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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

Film Review: YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE, by Louise Hay

After watching Oprah one day (alright don't laugh just yet), Louise Hay was on and they discussed the new DVD version of her book, You Can Heal Your Life. I have not read the book, and much like I did in high school, I thought to watch the movie instead of reading the book. Besides, it is supposed to be about the law of attraction, so how could I resist?

The movie is a mix of an underlying story acted out by a lady who basically hates her life, and real interviews with Louise Hay and a variety of other life coaches and clients who have used her techniques to turn their life around whether it be physically or spiritually. Most of the examples are of physical healing in this movie. Louise Hay talks about how she used to be a model, then later got cancer and was able to heal it in great part to her own self-healing methods. Even though she is much older now you can tell she was probably very do-able when she was younger.

The main premise of this DVD is that daily affirmations, ie. "I love and accept myself", or "I am happy and healthy", actually work at the physical level. Basically, if you keep saying something, you can heal your mental or physical illness so long as what you are saying out loud is in alignment with what you hope to accomplish for yourself. It doesn't even matter if you don't believe it since Louise Hay believes that by planting the seed of hope within you, it will grow, and ultimately manifest itself in reality.

I remember when I used to watch Saturday Night Live they used to always have this ambiguously gay character named Stewart Smalley (sp?) who used to look in a mirror and say how much he loved himself and how much people loved him. He didn't believe a word of what he was saying and constantly broke down, much to the laughter of the audience. I myself used to think - what a load of crap these self-affirmations were.

I'm not sure what to believe these days. Anything is worth a shot. While I do not have any physical ailments, I did come out of this feeling a bit better. Well, I started off feeling bad since I couldn't believe I was trying to equate myself to the pathetic lady acting out a crappy life, but at the end of the day the message of positive thinking is what is important so in that regard, it was worth it.

To tell you the truth I'm open to anything and everything! This DVD was worth watching. I'm not sure I would pay $20 or $30 for it, but if you can buy a used copy from Amazon or Half.com or borrow it from a friend, then I recommend it. Whether affirmations work to bring what you want into your life will be for you to decide.

3 comments:

Hemal said...

Hi,
I've not fully seen this but I know a few people (with physiological challenges) who really loved this and found it helpful, it seemed to really fit for them

Anonymous said...

Good post. One thing that I think gets lost in the movie & on some of the TV appearances is that affirmations ALONE don't do it. They are one tool in the toolbox. It also takes facing what you're feeling and moving through it. Without looking at the dark side, just saying happy positive things is like putting ice cream on poop as they say - for a while it tastes good but then you're back at the poop.

My experience has been the affirmations are extremely powerful in conjunction with working on the source of the negative programming as well.

Anonymous said...

I couldn't agree with Paula G more. It's like Martha Beck said in one of her books - you can't move forward unless you figure out what your emotional wounds are (ie. baggage/issues you may have been carrying around for years). Forgive and try to move forward. I think it has a lot to do with your post on mental programming. Great post!