March 26, 2023--Volume 4 Number 3 | |
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JUST WHO DO WE THINK WE ARE?
Exploring Past Life Stories, The Power of Our Thoughts, and What Happens When We Die
Shari Harris, Certified Infinite Possibilities Trainer
www.shari-harris.com
We are more than our current physical bodies and circumstances!
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Just Who Do We Think We Are?
Louise Hay Says...
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"Life is really very simple. What we give out, we get back. What we think about ourselves becomes the truth for us. I believe that everyone, myself included, is responsible for everything in our lives, the best and the worst. Every thought we think is creating our future. Each one of us creates our experiences by our thoughts and our feelings. The thoughts we think and the words we speak create our experiences.
We create the situations, and then we give our power away by blaming the other person for our frustration. No person, no place, and no thing has any power over us, for 'we' are the only thinkers in [our mind.] When we create peace and harmony and balance in our minds, we will find it in our lives."
Louise Hay, You Can Heal Your Life, p. 1
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Through Louise’s healing techniques and positive philosophy,
millions have learned to create more of what they want in their lives–
more wellness in their bodies, minds, and spirits.
www.louisehay.com/about
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I have been following Louise Hay's work and trying to practice her principles for many years. I love her advice regarding affirmations and have found them to be especially valuable in helping to keep my thoughts and beliefs positive. I'll try to summarize her teaching about affirmations below. The statements quoted are from her book, You Can Heal Your Life.
"What you put your attention on grows and becomes permanent in your life. Move away from the negative and put your attention on what it is that you really do want to be or have." (p.76)
Hay tells us on p. 33 that "Whatever we believe comes true for us." And beliefs are merely thoughts that we think over and over. Hay teaches that "it's just a thought, and thoughts can be changed." (p. 5)
"If we want a joyous life, we must think joyous thoughts. If we want a prosperous life, we must think prosperous thoughts. If we want a loving life, we must think loving thoughts. Whatever we send out mentally or verbally will come back to us in like form." (p. 36)
Hay teaches that a good way to train our minds to think positively is to use affirmations. I know that sometimes it is difficult to understand how saying affirmations can help us if we don't really believe they are true. We may feel that we're lying to ourselves. But when we understand that by using affirmations daily we are programming our subconscious to eventually change negative beliefs into positive ones, we can see that we are planting seeds for growth.
We can monitor our self-talk as well as our speech--what we say to others. Instead of thinking, for instance, "I don't want to be fat." We can begin to program our minds by saying "I am slender." Instead of thinking about not wanting to be broke, we can say, "I am prosperous." Hay emphasizes that affirmations must be stated in the present tense; otherwise, if you state a future tense, the idea will always be in the future--"just beyond your reach." (p.76)
Hay goes further to teach that our negative thoughts, such as resentment, guilt, blame, hatred, and un-forgiveness will eventually affect our health and lead to dis-ease. Her primary teaching is about loving ourselves. She writes, "I find that when we really love and accept and APPROVE OF OURSELVES EXACTLY AS WE ARE, then everything in life works."
You Can Heal Your Life is a great handbook for living a healthy, abundant, and creative life. I hope you enjoy reading about Louise Hay, and, if so inclined, read her book.
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Be well and enjoy your amazing life!
Sending my love,
Shari
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Are Affirmations "Fake Positivity"?
Shari Harris
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During a discussion, I heard someone say this:
“We have many feelings and we need to feel all feelings, not just fake positivity.”
I had to clarify to myself my feelings about using positive affirmations. Are they "fake positivity?" Is it faulty thinking to avoid negative thoughts? Are we using an escape by not focusing on our negative feelings? I came to the following conclusions.
I think it is necessary to feel our negative emotions--for a time--but to not let ourselves get stuck there. As soon as we turn our thoughts to changing whatever is causing the negativity, finding solutions to problems, we have become positive. Thoughts of solutions are positive thinking.
My belief: There is "contrast" on earth (good vs bad) so when we find things or have experiences that we don't want, it will spark a desire in us to find what we do want. We can then pivot to thinking positively about what we do want.
Our emotions are the GPS for our relationship to our Source, our higher self, and our purpose on earth. When we are on the right path, we feel good. When we experience feelings of anger, discontent, shame, suspicion, distrust, contempt, jealousy, etc., it is a sign that we are traveling off the route to our desired destination.
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When we focus our thoughts on what we do want—the positive--the Universe begins to manifest that. If we stay with thoughts about what we do not want, what's wrong with the world or me, the Universe matches those thoughts and brings us more of the same.
The best thing we can do for the world is to use our feelings to guide us toward what we desire. We can be a source of joy in the world, an example of joy and positive living. You cannot help someone else experience joy by being sad or depressed. You cannot help others get well by being sick. You cannot help someone be financially stable by being poor. You show the way by being happy, healthy, and abundant.
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Two of Louise Hay's Basic Tenets
from You Can Heal Your Life
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The Point of Power is Always in the Present Moment. | |
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Louise Hay writes that everything we've experienced in our lives (as adults) has been created by our thoughts and beliefs that we've held in the past--yesterday, last week, years ago. But the past is over. What is important is what we choose to think and believe right now. Today, this minute is the only time that our thoughts can inform our future. That's why the present moment is called "the point of power." Hay teaches that we can monitor our current thoughts and beliefs in order to create a more positive future. She reminds us that we are the only thinkers in our mind, and she believes that our mind is what creates our future. Therefore, affirmations and vision boards (pictures of what we want to have or experience in our future) will help us remember to not focus on what we don't want. (p. 4) Put another way, this is the Law of Attraction that many, many New Age teachers advocate.
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The Only Thing We Are Ever Dealing With Is a Thought, and a Thought Can Be Changed. | |
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Our beliefs come from our thoughts. Beliefs are just thoughts that we think over and over until we believe them. They may have come from our parents, our teachers, or our church in the first place. Or someone may have told us we were not smart or we were ugly or couldn't sing or dance. Or that money doesn't grow on trees and is hard to come by. Or that the world is a dangerous place. And subconsciously we believed them and those thoughts have influenced us all of our lives. But Hay teaches that we don't have to believe those thoughts anymore. We don't have to remain stuck in past pain. We can change our thinking into thoughts that benefit us.
Hay writes, "The past has no power over us. It doesn't matter how long we have had a negative pattern. The point of power is in the present moment. What a wonderful thing to realize! We can begin to be free in this moment!" (p.5)
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About Louise Hay
1926-2017
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During her life, Louise Hay became a beacon of hope for thousands, if not millions, of people, especially during the AIDS crisis when she counseled young gay men with HIV/AIDS in Los Angeles, a group she called "The Hayride." She began in 1985 with six men in her living room, and before long the weekly meetings were held in a large auditorium in West Hollywood to accommodate 800 men.
Hay overcame a traumatic childhood to become a counselor, a teacher of metaphysical concepts, writer, and founder of Hay House, Inc., (www.hayhouse.com) a publishing company focused on supporting other authors with clear messages of "who we are on the spiritual pathway."
Having experienced physical and sexual abuse, a long separation from her mother, an abusive step-father, and an out-of-wedlock baby at sixteen which she gave up for adoption, Hay ran away from home to Chicago and then New York City as a teenager.
She harbored self-doubt and low self-esteem. Her early years of experiencing violence, combined with her sense of worthlessness, attracted men into her life who mistreated her, including her first husband.
She eventually became a model in NYC, and as she gained success, her self-worth began to improve, and she was able to leave abusive men behind. She eventually married a kind second husband, a wealthy businessman. However, after fourteen years, the marriage dissolved because her husband wanted to marry someone else.
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Hay found safe-haven in a church, The Church of Religious Science. She began attending their metaphysical classes, and three years later, she was able to become a speaker, teacher, and counselor sharing the concepts of their teaching. She traveled throughout the United States, lecturing and facilitating workshops on loving ourselves and healing our lives.
As this became her full-time job, she put together a little "blue book," a reference guide detailing probable mental causes of physical ailments. She developed and taught positive thought patterns for reversing illness and creating health.
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These concepts eventually became the basis of her teaching and her best-selling book, You Can Heal Your Life, first published in 1984. It has since been translated into 25 languages in 33 countries.
When Hay was later diagnosed with cancer, she was determined to use the ideas and tools she had been teaching to heal herself. She wrote:
"After all, I had written the book on mental patterns, and I knew cancer was a dis-ease of deep resentment that has been held for a long time until it literally eats away at the body. I had a lot of work to do!" (You Can Heal Your Life, p. 219)
She delayed surgery, and after six months of using the healing techniques, her doctors determined she was cancer free. She had proved to herself that changing the mental patterns can change the course of the dis-ease.
An index in You Can Heal Your Life contains an extensive list of health problems and probable mental patterns that contribute to them, as well as new thought patterns (affirmations) that will help to alleviate the conditions.
Don't get me wrong! I don't advocate not seeking medical help for illnesses, but I believe that using affirmations to change negative mental patterns will help as well and can be a tool to keep dis-eases from returning. (Shari)
www.louisehay.com
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There are many videos of Louise Hay on YouTube.com. Most of them are an hour or more in length. I found a short three-minute video to include here to give you an idea of her manner of teaching. I encourage you to search YouTube.com for others if you want to hear more. | |
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"Self-approval and self- acceptance in the now are the main keys to positive changes in every area of our lives."
"Loving the self, to me, begins with never ever criticizing ourselves for anything."
Louise Hay, You Can Heal Your Life, p. 9
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AFFIRMATIONS
Seeds for Growth
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"Affirmations are inspirational, positive statements you say or think about yourself. Saying daily affirmations helps reprogram our negative self-talk so we can manifest more positive thinking, feeling and experiences in our lives."
www.healyourlife.com
I love and approve of myself.
Whatever I need to know is revealed to me.
Whatever I need comes to me with perfect timing.
I trust the process of life to bring me my highest good.
I am in the process of positive changes.
I am willing to change my negative thinking.
I deserve the best, and I accept it now.
I am safe. I am at peace with life.
I easily release the old and welcome the new in my life.
I am wise, and I make wise decisions.
I give myself permission to have all the things that I desire.
My heart is always open and I radiate love.
I am living a long, long, long, happy, happy, happy, healthy, healthy, healthy life.
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You can purchase Louise Hay's Power Thought Cards to help with daily affirmations. | |
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Just Who Do We Think We Are?
Shari Says...
I believe we are eternal spiritual beings who are currently
living one of our many lives on Earth and who are the co-creators
of our experiences through our thoughts and beliefs.
Shari Harris
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I LOVE TO SEND YOU MORE GOOD NEWS!
Good things are happening in the world that we may not have heard about! Shari
From the March 17 Newsletter
107 countries around the world now provide paid parental leave for fathers. Back in the 1990s, only 46 countries had a paid leave policies for fathers, largely high-income nations. "There is widespread recognition that we don't solve gender equality without dads getting leave." Axios
It looks like the United States might have turned the corner on one of its biggest social and health problems - drug overdoses. Recent data from the CDC is showing a sustained dip in overdose deaths as of September 2022, down 7.2% from the peak reached in February 2022. Its still too early to celebrate, but it's the first bit of good news we've seen on this issue in a long time.
In the last three months humanity has made some big strides towards protecting life on Planet Earth. Following COP15 in December and the High Seas treaty last week, and with UN negotiations on plastics pollution in progress, countries finally have a clear action plan to deal with the three planetary crises of our time: the climate emergency, biodiversity loss and pollution. Guardian
The Vjosa River in Albania, home to more than 1,000 animal and plant species, has been declared a national park. For years, its fragile ecosystem was under threat: at one point as many as 45 hydro projects were planned across its length. But earlier this week, after a decade-long campaign by environmentalists, it was declared the first wild river national park in Europe. Guardian
The final horn has sounded for one of Scotland’s oldest fox hunts, with new animal rights legislation ending 252 years of the cruel tradition. The Hunting with Dogs bill, which was passed in January 2023 and came into effect last week, outlaws hunting and killing wild mammals using packs of dogs. CNN
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About Future Crunch: "We are a team of science communicators based in Melbourne, Australia. We curate stories of good news, mind-blowing science, human progress, and we support small charities using science and technology to make the world a better place. More than 40,000 people subscribe to our free, fortnightly email newsletter." (https://futurecrun.ch/). There is also an in-depth subscription newsletter. | |
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If this "Good-News-Letter" inspires anyone to look into the law of attraction or past lives or what happens when we die, I will be satisfied because I am convinced that these are all profound truths: that our thoughts and beliefs influence the things and events of our lives, that we live many lives, and that in-between our lives, we rest, study, learn and plan our purpose for our next life.
For me, these ideas are "good news" and help to answer universal questions about why we are here. Please take what resonates with you and leave the rest. Shari
Feel free to forward this free newsletter to friends who may be interested!
Others are welcome to sign up.
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