OceanofPDF .comAlso by Louise Hay
BOOKS/KIT
All Is W ell (with Mona Lisa Schulz, M.D., Ph.D.)  
Colors & Numbers  
Empowering W omen  
Everyday Positive Thinking  
Experience Y our Good Now! A Gar den of Thoughts: My Affirmation Journal  
Gratitude: A W ay of Life  (Louise & Friends)  
Heal Y our Body  
Heal Y our Body A–Z  
Heart Thoughts  (also available in a gift edition)  
I Can Do It® (book-with-CD)
Inner W isdom  
Letters to Louise  
Life! Reflections on Y our Journey  
Love Y our Body  
Love Y ourself, Heal Y our Life W orkbook  
Loving Y ourself to Gr eat Health  
(with Ahlea Khadro and Heather Dane)  
Meditations to Heal Y our Life  
(also available in a gift edition)  
Modern-Day Miracles  (Louise & Friends)  
The Power Is W ithin Y ou 
Power Thoughts  
The Pr esent Moment  
The T imes of Our Lives  (Louise & Friends)  
You Can Cr eate an Exceptional Life  
(with Cheryl Richardson)  
You Can Heal Y our Heart  (with David Kessler)  
You Can Heal Y our Life  (also available in a gift edition)  
You Can Heal Y our Life Affirmation Kit  
You Can Heal Y our Life Companion BookFOR CHILDREN
The Adventur es of Lulu  
I Think, I Am! (with Kristina T racy)  
Lulu and the Ant: A Message of Love  
Lulu and the Dark: Conquering Fears  
Lulu and W illy the Duck: Learning Mirr or W ork
CD PROGRAMS
All Is W ell (audio book)  
Anger Releasing  
Cancer  
Change and T ransition  
Dissolving Barriers  
Embracing Change  
The Empowering W omen Gift Collection  
Feeling Fine Affirmations  
Forgiveness/Loving the Inner Child  
How to Love Y ourself  
Meditations for Loving Y ourself to Gr eat Health  
(with Ahlea Khadro and Heather Dane)  
Meditations for Personal Healing  
Meditations to Heal Y our Life  (audio book)  
Morning and Evening Meditations  
101 Power Thoughts  
Over coming Fears  
The Power Is W ithin Y ou (audio book)  
The Power of Y our Spoken W ord 
Receiving Pr osperity  
Self-Esteem Affirmations  (subliminal)  
Self-Healing  
Stress-Fr ee (subliminal)  
Totality of Possibilities  
What I Believe and Deep Relaxation
You Can Heal Y our Life  (audio book)  
You Can Heal Y our Life Study Course  Your Thoughts Cr eate Y our Life
DVDs
Receiving Pr osperity  
You Can Heal Y our Life Study Course  
You Can Heal Y our Life, T HE MOVIE 
(also available in an expanded edition)  
You Can T rust Y our Life  (with Cheryl Richardson)
CARD DECKS
Healthy Body Car ds 
I Can Do It® Cards 
I Can Do It® Cards … for Cr eativity , For giveness,  
Health, Job Success, W ealth, Romance  
Power Thought Car ds 
Power Thoughts for T eens 
Power Thought Sticky Car ds 
Wisdom Car ds
CALENDAR
I Can Do It® Calendar  (for each individual year)
and
THE ESSENTIAL LOUISE HA Y COLLECTION
(comprising You Can Heal Y our Life, Heal Y our Body , and The 
Power Is W ithin Y ou in a single volume)
All of the above are available at your local bookstore, or may be  
ordered by visiting: Hay House USA: www .hayhouse.com ® 
Hay House Australia: www .hayhouse.com.au  
Hay House UK: www .hayhouse.co.uk  
Hay House South Africa: www .hayhouse.co.za  
Hay House India: www .hayhouse.co.in  Louise’ s websites: www .LouiseHay .com ® 
and www .HealY ourLife.com ®
OceanofPDF .comAlso by Robert Holden
BOOKS
Authentic Success  (formerly titled Success Intelligence)  
Be Happy  
Happiness NOW! Holy Shift! Loveability  
Shift Happens! CDs/DVDs
Be Happy  
Coaching Happiness  
Follow Y our Joy  
Happiness NOW! Loveability  
Shift Happens! Success Intelligence
Flip Calendars
Happiness NOW! Success NOW! All of the above are available at your local bookstore,  
or may be ordered by visiting:  
Hay House USA: www .hayhouse.com ® 
Hay House Australia: www .hayhouse.com.au  
Hay House UK: www .hayhouse.co.uk  
Hay House South Africa: www .hayhouse.co.za  
Hay House India: www .hayhouse.co.in
OceanofPDF .comOceanofPDF .comCopyright © 2015 by Louise Hay and Robert Holden
Published and distributed in the Unite d States by: Hay House, Inc.: www .hayhouse.com® •
Published and distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www .hayhouse.com.au  •
Published and distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www .hayhouse.co.uk  •
Published and distributed in the Repu blic of South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd.:
www .hayhouse.co.za  • Distributed in Canada by: Rain coast Books: www .raincoast.com  • Published
in India by:  Hay House Publishers India: www .hayhouse.co.in
Cover design:  Leanne Sui Anastasi • Interior design:  Jenny Richards
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any mechanical, photographic, or
electronic process, or in the form of a phonographic recording; nor may it be stored in a retrieval
system, transmitted, or otherwise be copie d for public or private use—other than for “fair use” as
brief quotations embodied in articles and reviews—without prior written permission of the publisher . The authors of this book do not dispense medical advice or prescribe the use of any technique as a
form of treatment for physical, emotional, or medical problems without the advice of a physician,
either direc tly or indirectly . The intent of the authors is only to offer information of a general nature
to help you in your quest for emotional and spiritual well-being. In the event you use any of the
information in this book for yourself, the authors and the publisher assume no responsibility for your
actions. “Love After Love” from THE POETR Y OF DEREK WALCOTT 1948-2013 by Derek Walcott,
selected by Glyn Maxwell. Copyright © 2014 by Derek Walcott. Reprinted by permission of Farrar ,
Straus and Giroux, LLC. • Reprinted by permission of the translator: “Say Yes Quickly” by Jalal al-
Din Rumi, Open Secret, trans. Coleman Barks, Boston: Shambhala Publications © 1984 by John
Moyne and Coleman  Barks. • “On Children” from THE PROPHET by Kahlil Gibran, copyright ©
1923 by Kahlil Gibran and renewed 1951 by Administrators C.T .A. of Kahlil Gibran Estate and Mary
G. Gibran. Used by permission of Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of the Knopf Doubleday Publishing
Group, a division of Random House LLC. All rights reserved. Any third party use of this material,
outside of this publication, is prohibited. Interested parties must apply directly to Random House
LLC for permission. • Excerpt from The Parent’s Tao Te Ching  by William  Martin. Copyright © 03-
31-1999 books-contri butor -william-20martin. Reprinted by permission of da capo, a member of the
Perseus Books Group . • “This Place Where You Are Right Now ,” from The Subject Tonight Is Love,
© 2003. Used by permission of Daniel Ladinsky . • “So Many Gifts,” from The Gift: Poems by Hafiz,
the Great Sufi Maste r, © 1999. Used by permission of Daniel Ladinsky . • “The Sun Never Says,”
from The Gift, © 1999. Used by permission of Daniel Ladinsky . • “i thank You God for most this
amazing”. Copyright 1950, (c) 1978, 1991 by the Trustees for the E. E. Cummings Trust. Copyright
(c) 1979 by Geor ge James Firmage, from COMPLETE POEMS: 1904-1962 by E. E. Cummings,
edited by Geor ge J. Firmage. Used by permission of Liveright Publishing Corporation. Library of Congr ess Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Hay, Louise L.  
  Life loves you : 7 spiritual practices to heal your life / Louise Hay , Robert Holden. pages cm  
    ISBN 978-1-4019-4614-2 (hardback)  
  1. Self-actualization (Psychology) 2. Af firmations. 3. Spiritual healing. I. Holden, Robert, 1965- II. Title. BF637.S4H3793 2015  
  158—dc23                                                     2014041 154
Hardcover ISBN:  978-1-4019-4614-2  
10   9   8   7   6   5   4   3   2   1  
1st edition, May 2015  
Printed in the United States of America
OceanofPDF .comC o n t e n t s
Introduction
CHAPTER  1: L OOKING IN THE  MIRROR
Practice 1: Letting Life Love Y ou
CHAPTER  2: A FFIRMING  YOUR LIFE
Practice 2: 10 Dots
CHAPTER  3: F OLLOWING  YOUR JOY
Practice 3: My Affirmation Boar d
CHAPTER  4: F ORGIVING THE  PAST
Practice 4: The For giveness Scale
CHAPTER  5: B EING GRATEFUL  NOW
Practice 5: Daily Gratitude
CHAPTER  6: L EARNING T O RECEIVE
Practice 6: A Receiving Journal
CHAPTER  7: H EALING THE  FUTURE
Practice 7: Blessing the W orld
Postscript
Acknowledgments
About the AuthorsOceanofPDF .comIntroduction
The first time I met Louise Hay in person was backstage at an I Can Do It! conference in Las Vegas. Reid Tracy, president of Hay House, introduced
us. “Welcome to the Hay Hous e family ,” Louise said, as she gave me a
warm hug. Louise was due on stage in ten minutes to welcome the crowd and
introduce me as the first speak er of the day. “May I do your makeup for
you?” she asked  me. I don’t wear makeup normally , but her offer was too
good to turn down. Louise worked on my face with an array of brushes,
powders, creams, and somethin g glossy for my lips. We had great fun. Everyone backstage was highly  amused. With her finishing touch, Louise
looked me in the eyes and said, “Life loves you.”
Life loves you is one of Louise’ s best-loved affirmations. I think of it as
her signature affirmation, the heart thought that represents her life and her
work. She loves to tell people, “Life loves you.” Each time I hear her say
these words, I feel it like honey in my bones. Early on, I thought that Life
loves you  would be a great subject for a Louise Hay book. I mentioned it to
Louise. I also spoke to Reid Tracy. “Tell me when you’re ready to help her
write it,” he said. I didn’ t think he was serious. Anyway , I was busy with
my own writing projects. A few years passed, and I wrote three new books for Hay House: Be
Happy , for which Louise wrote the foreword; Loveability ; and Holy Shift! The idea of a book about Life loves you would pop into my mind
occasionally , but I didn’ t do anything about it. The day after I finished Holy
Shift!,  I’d planned to play golf. However , by lunchtime I’d written a
synopsis for Life Loves You, a book co-authored by Louise Hay and Robert
Holden. I had no choice but to write the synopsis that morning. I didn’ t
have to think about it. The words just tumbled onto the page.I showed the synopsis to my wife, Hollie. “Where did this come from?”
she asked me. I told her I was as surprised as she was. “Send it
immediately ,” she said. I e-mailed Patty Gift, my editor , on October 7th. Later that day, Patty wrote that she and Reid Tracy loved my synopsis and
that Reid  would  present it to Louise. Louise’ s birthday was Octo ber 8th. On
October 9th, I got an e-mail from her, full of happy emoticon s: balloons,
cake, hearts, and gifts. She wrote, “I am so excited, Robert. How long have
you been planni ng this, dear one? I am honored to be part of this special
event. Life will help us in every way. Happy birthday to me! Much love,
Lulu.”
Our book, Life Loves You, is the fruit of a dialogue betw een Louise and
me. I visited Louise in San Diego, California, three times between
Thanksgiving and Easter . We spent a total of nine days together . I recorded
all our conversa tions. We also scheduled regular calls on Skyp e. Over the
years, Louise and I have met up at more than 20 I Can Do It! conferences in
Europe, Australia, Canada, and America. I’ve interviewed Louise for the
Hay House World Summit, and Louise has attended several of my public
talks and workshops. As you will see, I share stories and conversations
from some of these meetings as well. Life Loves You is an inquiry that takes you to the heart of who you are. It
explores your relationship with the world. It asks deep question s about the
nature of reality . In recent years, science has learned to see the world in a
new way. For instance, we know now that atoms are not separate little
things but expressions of unive rsal energy. A universe of separate things
never really existed. Everything is part of everything. Each of us is part of a
greater Unity . We have a relationship with the stars, with each other , with
all of creation. Science recognizes that the world is not just a physical place; it is also a
state of mind. “The universe begins to look more like a great thought than
like a great machine,” wrote Sir James Jeans, the English physicist. Exploring the consciousness of creation is the new frontier of science. Louise and I believe that the basic building block of creation is not the
atom; it is love. This love is not a sentimental thing. It is not just an
emotion; it is the creative principle behind the dance of life. It is universal. It is intelligent. It is benevolent. We are all an expression of this love. It is
our true nature.Life Loves You is both an inquiry and a practical exercise. Louise is a
spiritual pragmatist, and I am interested in philosophy only if it can be
applied to every day life. Hence we made the subtitle of our book 7 Spiritual
Practices to Heal Your Life. There are seven chapters, and each chapter
ends with a spiritual practice that helps you turn theory into experience. In
addition to the seven main practices, there are a number of other exercises,
too. You might like to do the exercises in the book with a partner or in a
study group. Please don’ t skip them. Love is not just an idea, after all. In Chapter 1, Looking in the Mirror , we explore the Mirror Principle. This principle recognizes that our experience of the world mirrors our
relationship with ourselves. We see things not as they are but as we are. Thus the world mirrors the basic truth about us, which is I am loveable. And it also mirrors our basic fear, I am not loveable. The world can be a
dark and lonely place when we are estranged from our heart and do not love
ourselves. However , one sincere act of self-love can help us experience
creation’ s gentle ness and see the world anew . The spiritual practice for
Chapter 1  includes a pract ice called Letting Life Love You and a meditation,
Love’ s Prayer . In Chapter 2, Affirming Your Life, Louise and I talk about our school
days and how we were first taught to see the world. I share a story about a
lecture at college that changed my worldview forever . It was called “Do you
honestly , truly, really believe that a flat tire can give you a headache?” Here
we invite you to consider that life is not judging you, criticizing you, or
condemning you. We suffer from our own psychology . Other people may
hurt us too, but life itself is not against us. Why would it be? Life is deeply
affirming. We are an expressio n of creation, and life wants us to be the
Unconditioned Self we truly are. The spiritual practice for this chapter is
called 10 Dots. Chapter 3 , Follow ing Your Joy, is about listening to your inner guidance. “Life loves you isn’t about getting your own way; it’s about getting out of
your way,” says Louise. Louise talks about her inner ding, and I talk about
my Yes with a capital “Y.” Life is always trying to guide us, support us, and
inspire us. Sometimes we are too caught up in our own story and lost in our
personal misery to be able to see this. The spiritual practice is to create an
affirmation board, to help you follow your joy and live a life you love. Chapter 4, Forgiving the Past, is the midpoint of our inquiry . Here we
investigate some of the common blocks to letting life love you—forexample the fall from grace:  the perceived loss of innocence and source of
our learned unworthiness. We explore the guilt story , a tale told by the
superego that once upon a time life loved me and I was lovea ble, but not
anymore. We talk about inner -child work and reclaiming our original
innocence. The spiritual practice is called The Forgiveness Scale. It is one
of the most powerful for giveness exercises we know . In Chapter 5, Being Grateful Now , Louise and I look at the principle of
basic trust recognized by psychologists as essential in both childhood
development and adult life. Basic trust is what we are born with. It’s a
knowing —we feel it in our bones—that we are part of creation and are
supported by a loving and gene rous Unity . Basic trust recognizes that life
doesn’ t just happen to you; it happens for you. It sees that you have the best
seat in the house for your life. Every experience—good or bad, happy or
sad, bitter or sweet—of fers you an opportunity to let life love you. The
spiritual practice for this chapter , Daily Gratitude,  combines gratitude with
mirror work. Chapter 6, Learning to Receive, looks at the benevolent-universe theory
from Buddhism. Louise shares her experience of painting a portrait of the
Buddha called The Blessing Buddha. The painting took Louise five years to
complete. Painting it was a profound meditation that helped her to feel more
deeply the loving kindness that exists in the design of life. “Life is always
trying to love us, but we need to be open if we are to see it,” says Louise. The spiritual practice for this chapter is A Receiving Journal . The purpose
of this journal is to help you recognize more clearly how life is loving you
right now . In Chapter 7 , Healing the Future, we arrive at the question Is the universe
friendly? Albert Einstein is said to have called this the most important
question we can ask. Louise and I believe an equally important question is
How friendly am I? At the deepest level, our purpos e in life is to be a loving
mirror to the world. Our goal is not just to let life love us but also to love
life back. We are here to love the world. If each of us did this just a little bit
more, the world would not be such a fearful place. The spiritual  practice for
Chapter 7  is called Blessing the W orld. Louise and I are so happy that you hold our book in your hands. We are
grateful for the opportunity to write it together . We hope and pray that our
work supports you all the more in letting life love you and in being a loving
presence in this world.Life loves you! Louise Hay and Robert Holden
OceanofPDF .comCHAPTER 1
Looking in the Mirror
Love is a mirr or, 
it reflects only your essence,  
if you have the courage to  
look in its face. RUMI
It’s Thanksgiving Day . Louise and I are enjoying a festive lunch with family and friends. We are
seated together at one end of a large oval dining table that is laden with two
huge turkeys, plates of organic vegetables, gluten-free breads,  a Cabernet
Franc wine, and a pumpkin pie with an almond crust. Heathe r Dane has
lovingly prepared the food. She insists her husband, Joel, also deserves
some credit. Chief Food Taster, perhaps. The conversation flows. Spirits are
high. “Life loves you,” says Louise as we raise our glasses in thanksgiving. As the afternoon rolls on, Heather conjures up even more delights from
her magical kitchen. The oval dining table is continually being laid and re-
laid. I imagine it is enjoying the feast as much as we are. At one point, one
of our party , Elliot, leaves the table and walks across the room to a full-
length mirror hanging on the wall. Elliot stands still in front of the mirror .He then leans forward and kisses the mirror . Louise and I catch the moment
and smile at each other . After a little while, Elliot again excuses himself from the table. He walks
back to the mirror. He kisses the mirror again. He returns to the table. He is
very happy. Pretty soon, Elliot is making regular visits to the mirror. He’s
unaware that any of us are watching him. Yet by now we all are. And we
are ench anted. You see, Elliot is only 18 months old. What he is doing is
natural and playful. Children kiss mirrors. When Elliot sees he has an audience, he beckons his father , Greg, to join
him. Greg is reluctant to leave the table, but Elliot keeps motioning to him,
using a mix of sign language and words. Greg can’t resist his son’s
overtures. Soon enough, Greg is sitting in front of the mirror . Elliot kisses
the mirror first and then waits  for Greg to take his turn. Greg steadies
himself. He leans forward and plants a kiss on the mirror . Elliot claps his
hands and shrieks with delight. “Louise, do you remember kissing yourself in the mirror as a young
girl?” I ask. “No, but I am sure I did,” she says. Louise then asks if I remember kissing the mirror as a young boy . “No, I don’ t,” I reply . “We were all like Elliot once,” Louise says. “I’m sure that’ s true,” I say . “Yes, and we can all be that way again,” she says. “How so?” I ask her . “By doing mirror work,” says Louise, as if the answer is obvious. “Why mirror work?”
“Mirror work helps you to love yourself again,” she explains. “Like we each did in the beginning?”
“Yes. And when you love yours elf, you see that life loves you, too,” she
adds. Kissing the Mirr or
It’s a bright spring day, and my son, Christopher , and I are home alone. My wife, Hollie, and daughter , Bo, are out enjoying some “girl time” at thePottery Café, near Kew Gardens. Bo has just turned four years old, and she
expresses her creativity beautif ully and with such fun. They’ ll be home
soon, and I look forward to seeing Bo’s latest work. Knowing my daughter ,
it will be a rainbow plate, a wobbly cup with hearts, or a baby rabbit salt pot
painted pink—th e sort of thing that would not be out of place on the big old
table at the Mad Hatter ’s tea party in Alice’ s Adventur es in W onderland . Christopher is nearly six months old now. I feel like I’ve know n him my
whole life. Sometimes when our eyes meet, the roles we are playing
disappear . I stop being a dad and he stops being a baby , and it’s like we are
two soul friends  hanging out. I’ve had exactly the same experience with Bo
many times. I can’t imagine life without them, and it feels like we were
always meant to be together . Louise believes that we choose the family that
can give us the lessons and gifts we most need for our life journey. In her
book You Can Heal Y our Life , she writes,
I believe we are all on an endless journey through eternity . We come to this plane t to learn
particular lessons that are necessary for our spiritual evolution. We choose our sex, our color ,
our country; and then we look around for the perfect set of parents who will “mirror” our
patterns. Hollie and Bo call to say that they are on their way home and they have
gifts for Christopher and me. I put the phone down, and I notice that
Christopher is smiling. Christopher smiles a lot. Most babies do. It’s in their
nature. However , when Christopher gets into one of his smilin g moods he
can’t stop himself. He ends up smiling at everything , even inanimate objects
like an empty flower vase, a vacuum cleaner , or a screwdriver . I gather up
Christopher in my arms and take him over to the mirror that sits over our
fireplace. “Dear Christop her, it is my great pleasure to introduce you to
Christopher ,” I say, pointing to his reflection in the mirror . Christopher
stops smiling. I’m caught by surprise. I thought he’d be full of smiles when
he saw himself in the mirror . After all, he smiles at everyt hing else. I
introduce Christ opher to his reflection again. And, once again, Christopher
doesn’ t smile. In fact, his face has barely any expression on it. It’s as if he
hasn’ t seen anything. Not even an empty flower vase. Why didn’ t Christopher smile at his reflection? Well, I did some research
on the psycholo gy of childhood development, and I discovered that it’s
common for young babies not to smile at themselves in the mirror . Theydon’t recognize themselves. Why is this? I asked Louise abou t it. “Young
babies are not identified with their body yet,” she said in the matter -of-fact
way that is so characteristic of her . Young babies are like soul birds that fly over their body and have yet to
land in them. When they look in the mirror , they don’t point at the body and
think, That is me,  or This is mine. Babies are just pure consciousness. There
is no thought of I. They have no self-image. They  have not made a persona
or mask . They do not experienc e neurosis as yet. They are still full of the
original blessing  of spirit. They are identified only with their original face,
as Buddhists call it, which is the face of the soul. Children commonly begin to identify with the image in the mirror
between 15 and 18 months of age. This is the Mirror Stage, or stade du
miroir, as the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan called it. No wonder Elliot was
having such a good time at our Thanksgiving feast. Sure enough, when
Christopher reached Elliot’ s age, he started to kiss the mirror , too. He’d also
kiss the big round bath tap in our family bath, shiny spoons, steel
saucepans, glass doorknobs, and anything else that caught his reflection. From about three years old, the mirror becomes a friend. Children love
what they see in the mirror . This is the time when they learn I have a body . They still wear their body lightly , though. The body is not who they are, but
it is a necessary form for the human experience. This is a time to try on
faces, to pull poses, to play peekaboo, and to invent silly dances. Christopher and Bo are highly amused by the image they see in the mirror . They often play games with their image, just as Peter Pan plays with his
shadow . Experimenting with being a me is fun at first but not forever . As we take
on the identity  of a separate  self—an ego—there is a shift in our
psychology . We become self-conscious in front of the mirror . We are
camera shy. We either crave attention or we avoid it. We take a detour out
of love and into fear. We start judging ourselves, and we lose sight of our
original face. The self-image that appears in the mirror is made up of
judgments. It is not the real you. The soul bird, which is our true nature, still sings, but it is difficult to
hear her song above the raucou s shrieks of a self-image, or ego, that feels
separate and afraid. The beauty  we once saw in the mirror is still with us,
but it is distorted by our self-ju dgment. We can see it again the instant we
stop judging, but judging is now a habit we are identified with. We haveconvinced ourse lves that judging is seeing, but the opposite is true. You can
see only when you stop judging. Myth of Inadequacy
“My first suicide attempt was at nine years old,” Louise tells me. “What happened?” I ask. “Well, obviously it didn’ t work,” she says. “The world would never have met Louise Hay if it had,” I tell her . “That’ s true,” Louise replies with a smile. “So, what happened?”
“I was told neve r to eat certain berries on the hillside because they were
poisonous and I’d die. So one day, when things were too bad, I ate the
berries and lay down to die.”
Louise and I are sitting in front of a full-length mirror in her office at her
home in San Diego. We are sharing our childhood stories. It is Louise’ s idea
that we do this in front of the mirror. She looks directly into the mirror as
she speaks. She maintains a steady eye contact with her reflection. I am
struck by how honest and vulnerable she allows herself to be. She speaks
with a soft and kind voice as she recounts her childhood. Her words still
carry some sadness. She is full of compassion for her nine-year -old self. “Why did you want to kill yourself?” I ask. “I didn’ t feel loveable,” she says. “Did you ever feel loveable?” I ask. “Yes, in the beginning. But everything hit the fan after my parents
divorced. My mother remarried , to a man who abused me physically and
sexually . There was a lot of violence in our home.”
“I am so sorry to hear that, Lulu,” I tell her . “The family message was I am not loveable ,” she says. When Louise was a teenager , a neighbor raped her. The man was
sentenced to 16 years in jail. Louise left home at 15 years old. “All I wanted
was for people to be kind,” she says, “but I had no idea how to be kind to
me.” Things went from bad to worse. “I was starved for love, and I was a
magnet for abuse,” Louise tells me. She went to bed with anyo ne who wasnice to her. Soon  she was pregn ant. “I couldn’ t take care of a baby, because
I couldn’ t take care of me,” she says. When it’s my turn for my child hood story , Louise begins by asking me,
“What is it you most wanted when you were a child?” I look deep into my
reflection in the mirror . My mind is blank at first. Soon the memories
return. “I wanted to be seen,” I tell her. She asks what I mean by that. “I felt
like I wanted someone to tell me who I am and why I am here and that
everything will be okay ,” I explain. As a child, I was full of wonder , and
full of those big questions like Who am I? and What is real? and Why do I
have a life? When I was little, we moved from house to house. Mum wanted  to be far
away from her parents. Dad was always busy chasing work. Somehow we
ended up back in Winchester , England, not far from Mum’ s family home. We rented a little house called Honeysuckle Cottage, and I have a lot of
happy memorie s from that time. Later , when I was nine years old, we
moved to a village called Littleton, into a house named Shadows. I
remember thinking that it was a strange name for a home. “Did your parents love you?” Louise asks. “Yes, most definitely , but it was complicated.”
“What happened?” she asks. “My mum suffered from depression that would come and go, and come
back again. The depression always arrived unannounced. Sometimes it
would settle in for weeks. Mum just lay in bed, and we’d pray for the
medication to kick in. Other times she was admitted to different mental
hospitals, but she always tried to kill herself in those places.”
“What about your dad?” Louise asks. “He had his own demons,” I tell her . When I was about 15 years old, we found out that Dad had a drinking
problem. He promised to stop. He stopped many times. He eventually left
home and spent much of the last ten years of his life homeless, traveling
from one temporary shelter to the next. It was a nightmare to live with two
parents who were in such pain. The Holden family loved each other as best
they could, but none us felt loveable inside. Not one of us could say, “I am
loveable” and really mean it. The r eality of your being is that you ar e loveable.LOUISE  HAY, HEART THOUGHTS
Louise and I share a philosophy about the basic nature of people. We
both know that the basic truth about everyone, including you, is I am
loveable. Love is much more than just a feeling, an emotion. Love is your
true nature. It is your spiritual DNA. It is the song of your heart. It is the
consciousness of your soul. If we’re fortunate, as children this basic truth—
I am loveable—is mirrored by our parents, our school, our church, and our
friendships and other relationships. Mirroring is an essential part of childhood. Its highest purpose is to
affirm the basic truth that I am loveable. It is through affirmative mirroring
that we experie nce our eternal loveliness. We trust who we are, and we
grow up to be mature adults who are a loving presence in the world. The basic truth I am loveable  has an opposite, the basic fear I am not
loveable. The fear of not being loveable is reinforced by unhealthy
mirroring in childhood. In our conversation in front of the mirror , Louise
tells me, “I was raised by two people who didn’ t feel loveable. They
weren’ t able to teach me that I am loveable because they did not know it
themselves.” Parents have to know about the basic truth of their own nature
if they are to help their children love themselves. The basic fear I am not loveab le is not true; it’s just a story . It feels true
only because we identify with it. This stops us from enjoying our own
company . We move away from ourselves. We forget about the soul bird that
is our true nature. And the world becomes a symbol of our fear. We are
scared to look in the mirror . “I speed up past mirrors,” actor Bill Nighy
once said. Fear of unloveability infects our psychology , which becomes full
of self-judgment: There’s somethi ng wrong with me; I am bad; I am
nothing. The basic fear coupled with the habit of self-judging cause us to
experience something I call the myth of inadequacy . The myth of
inadequacy expresses itself in self-talk like:
I am not good enough. I am not smart enough.I am not successful enough. I am not beautiful enough. I am not strong enough. I am not interesting enough. I am not creative enough. I am not rich enough. I am not thin enough. I am not significant enough. “This fear of being not enough has been present in everyone I’ve worked
with,” says Louise. The myth of inadequacy has nothing to do with the soul
bird, our true nature. It is a learn ed unworthiness. It belongs to a temporary
self-image that we act out until it becomes too painful to maintain. At some
point we fall to our knees and say, “I want to heal my life,” and “There
must be another  way.” We outgrow the myth of inadequacy when we are
willing to embrace again the basic truth I am loveable. The Mirr or Principle
“The first time I did mirror work was not easy ,” Louise tells me. “What happened?” I ask. “I looked for flaws. And I found plenty of them!” she says with a smile. “Such as?”
“Oh, my eyebrows weren’ t right. I had too many wrinkles. My lips
weren’ t the right shape. There was a long list.”
“That must have been hard.”
“I was very hard on myself at that point in my life,” says Louise. My first experience with mirro r work was similar to Louise’ s. When I
looked in the mirror , I came face-to-face with a crowd of judgm ents. Someof the judgment s were about my appearance. I remember I didn’t like my
smile. I wanted it to be different—better somehow . I’m not photogenic,  I
told myself. The other judgment s were even more personal and condemning
—typical myth-of-inadequacy stuff like I’m not successful enough; I’m not
talented enough ; I haven’ t done  enough with my life; I’m not good enough
and I never will be. “Were you tempted to stop doing the mirror work?” I ask Louise. “Yes, but I had a good teacher who I trusted, and he helped me to feel
safe in front of the mirror .”
“How did he do that?”
“Well, he pointed out to me that the mirror wasn’ t judging me; it was me
who was judging me. Therefore, I didn’ t need to be afraid of the mirror .”
“That’ s the key to mirror work,” I say . “Yes,” agrees Louise. “And he also showed me that when I looked in the
mirror , I was only judging my appearance. I wasn’ t really looking at me.”
“So, you stuck with the mirror work.”
“Yes, and after a while I began to notice the little miracles,” says Louise. “Little miracles?”
“Green lights and parking spots!” she says with a big laugh. “What do you mean?”
“Well, traffic lights seemed to turn green just for me. And good parking
spaces would appear in places that were normally impossible. I was in the
rhythm of life. I was easier on myself, and life was getting easier .”
I, too, have a good teacher for mirror work. Her name is Louise Hay! Louise is regard ed as a pioneer in mirror work and has been teaching the
world about it for more than 40 years now. Mirror work  is the name Louise
uses for a series of exercises that you do in front of a mirror. These
exercises include meditations, affirmations, and inquiries that are featured
in her Heal Your Life program. I use mirror work with students of my work
with The Happiness Project and in my three-day program called
Loveability . The Mirror Principle  is the name I give to the main concept behind
mirror work. It is the key to understanding why mirror work is so
transformative and healing. The Mirror Principle also gives you the
motivation to keep doing mirror work when you experience resistance. TheMirror Principle teaches that your relationship with yourself is mirrored in
your r elationship with everyone and everything. Your relationship with yourself is, therefore, reflected in your
relationship with family and friends, lovers and strangers, authority figures
and rivals, heroe s and villains. The Mirror Principle can help you track your
relationship with yourself in all areas of your life. Your relationship with
yourself is mirrored, for instance, in your relationship with:
time:  making time for what’ s important;
space:  enjoying the gifts of solitude;
success:  listening to your heart;
happiness:  following your joy;
health:  caring for your body;
creativity:  how self-critical you are;
guidance:  trusting your inner wisdom;
abundance:  how present you are;
love:  how undefended you are;
spirituality:  how open you are. The Mirror Principle shows you how you suffer and how you can heal,
and how you block yourself and how you can set yourself free. It’s the key
to self-lo ve and also to letting life love you. Recognizing how the Mirror
Principle operate s gives you the necessary awareness to make good choices
in your relations hips, your work, and your life in general. So before we go
any further , let’s take a closer look at the Mirror Principle:
Psychology is a mirror. Your psychology is a mirror of your self-image. Your sense of who you are influences the thoughts you most identify with. In other  words, you think like the person you see in the mirror . “I used to
think I was a victim of the world ,” says Louise, “so my psychology was fullof fear and cynicism and defensiveness. Life was trying to love me, but I
couldn’ t trust that. And I couldn’ t see it was because I didn’ t believe it.”
The most effective way to chan ge your psychology is to change  your mind
about yourself first. The world is a mirror. Perception is subjective, not objective. The brain
receives more than 10 to 11 billion bits of information every second,
according to some estimates. It would blow a fuse if it tried to process all of
that. Instead, it filters the information and presents us with about 2,000 bits
of information every second. Your self-image is the filter . What you see is
what you identify with. We see things not as they are, but as we are. And
that is how we relate to the world as hell or heaven, a trial or a gift, a prison
or a classroom, a battlefield or a garden, a workhouse or a playground, a
nightmare or a theater . Relationships are a mirror. When we meet each other , we also meet
ourselves. We discover that we are different in some ways but the same in
most ways. Wha t you bring to a relationship is what you experience. And
what you withhold may be what is missing. Sometimes we extend the basic
truth I am loveable  to each other , and other times we project the basic fear I
am not loveable. The less you love yourself, the harder you make it for
others to love you. The more you love yourself, the more you recognize
how loved you are. Life is a mirror. “When  we grow up we have a tendency to recreate the
emotional environment of our early home life,” wrote Louise in her Love
Yourself, Heal Your Life Workbook . “We also tend to recreate in our
personal relationships those we had with our mother and father .” Your life is
an expression of who you think you are. It mirrors your values, your ethics,
and your choice s. It shows you your thoughts. It reflects what you believe
you deserve or don’t deserve , who you blame, and what you take
responsibility for . The Mirror Principle gives you the key to experiencing “little miracles”
in your life. The principle is summed up beautifully in A Course in
Miracles:  “Perception is a mirror , not a fact. And what I look on is my state
of mind, reflected outward.” The text goes on to say ,Projection makes perception. The world you see is what you gave it,  
nothing more than that. But though it is no more than that, it is not less. Therefore, to you it is important. It is the witness to your state of mind,  
the outside picture of an inward condition. As a man thinketh, so does he perceive. Therefore, seek not to change the  
world, but choose to change your  
mind about the world. Miracle of Self-Love
In my r oom I have a mirr or, and I call it my Magic Mirr or. Inside this
mirror is my very best friend. LOUISE  HAY, ADVENTURES OF  LULU
“Mirror work wasn’ t easy for me in the beginning,” Louis e tells a
roomful of students at my five-day seminar Coaching Happiness. “The
most difficult words for me to say were I love you, Louise. I shed a lot of
tears, and it took a lot of practi ce. I had to breathe through my resistance
each time I said I love you  to myse lf. But I stuck with it. And I’m glad I did,
because mirror work has transformed my life.”
There are 150 people at the seminar , and they’re hanging on Louise’ s
every word. Among the students are many psychologists, therapists, and
coaches who use mirror work both personally and profession ally. Louise
attended the seminar as a student for her own learning. However , when we
came to the module on mirror work, I couldn’ t pass up the opportunity to
ask Louise to talk to us, and fortunately for us, she was happy to do so. Louise tells us about an early breakthrough she had with mirror work. “One day, I decided to try a little exercise,” she says. “I looked in the mirror
and said to myself, ‘I am beautiful and everybody loves me.’ Of course, I
didn’ t believe it at first, but I was patient with myself, and it soon felt easier . Then, for the rest of the day, I said to myself wherever I went, ‘I ambeautiful and everybody loves me.’ This put a smile on my face. It was
amazing how people reacted to me. Everyone was so kind. That day I
experienced a miracle—a miracle of self-love.”
Louise is on a roll, and so I take this opportunity to ask her about the
purpose of mirror work. Our conversation was recorded. Here’ s what
Louise said:
The real purpose of mirror work is to stop judging yourself and see who you really are. When
you stick at mirror work, you get to see beautiful YOU  in full awareness, without judging,
criticizing, or comparing. You get to say, “Hi, kid, I’m with you today .” And you become a
true friend to yourself. Louise’ s response reminds me of the old Sufi practice called Kissing the
Friend. The Friend is spelled with a capital F because  it refers to your
Unconditioned Self—to the soul bird that is made of love and that loves you
very much. In the practice of Kissing the Friend  you take your ego—your
self-image—to the Friend and let yourself experience the basic truth I am
loveable . This meeting washes away all misperceptions about who you are. It helps you to let go of judging, criticizing, and comparing. When I teach the Mirror Principle I share a poem called “Love after
Love,” by Derek Walcott. It’s a beautiful poem about self-love that
identifies the drama that exists between the basic truth of the Unconditioned
Self (I am loveable ) and the basic fear of the ego (I am not loveable ). Walcott describes the Uncondit ioned Self as “the stranger who was your
self” and “who knows you by heart” and “who has loved you / all your
life.” He encourages us to let our Unconditioned Self befrien d our ego,
which is full of fear and judgment. “Peel your own image from the mirror ,”
he writes. “Sit. Feast on your life.”
Louise agrees to answer questions from the group. The first question is
about common mistakes people make doing mirror work. “Not doing mirror
work is the biggest mistake!” Louise says. “Too many people don’t do
mirror work because they think it won’ t work before they’ve tried it.” Once
people start, they are often put off by the self-judging they witness, she
says. “The flaws you see are not the truth of your being,” Loui se explains. “When you judge, you see flaws. When you love, you see your essence.”
The next question is about common blocks to doing mirror work. “Mirror
work doesn’t work in theory; it only works in practice,” Louise says. In
other words, the key to mirror work is to do it and to be consistent about it.When Louise is asked if she still has days when she finds it difficult to look
in the mirror , she replies, “Yes, and on those days I make sure I stay in front
of the mirror until I feel better .” She doesn’ t go out the front door until she
feels in a more loving space, she tells us. After all, the world mirrors how
we feel about ourselves. Louise and I wrap up our sessio n together with one more quest ion. This
time I ask her what has been the greatest gift of doing mirror work. She
shares how mirror work taught her to love herself and how it accelerated
her healing process when she had vaginal cancer nearly 40 years ago. “Love
is the miracle cure,” she says, “And when you are willing to love yourself
more, every area of your life works out better .” On that note, Louise takes
her leave, signing off in familia r fashion: “Remember , life loves you,” she
says. PRACTICE 1: L ETTING  LIFE LOVE  YOU
Love yourself as much as you can, and all of life will mirr or this love
back to you. LOUISE  HAY, YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE
Louise and I are out to dinner at Mr. A’s, which is one of Louise’ s
favorite local restaurants. We are enjoying excellent food, fine wine from
Burgundy , and a panoramic view of San Diego. I have flown in from
London for another round of conversations for writing this book. We are
both excited and grateful to be working together . During the meal, I present
Louise with a gift. It’s a silver pocket mirror with the inscription Life Loves
You. Louise smiles. She opens the case and looks into the mirror. “Hi,
Lulu,” she says aloud. “Always remember that life loves you and life wants
the best for you. All is well.” She pauses for a moment and then hands the
mirror to me. “Y our go, kiddo,” she says with a twinkle in her eye. The first spiritual practice Louise and I have created for you combines
self-love and mirror work. This practice has two parts to it. It takes about 15
minutes to do it, and the benefits will last a lifetime. The one piece ofequipment you need is a mirror . Any mirror will do. Make sure you give it a
good polish before you begin. You are about to meet the most important
person in your life. Remember , your relationship with this person (namely
you) influences your relationship with everyone and everything. Let’s begin! Be sure you are sitting comfortably . Look into the mirror . Inhale deeply . Say to yourself, Life loves you (or, Life loves me), and then
exhale. It’s good to keep breathing! Repeat this ten times. Notice your
response each time. Pay atten tion to the three languages of response:
sensation (body messages), feelings (heart thoughts), and thoughts (mental
commentary). We recommend that you write down your responses in a journal. Louise
and I did this in order to track our progress. Sensations may include tension
around the heart, tightness in the face, softening around the eyes, and
lightness of being. Feelings may include sadness and grief; hope and
happiness. Thou ghts may include commentary like I can’t do this, and This
isn’t working. Please don’t judge your responses. There are no right
answers. And don’ t try to be positive; be honest. Notice that the phrase Life loves you is only three words long. There are
no other  words. It’s not Life loves you because … For example, because I
am a good perso n, or because I work hard, or because I just got a raise,  or
because my football team won. Similarly , it’s not Life will love you if … For
example, if I lose ten pounds,  or if I heal this cancer , or if I find a girlfriend. Life loves you  is about unconditional love. After you complete ten rounds of the af firmation Life loves you,  we invite
you to look in the mirror and say this af firmation to yourself: I am willing to
let life love me today . Once again, notice your responses. And remember to
breathe. Repeat this affirmation until you feel comfortable sensations in
your body, light feelings in your heart, and a happy comment ary in your
thoughts. W illingness is the key . With willingness, all things are possible. “Please encourage people to be very kind to themselves when  they do
this practice,” Louise tells me as I write notes for this chapter . “I know that
mirror work can be very confron ting at first. It reveals your most basic fear
and your most terrible self-judgments. But if you keep looking in the
mirror , you will begin to see through those judgments and see who you
really are.” Louise goes on to say, “Your attitude to mirror work is the key
to succe ss. It’s important to take it lightly and be playful. If it helps, I prefer
that people stop calling it mirror work  and instead call it mirror play.”Louise and I want you to do this spiritual practice every day for seven
consecutive days. And we want you to start today . Doing it tomorrow won’ t
make it any easier than doing it today . “I know from my own experience
that whatever excuse I have today , I’ll still have tomorrow ,” Louise tells
me. Rem ember , mirror work doesn’ t work in theory; it works in practice. You don’t have to like this exercise or agree with it; all we ask is that you
do it. It will get easier . Any discomfort or resistance you experience will
dissolve if you meet it with love and acceptance. If you like, you can do this
exercise with the support of a trusted friend, therapist, or coach. The real goal of this first spiritual practice is to help you align  yourself
consciously with the basic truth I am loveable. When you feel loveable, you
experience a world that loves you. Remember , the world is a mirror. There
is no real difference between saying to yourself I love you and Life loves
you. It’s all the same love. When you let life love you, you feel loveable;
and when you feel loveable, you let life love you. Now you are ready to be
who you really are. Please note: This practice is not about making yourself loveable; you
already are loveabl e. You are a holy expression of love now. It is not about
making yourself worthy; you already are worthy. It is not about improving
yourself; it is about accepting yourself. It is not about changing yourself; it
is about changing your mind about yourself. And it is not about reinventing
yourself; it is about being even more of the real you. We close Chapter 1 with a prayer I wrote that I often share in my
seminars. It’s called Love’ s Prayer. We think it sums up the spirit of love
and acceptance, which this chapter is about. Beloved One,  
You cannot judge yourself and know who you are. The truth about you cannot be judged. Put aside your judgments then,  
for one sweet holy moment,  
and let me show you  
something wonderful. See what it’ s like to be you  
when you stop judging yourself. What you judge is just an image. After the last judgment,  
you will know yourself again. Love will appear in your own mirror . To greet you as your friend. For you are loveable. And you are made  
of love. OceanofPDF .comCHAPTER 2
Affirming Your Life
What we ar e today comes fr om our thoughts of yester day, and our pr esent
thoughts build our life of tomorr ow. THE BUDDHA
My children, Bo and Christopher , love Louise Hay, and I know she feels
the same way about them. It’s interesting watching them together . Louise
doesn’ t dote. She doesn’ t do tickles. She doesn’ t play games. She treats Bo,
who is six years  old, not as a “big girl” or a “good girl” but as a real girl. Christopher , who is three years old, is a real boy. And Louise is no age at
all. And that’s that. It’s all perfectly natural. The way they are together
reminds me of Mary Poppins with Jane and Michael. The first time Christopher met Louise, he ran right up to her and shouted,
“Would you like to see my teeth?” Louise considered his proposal for a
moment and said, “Yes, I would.” Christopher then looked up and grinned. “Thank you,” said Louise. “Tha t’s okay ,” said Christopher . He hadn’ t done
that with anyone before and hasn’ t repeated it since. Later on, I asked
Louise about the significance of teeth. In her matter -of-fact way, she said,
“Teeth are abou t making good decisions. He was simply telling me that he
knows his own mind and that he is capable of making good decisions.”The first time we visited Louise ’s home, Louise gave Bo a tour. First she
showed her the big, round dining table that she’d painted to resemble a
swirling univers e with galaxies and stars. “I’d like to paint our kitchen
table, Dad,” Bo told me. Louise then showed her an oil painting of a
hippopotamus that she was working on. It’s called “Oswald Doing the
Rhumba.” “Osw ald is a happy hippo,” Louise said. “He thinks happy
thoughts becaus e he knows that his mind is creative.” In the garden, Louise
showed Bo how to pull carrots and beetroots from the ground. They also
picked kale and sugar snap peas. W e now have a vegetable garden at home. The first bracelet Bo made she gave to Louise. She chose the glass and
ceramic beads herself and was most insistent that this was to be a present
for Loui se. From  time to time, Louise sends me an e-mail saying , “Tell Bo I
am wearing her bracelet today .” One of my favorite e-mails from Louise
was sent a few days after a family visit. She wrote, “Tell Christ opher I still
have his little handprint on my bedroom window . I’ll wash it off one day. But not yet.”
Back home in London, one of our breakfast rituals is sharing the daily
affirmation from Louise’ s I Can Do It  calenda r. Bo loves to read storie s first
thing in the morning and just before bedtime. Two books in her collection
are child ren’s books written by Louise Hay. One is I Think,  I Am!, which
teaches kids about the power of af firmations. The other is The Adventur es of
Lulu, which is a collection of stories that help children to feel confident and
be creative. “Lulu is the girl I’d like to have been when I was growing up,” says
Louise. “She knows that she is loveable and that life loves her.” Lulu and
Bo are a similar age. They both have blond hair. Each has a little brother . Sometimes they get afraid. Sometimes they get hurt. And life teaches them
how to listen to their heart and live with courage. There’ s a verse in one of
Lulu’ s songs that says,
You can be what you want to be,  
you can do what you want to do,  
you can be what you want to be,  
all of life supports you. Bo and I were talking about Louise one day, and Bo was asking a lot of
questions. “Why do you like Louise Hay so much?’ ’ I asked her . Bo thoughtfor a moment, then smiled and said, “I like the way she thinks.”
Your Radiant Intelligence
“I was a high school dropout,” says Louise. “I was told I wasn’ t very
smart, and that’ s what I told myself, too.”
“How would you describe your experience of school?” I ask her . “Terrible. I was very self-cons cious, I didn’ t feel safe, and I had no
friends.”
“Why not?”
“My parents struggled for money . I wore hand-me-down clothes. I had an
awful haircut that my stepfather gave me. I had to eat raw garlic to keep the
worms away , which also kept all the children away .”
“How did you get on with your teachers?”
“My teachers were on a dif ferent wavelength from me,” Louise says. What is the purpose of school? My education was a bewildering
experience. I remember scary old teachers, dreaded algebra lessons,
corporal punishment, short playtimes, and for lunch, always blancmange. What is blancmange anyway? Is it even a real food? My school report said
that I was a polite boy who had a lot of potential. Potential for what? I never
found out. I remember being scolded one day for not being original. “Holden, be original!” the teacher shouted. This really hurt me. “I couldn’ t wait to leave school,” says Louise firmly . “You surprise me,” I tell her. “You’re my role model as a lifelong learner
who is always open to learning new things.”
“I didn’ t understand why I had to learn about battle dates, the Industrial
Revolution, and the history of politics,” she tells me. “How did you get on with exams?” I ask. “I failed most of them,” Louise says. A syllabus without a soul: That’s how I describe my educa tion. The
curriculum was based on a narrow definition of intelligence . It was an
intellectual exercise. We focused on “head” intelligence. We studied logicand literacy. We memorized and recited facts and figures. Little attention
was given to the intelligence of the heart and to finding your inner voice. Like Louise, I wasn’ t very academic. My education show ed all my
weaknesses and none of my strengths. “What a distress ing contrast there is between the radiant intelligence of a
child and the feeble mentality of the average adult,” observed Sigmund
Freud. We are each created with a radiant intelligence. It’s in our spiritual
DNA to want to learn and grow. Psychology studies show that young
children, from about three years old, ask as many as 390 questions a day. Any parent can verify these findings. Children are blessed with a love of
learning, and it is either nurtured or knocked out of them. Girls and boys need a fairy godmother to help nurture their love of
learning. A fairy godmother might be a loving parent, a wonderful
schoolteacher , or an eccentric aunt, perhaps. Or maybe the fairy godmother
takes the form of a musical instrument, a pony , or some other great passion. “I loved  to draw and paint when I was young, and I always kept my desk
neat and tidy,” recalls Louise. “I also spent hours and hours reading. I
especially liked fairy tales. My imagination was a safe and wonderful place
to be.”
I rediscovered my love of learn ing when I entered higher education to
study psychology and philosophy . I went from being a C student at school
to an A student who passed exams with distinction. How did this happen? The difference was that I could choose my subjects now. At last, I was
learning about something that interested me. My learning wasn’ t just for a
career or a future income. I was following a passion. And I was finding my
voice. Dwelling in Possibility
Louise and I are having dinner  at her place. We are sitting at the big,
round table with its swirling universe full of galaxies and stars. We are
talking about how the world is not as physical as it looks but is really a state
of mind. I have pen in hand, and we’re drawing up a syllabus with a soul—
a list of classes we wish we’d been taught as children. So far, the listincludes classe s on self-acceptance, love, meditation, nutrition, real
happiness, for giveness, and imagination. “Imagine you could teach one class to every child on this planet; what
would it be?” I ask. “How wonderful!” Louise says. She gives herself a
moment to play with some possibilities. Sensing her readiness, I ask her
what she’d call her class. “I’d teach a class on ‘Making Friends with Your
Mind,’” she tells me with a big smile. “And how would you begin?” I ask. “With mirror work, of course,” she replies, in her matter -of-fact way. “And all the teachers and parents would have to attend, too.”
“What would you teach in your class?” I ask. “We’d start by looking in the mirror and af firming Life loves you.”
“Life loves you, ” I repeat, letting the af firmation sink in. “Then we’d say to our mirror , I love you, I r eally love you,”  she says. “I love you, I r eally love you,”  I affirm. “We’d also say, My mind is very creative, and I choose to think loving
and happy thoughts today ,” she says. “That’ s beautiful,” I tell her . “When we love ourselves, we naturally think beautiful thoug hts,” she
tells me. Most of the thoughts we think are not our real thoughts. They are
primarily a gaggle of judgments, criticisms, doubts, and other commentary
we have picked up along the way. These so-called thoughts come not from
the original mind of our Unconditioned Self but from a self-image that
believes the basic fear I am not loveab le. This basic fear is not natural but
learned. All our neuroses stem from it. “Babies don’t criticize themselves,” Louise says. That’ s true. Imagine
meeting a newborn baby that didn’ t like its wrinkles. Babies don’t feel
inadequate. They don’t appear to judge themselves or others as being not
good enough or not cute enou gh or not smart enough or not successful
enough. Babies don’t hold resentments. On the contrary , it’s amazing to
witness how quickly they dry their tears and how easily they let things go. Babies are not pessimistic. They haven’ t given up on the future. They are
still with their original mind, and they dwell in possibility . Your original mind reflects the basic truth I am loveable . It is a
consciousness of love—a radiant intelligence empty of the psychology that
reflects the basic fear I am not loveab le. Michael Neill is an author Louiseand I love and respect. Michael teaches people how to think. “At any
moment you’re either with your thoughts, or you’re in love,” he says. In
other words, you’re tuning in to either the psychology of your self-image or
the pure awareness of your Unconditioned Self. The totality of possibility  is how Louise describes the consciousness of
the Uncondition ed Self. “It’s a phrase I learned from one of my early
teachers, Eric Pace,” says Loui se. “I met Eric at the Church of Religious
Science in New York, when I was in my mid-40s. I’d recently been
divorced. I was feeling unlovea ble and like life didn’ t love me. Eric taught
me that if you change your thinking, you can change your life. Each time
you drop a limitation—a judgment, a criticism, a fear, a doubt—you open
yourself up to the totality of possibilities that exists in the infinite
intelligence of your original mind.”
So how do you experience your original mind? There’ s a beautiful
inquiry I teach in my Loveability  program . If you’d like to try it, all you
need do is make a quiet space for yourself, just as you would  for a basic
meditation pract ice. Let your body relax, place a hand on your heart, and let
your thoughts be still. Then ask yourself this question: What is it like to be
me when I am not judging myself? Repeat this question once every minute
for 15 minutes, and with practice you will surely experience the loving
awareness of your original mind. In a recent Loveability  seminar, I taught this inquiry at the front of the
room to a student named Amanda. Her first response to the question What
is it like to be me when I am not judging myself? was “I’m not sure if I’ve
ever experienced myself withou t judgment.” That’ s how it can feel when
we forget about the basic truth I am loveable. Eventu ally, Amanda found
her flow . By the end of the inquiry , she was “in heaven,” as she put it. In her
feedback to the group, Amanda  said, “I had no idea it could feel this good
to be me.”
I recommend that you follow up this inquiry with a simple exercise. The
idea is to complete the followin g sentence five times: One good thing that
could happen if I judged myself less is … Don’ t edit yourself or judge your
answers. Allow your original mind to speak to you. Let yourself dwell in
possibility . And let the basic truth of who you are inspire and guide you.Suffering fr om Psychology
One of the best classes I ever took was in my first year at Birmingham
City University . It was a talk on cognitive therapy given by a guest lecturer ,
Dr. Anderson. The title of the lecture had piqued everybody’ s interest: “Do
you honestly, truly, really believe that a flat tire can give you a headache?”
Physically , Dr. Anderson resembled the actor Dick Van Dyke. He was full
of happiness, and we liked him from the start. Dr. Anderson briefly outlined the history of cognitive psychology . He
mentioned Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis, considered pioneers in the field,
and talked about the recent rise of cognitive behavioral therapy . He was
most insistent, though, that cognitive psychology was not a new science. “Allow me to introduce you to one of the original fathers of cognitive
psychology ,” he said as he waved a small book at us. He told us that the
book in his hand contained wisdom thousands of years old. “If I may, I’d
like to read the first line of this mighty tome to you,” he said, thumbing
through the pages of the introduction. Here’ s what Dr . Anderson read to us:
What we are today comes from  
our thoughts of yesterday , 
and our present thoughts build our life of tomorrow:  
our life is the creation of our mind. As he looked up from the page, Dr. Anderson spread his arms and
reached out to us, like a sympho ny conductor receiving applaus e at the end
of a concert. Joy was pouring out of him. His demeanor said, “Behold, I
have given you the secret of creation.” None of the students applauded, but
Dr. Anderson certainly had our attention. The book he was reading from
was The Dhammapada , a collection of verses spoken by the Buddha. “Raise your hand,” Dr. Anderson said, “if you honestly , truly, really
believe that a flat tire can give you a headache.” Every hand went up. “Wrong answer ,” he said emphatically . “Yes, it can,” we protest ed. “How?”
he asked. The only way a flat tire can cause a headache, he argued, is if the
tire comes off the wheel, bounces against a tree, and rebounds onto your
head. We conceded his point. “How annoying!” said one student, who
didn’ t like how this was going. Dr. Anderson said, “Raise your hand if you
honestly , truly , really believe that a lecture can annoy you.”How do you experience the world? This was the real question that Dr.
Anderson was posing. If you could put a magnifying glass  up to any
experience you’ve ever had, you’d see that the experience was made up of a
circumstance and your thoughts about the circumstance. Life is made up of
events and also your thoughts about these events. “When I was diagnosed
with cancer ,” says Louise, “wha t I first had to treat were my thoughts about
the cancer. I had to heal my thoughts first so I could treat the cancer with
courage, wisdom, and love.”
It’s your thoughts that count. How you experience your life is unique to
you, because only you experi ence your thoughts. That’ s why any two
people will handle a similar situation in different ways. Here’ s a good
example.
_OceanofPDF.com_Life_loves_you_-_Louise_Hay.txt
Summarize the following text section accurately and concisely. Maintain specific details and numerical information, and use anti-repetition mechanisms:

        OceanofPDF. comAlso by Louise Hay
BOOKS/KIT
All Is W ell (with Mona Lisa Schulz, M. D. , Ph.
Life Loves You
What is the title of the book co-authored by Louise Hay and Robert Holden?
The book explores the idea that our thoughts and reflections in the mirror mirror our inner state, and that by changing our thoughts, we can change our life.
What is the main concept behind the book "Life Loves You"?
The book aims to help readers recognize the importance of self-love and self-acceptance, and how it can be achieved through the practice of mirror work.
What is the main purpose of the book "Life Loves You"?
Robert Holden
Who is the co-author of the book "Life Loves You"?
The book focuses on the idea that our thoughts and reflections in the mirror are a reflection of our self-image, and that by changing our thoughts, we can change our life.
What is the main theme of the book "Life Loves You"?