was in my mid-40s or so,” she says. “Why books. ”
“I had very little money. I didn’ t even own a watch. Books felt like a
luxury, but they were af fordable,” she tells me. “What were you reading. ”
“Florence Scovel Shinn’ s book The Game of Life and How to Play It was
a big inspiration. I liked her practical, no-nonsense approach,” says Louise. “You and Florence could easily be soul sisters,” I tell her. “I’ve always felt a strong kinship with her,” Louise says, smiling. “What else did you read. ”
“Emmet Fox’ s works were a big help,” she says. “Why did these books help you feel prosperous. ”
“They spoke of an innate potential for love and prosperity that exists in
all of us,” she says. “How did you feel about that. ”
“Well, at first I thought it was ridiculous. ” she says with a big laugh. “Why. ”
“The abundance of the universe had nothing to do with me. I could
believe it existed for others, but not for me. ”
“You didn’ t feel loveable,” I say. “I had very poor self-esteem back then. I was also very angry,” she says. “Why were you angry. ”
“These books told me that I was the one who was blocking my potential
for love and prosperity,” she says, laughing again. “Yet still you kept turning the pages. ”
“Yes. These books were my lifelines. I remember telling myself that now
that I’d found these books I would find a way to experience this potential
for love and prosperity, and that I wouldn’ t let myself forget about this
potential ever again,” she says. I reflect on Louise’s story about when she first felt truly prosperous. Those books were her Aladdin’ s lamps. They woke up a potential that
already existed in her. This potential was waiting for her to take the first
step on her healing journey. And here she is now, some 40 years later, one
of the best-selling authors on the planet. “When did you first feel truly prosperous. ” Louise asks me. “When I was 18 years old,” I tell her. “You were very young,” says Louise. “I elected to take my midlife crisis early,” I say. “We shouldn’ t compare our journeys, I know, but sometimes I wish I’d
learned what I know now a lot sooner,” she says. “‘There is a Divine Design for each man. ’” I say, quoting Florence
Scovel Shinn, which makes Louise smile. “So what happened when you were 18 years old. ” she asks. “I met A vanti Kumar, my first spiritual mentor. ”
“What did he tell you. ”
“Well, he gave me a lot of books to read. Books like the Tao Te Ching,
the Bhagavad Gita, The Dhammapada, and Autobiography of a Yogi, which
is where I first learned about af firmations.
Her teacher
Who encouraged Louise to draw the Buddha?
To recognize and work on her self-love
What was the first step that Avanti Kumar taught Louise?
That the universe loves and wants them to succeed at everything they do
What is the main message that Louise wants to convey to her students?
Teaching people to love themselves and receive love
What is the core of Louise's work, according to the text?
The importance of self-love and the concept of the universe being a friendly and loving place
What is the main theme of Louise's book "Life Loves You"?