Empowering Women with Louise L Hay

Empowering Women

Louise L. Hay

1997, Hodder

Louise L. Hay is a metaphysical lecturer and teacher and the bestselling author of so many amazing books.  She has founded Hay House publishing which publishes masses of personal development and spiritual books and Hay House radio which is an internet based radio show that features radio programs with her most popular authors.  Any one who has decided to start reading about personal growth would have come across Louise at some point.

Louise is infamous for her use of mirror work and affirmations to help people to change their subconscious thoughts and to re-write the negative self talk that we so often have running through our minds.  

Louise describes Empowering women as a book to help women reach their full potential.  She has used all of her tried and true basic methods and added many new ideas to help her on this mission.

Louise starts by taking us through the programming that women have been subjected to in the past and which still haunts us to this day.  By highlighting some of these old beliefs Louise really throws the light on them and enables the reader to understand some of the beliefs that may be holding women back.  Louise also takes some time going through the messages that advertising is sending to modern day women and again throws light on some of these potentially stifling beliefs.

From here we move into the crux of the book which is basically a step by step guide to changing your beliefs and turning your self talk into positive self talk.  As Louise says 

".....my belief is that the thoughts we think, the words we speak, and the beliefs we hold are very powerful.  They shape our experiences and our lives.  It is almost as if every time we think a thought or speak a word, the Universe is listening and responding to us.  So if there is something in our life that we do not, then we have the power to make changes."

Louise doesn't just talk the talk either, every tool that she uses and every thing she teaches us comes from the intense struggle that she has faced from a difficult childhood which included incest and the subsequent course of her life that has taken her from being a "bitter, fearful, poor, negative woman."  To being the positive powerhouse that she is today.

The book talks about parenting to ensure we do not repeat the same conditioning of the past, Creating Your Own Good Health (a specialty subject of Louise's for more info see You Can Heal Your Life), Exploring Sexuality, Sexual Harassment  Getting Older and finishes the book off with book with amazing Australian based resources for women and a recommendation of more books to read on the subject.

Now I know what you're probably thinking.  This book is for man haters or for women who are clearly down trodden by the men in their life and living the old stereo types.  Both simply aren't true.  Louise says quite clearly that lifting up women is not about bringing down men as we have both played a part in getting us to this current situation.  It is also most definitely an eye opening read for all women as some of this conditioning is so ingrained that I think most of us have no idea it's even there.  

This book will make big changes for any woman who is looking to increasing her own self esteem and self belief and is willing to take responsibility for their life where it is right now and go through the tough process of rebuilding their own self talk.  The work is confronting and difficult but if you stick through it you should find that you are rewarded with a life you can be proud of. I'll leave you with the book's last statement to help you decide if it's something you're willing to work for.

"Inside of you is a smart, powerful, dynamic, capable, self-confident, alive, alert, fabulous woman.  Let her come out and play.  The world is waiting for you."

So what do I want?

I have so many ideas on what I want to start working on, what I want to share with you, challenges I want to take it that it can seem a little overwhelming to work out where to start.  I am a believer in the law of attraction which has been in discussion since the beginning of last century and that was made famous in Rhonda Byrne's movie and subsequent book The Secret and so to me it made sense to start with working out exactly what it is that I do want.  Then have a look at what is in my life that is in my life that is not helping to get to where I want to go

There are many ways that you can go about sorting through what it is that you want.  You can write lists, writing specific goals for each item, you can talk about it with a friend or you can work with images.  Working with images is definitely my preferred option as the Law of Attraction states simply that "like attracts like" and so by focusing on positive things you receive positive things and likewise for the negative.  Having visual images of those things that you do want in your life readily visible to you each and every day means that you will be focusing on those positive images continually which will help to bring these things closer to you.

Even if you don't believe in the law of attraction to me it still makes sense to have these visual images close to hand as the more you think about something the more you start to notice things that are linked to it everywhere you go.  Take buying a car for example, once you have started the thought process of buying a new car, you will start to notice more new car advertisements and pay ore attention to what the people around you are driving.  

Another example you could use if you still don't buy into this is to think of the colour yellow.  Now that you're thinking about it you're seeing yellow everywhere.  I bet two seconds ago you would have said that there wasn't much yellow around and now you can't stop finding it.  This I believe is what is at work when I create my vision boards.

A vision board really is nothing more than a collection of images of those things that you want to bring into your life.  Vision boards can take the form of a physical board like my own which is pictured above or you could do an electronic slideshow and have it as your screen saver.  Whatever way you tackle it the important thing is to make sure that it's in a position that means that you will see it as often as possible.

I myself have already successfully used a vision board to manifest the things that I desired into my life.  Things that I wouldn't have even considered possible but which started to manifest almost as soon as I had finished the board.  Through this vision board I was able to get a new home in the countryside, leave my job and study to become a personal trainer, then work as a trainer, start growing my own vegetables and most excitingly of all we were able to take a trip to France and Italy.  I wish I still had a picture of this board as it was powerful stuff!

So what's on my vision board this time around?  Studying yoga teaching, buddhism and ayurveda, a trip to India and a spa, health, laughter, plenty of meditation, healthy food and exercise, healing for both myself and to be able to heal others and to become a writer.  I have no doubt that these things are already on their way to me now.  We will talk more about taking those things out of our lives that don't support these desires in the coming weeks.

So tell me.  Are you keen to try a vision board?  If not what's holding you back?  Don't forget to follow the blog and keep up with what's happening.  You can now like the blog on facebook as well.

Your balance buddy

Renae X

P.S if you still need some convincing in regards to the effectiveness of vision boards why don't you do a search and have a look at the massive amounts of testimonials that come up.