As I first read this book I was going through tremendous changes in my life. I was totally in a victim mode and if anyone ever told me that you have the power to change these circumstance of your life with in YOU. I would have punched them in the face. Yet, I had this book from my 2 day Heal Your Life® training and curiously I picked it not with the intention of reading but with just browsing through it. Once I picked it, I could not stop underlining and highlighting its pages. Every page feels like it is telling my story. Even after almost a decade it feels totally relevant and so relatable.
So here I am sharing this wonderful work with you as a study group where we can read it and learn from its wisdom. You get it right?
In this blog I wish to highlight what is so special about this book and how it can add value to you. So let’s dive in:
Part one: Becoming Conscious
As a kid I remember being haunted with this question about who am I? why am I here and what exactly am I doing here? As I could rarely relate to people around me, their stories of struggle and most importantly, I always believed in a power and presence higher than us. Why and how I could not explain as a kid but now as an adult I have every reason to say that it is true.
In this section Louise talks about taking responsibility (our ability to respond) vs. blaming others. Always having a choice and being in control of our own life. Now. This can really be very scary for people if you are used to others (always) telling you what to do. Yet, once you apply it you can feel a lot free and liberated as you take the steering wheel of your life in your own hands.
The next question is if I don’t follow others than who do I follow? Very simple. Your inner voice. Why? Because our true inner self is always connected to the supreme, higher energy. This is your true seat of intuition. It will also call out your ego. As it is a space of pure love, gentleness and compassion.
Next is understanding the law of mind which is very simple again like the law of cause and effect, So here the power of spoken words come to play. Here I am going to talk about making declarations, doing affirmation and creating a win-win life for you.
Changing our negative self-talk is very important as we were born in the world where people do not know how to love themselves leave alone loving their children or someone else. “Love” what we know in today’s world seem to be coming from a space of manipulation, some sort of condition and in some cases/ families it is totally missing. Now, when we grow up in such an environment we equate love with those same feelings of hurt, abandonment and worst of all abuse. A cycle is created and continues as patterns. For many spirits it can be karmic debris of many life times.
Hence, Now, It is all the more vital that we heal these old patterns and reprogram them. As we know, as a world, combined, we are all interconnected and we can no more afford the luxury of negative thinking.
I believe that the recent pandemic was one of the biggest lesson in showing us how connected we are as a world and now on again how threatening the brink of a war is.
How many centuries of suffering we need to learn a simple lesson in love? Is it not an important question to ask?
Part two: Dissolving barriers
This is my personal favourite and you will very soon know why, As in this section, Louise talks about the four kinds of negative or undesirable feelings that we encounter that can lead to damaging patterns in life and are directly connected to dis-eased condition in the body.
These are: Anger, fear, guilt and resentment (stored anger for a very long time). And of course there is also criticism. We all are habitual of one or more of these damaging patterns. The patterns or feelings when are not released in a healthy way, they start storing themselves in small pockets of the body.
Anger for example as a tightness of the jaw, clenching, shaking of hands and fists. Fear gets stored in the body usually in the stomach as a gut wrenching feeling. And a combination of anger and fear could be tightening in throat. Tense shoulders, pounding and racing heart. These subtle signs when ignored eventually turn into a denser pain as headaches, migraines, joint pains, neck, back and shoulder pains, muscle pain which eventually leads to conditions like tumours, autoimmune disorders, heart diseases etc.
Our bodies are wonderful feedback devices, if only we listen to it. But since we were never taught on how to deal with difficult feelings, now we make extra budget on mental health training for schools and organisations and there also we only talk about walk in the park, doing yoga with your dog and salt water baths. While all these things are wonderful to do if only we are ready to look within our inner world.
Our feelings and emotions are as real as our head and heart in our body and they need some serious attention and dealings. The good news is since they occurs at a subtle level. They can be dealt at that level only. They are not required to be dealt by medicine or worst of all surgeries.
Feelings that make you angry when left unattended can turn into resentment which again when left unattended can eat away the body in form of tumour and cancer and then we think we need surgery to remove it. While in most cases the tissues can be removed yet they reappear only as a reminder that you need to work on yourself. Most people and the surgeons miss the message. And continue to look outside themselves for their health and recovery. They never make it a point to connect to the higher power within themselves.
In this book, Louise brilliantly and generously shares her story of healing from cancer. And this story has helped me to come out of a degenerative neurological condition called- multiple sclerosis.
Part three: Loving yourself
I was totally sold to this idea at once. As love for me was pretty much how I had seen it in the movies, especially Bollywood. Yet, when I truly understood (and still doing it) this concept, I realised it was much deeper than the cheap thrills shown in the movies.
Once you develop true love for yourself you never abandon or berate yourself. You stand in your own calmness and centeredness even in the face of adversities. Your self-esteem and confidence is skyrocketing. And when you truly love yourself it is easy for you to demonstrate that to others. Set boundaries for how you would like to be treated. You will never settle for friends who manipulate you, jobs that exploit you, relationships that are unfulfilling in any way and you are never reckless with your money.
In this part Louise talks about not one not five but ten different ways to love yourself. Yes that is how deep this particular area is. To learn little more about it read on my blog
I was once told by a well-meaning colleague that self-love alone cannot feed people. Well, after years of working with this philosophy I can safely say that it can not only feed you but can take care of your mental, emotional and spiritual needs and well-being too.
My final thoughts on self- love, is that it can add a breath of fresh air into an stagnant and stale life where nothing seems to move or when you have started accepting things as they are! You will be in for a lot of delightful surprises if you just followed this practice.
I first learned the concept of inner child in my two day heal your life workshop. It is one of the core issues we all have and yet we know very little about it. For me, It was scary at first and I could not open up my heart. No wonder I had so much, trauma, pain and grief which was all bottled up.
So here the idea is that, no matter how old we are we still have a little child inside of us and every age that we have lived is inside of us within our consciousness and memory. These little parts of us have unfulfilled needs like love and acceptance because instead of that unconditional love what we got was criticism, abandonment, judgement and in some cases downright abuse. This child develops various dysfunctional ways of coping with its surrounding like pleasing other, blaming as a rebel, becoming complacent and totally unconnected and cut off from the surrounding.
Now, no matter whatever your response to your childhood trauma is YOU, as an adult can totally learn to love yourself and all the parts of you. This is a very emotional experience for most people. Emotions are the subtle signs that is the gateway to our healing. Bottling up our emotions will keep us stuck. And yes, not just for this lifetime but many life times. And then we wonder what is with the brick wall of limitations? Why life is unfair, hard and so full of struggle?
Many people feel particular animosity towards their parents as they grow up. Teenagers in particular describe their feelings as: trapped, judged watched and misunderstood. As parents, we have all the good intention of treating our children differently but unconsciously we end up creating the same loop. Because we have not worked on our own issues and the power-struggle game with our parents and children seems to continue.
Our parents out of all people need our love and forgiveness and our children can only learn from our actions. So you see, nothing lies outside of you.
Part Four: Applying your inner wisdom
While we can read all the wonderful books, watch all the videos on self- improvement and yet if we do not apply that knowledge it will keep us stuck.
Money seems to be one of the biggest challenges for a lot of people and surprisingly it has nothing to do with the amount of money you make or have. It is totally the projection of your consciousness (thoughts, feeling and actions). The spiritual world is abundant and whole. Yet, in this material world we seek more and more. Somehow, over the years as a result of global invasions, wars and colonisations many countries and cultures were drawn to a point of just merely surviving. These ideas are still endorsed today though it is only a fear based thought.
Our Fear is designed to protect us in this world. Fearful thoughts can totally cut us off from the abundant supply of the universe and trust in life itself. Believe it or not, the one higher and supreme power who can take care of the tiniest of the grass in the wild will definitely take care of you if you tap into this divine intelligence and surrender.
To learn more about how fear can paralyse us read on https://www.intuitivewizdom.com/post/the-f-word
Another touchy topic for many could be relationships. Louise describes them as a mirror of our own treatment to self. Again, if you have known love as conditional, you have sentenced yourself to a vaguely understood void of loneliness and emptiness. Which can never be fulfilled by anyone out there. Unless, YOU give YOURSELF that very love which you so long for.
Usually our work serves as an expression of our creativity. While most people treat their jobs as something they do only to pay the bills then they are bound to feel frustrated. If you don’t do what you love, you will never find your meaning or purpose. Sometimes, we genuinely don’t know what we want and that’s ok. You can work on releasing what you don’t want so that there is space created for new delightful experiences and opportunities to flow in. Opening yourself up to many sources of income can lift a huge pressure off and even helps in nourishing the spirit through various avenues of creativity.
Over the years I have found that competition and comparison can really diminish and dampen our spirit. While some people especially the business owners and corporates think that it is healthy. Yet it is not. Can apples ever be compared to peaches and pears leave alone oranges and pineapples.
Even nature has never created two same ice flakes how can it ever create two similar people who can be compared? We are all unique and the sooner we embrace our uniqueness the greater it will be for our own good. To know about the criticism and comparison trap read on
Here I would also like to write about limitations and confess something. As a child and even now when things tend to not work out, Instead of visualising the worst possible outcome I usually play a wonderful movie of possibilities. And usually it gets better than what it was. Obviously, at time I did not know what I was doing but today I can totally claim that I was using the power of visualisation for my advantage. And it is amazing how it still works.
Limitations are usually in our minds. As a kid, I remember passing by a deserted looking house. And had heard rumours that it was haunted. I would not even look at it. I was so petrified. And yet one day on my way back from school I saw its door was open and was tempted to peep inside. As I did that, I found out that it was some sort of a store-house for construction material and there was a female dog who had given birth to many puppies. As I crossed the limitation of “haunted” set by others, my one decision and action gave a huge boost to my self- esteem and I found new wonderful puppy friends who would follow me around and were a delight to play with.
So how are YOU limiting yourself? Not the right age, not the right sex? Too tall, too small, too old..?
Part five: Letting Go of the past
This is a big one right? Tell me it is. Yes. It is I agree absolutely.
Here the word change stands out like a scarecrow in the paddy field. And we want other people to do it. We feel if only others could change my life would have been much better. Yet, If we take this courageous leap we free ourselves from the bondage of loneliness, pain, anger, isolation and a sense of separation. We are free to create a life that is filled with wonderful peacefulness and a state of knowingness and trust that everything will be alright.
Another question to ask ourselves is do I really want to change? Or do I continue with the cycle of worry, complain and lack? Louise expresses many times that YOU are the only thinker in your mind. You get to decide in which direction the boat of your life will sail. Stop saying aye aye captain to others. As who you chose to be will dictate the terms of your life and not what others say or think.
To maintain your inner peace it is very important to connect with like minded people. People like people who are like them. Spirituality connects all of us at a spirit level. It also helps us go through life with ease. We feel stressed when we react in a fearful way to life’s constant changes.
No matter what the outside changes are we are always safe. Because we come to this planet many times and when we come our soul-spirit has already decided what lessons it wants to learn. Our bodies are constantly changing so is the environment around us. Resistance to change will only create more stress and struggle.
And in this final part Louise talks about meditation. It is the highest means known to us as it gives us an opportunity through a simple tool to connect with the Supreme power and connecting everyone through peace.
I find this concept quite powerful and easily applicable. We are in a virtual world and now we can totally be at any place and connect with anyone with just a click of a button and stable network so why not use our mind to connect with like-minded people and create more peace, joy and abundance? And why not use the power of meditation to connect with the supreme?
The tools for transformation are available; are you ready to use them? Are you ready to use the power within you?
I am conducting a 5 week Study Course on "The Power is within YOU" starting Saturday, 9th July 2022. To know more about the course and registration, please click here: The Power is within You study group
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