Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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100 of 107 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Psychological Side of Healing, November 4, 2008
You Can Heal Your Life (Gift Edition) is all about using your thoughts to fix the problems in your life. What kind of problems? Well, the book specifically looks into healing some pretty major life areas: relationships, work, success, prosperity, and your body. But wait a minute, did I say the book is using thoughts to heal your body? What's up with that? Is that even possible? Well, after reading this book, I think in many cases, yes, it is possible.
While I think it is the way to go to treat things such as an acute appendicitis with surgery, fractures with a cast, and pneumonia with antibiotics, there are many conditions where conventional medicine blatently falls short. Of course I'm talking about health problems such as migraines, backaches, or stomach ulcers- you know, those kinds of nagging disorders where we all know that stress/mental processes DO play a role. But while few would argue that psychological factors can cause an ulcer, what about more serious conditions such as, say, arthritis?
Well it may not be too far fetched. Consider this. One study of 1,198 subjects found that only 56% of men with SEVERE knee arthritis had any pain (Lawrence 1966). Another study X-rayed 84 seventy-nine year-olds and 76 eighty-five year-olds and found that only 43% of them with SEVERE knee arthritis had any pain complaints (Bagge 1991). There are plenty more examples in the scientific literature, but obviously there two alone show us that there is NO clear-cut association between severe knee arthritis and pain.
ON THE OTHER HAND, when one looks at the relationship between psychological variables and knee arthritis, one does see a clear association. For instance, one study looked at 65 patients (ages 55 to 87) with hip and/or knee arthritis. X-rays, pain, depression levels, anxiety levels, coping styles, and functional impairment were all assessed. The findings? Researchers discovered that the severity of one's arthritis showed little relationship to pain, BUT, psychological variables were strong predictors of who had pain and how impaired they were (Summers 1988).
Along the same lines, Salaffi examined 61 women (ages 51-79) with knee arthritis. Here again, results showed that how disabled someone was, was more related to psychological variables than how bad their knee looked on an X-ray film. Interestingly, both anxiety and depression WERE important predictors of pain (Salaffi 1991). Any one conducting a literature review on Medline will find more such examples IF you're looking for them. While I used knee arthritis as an example, there are MANY more studies on other health problems with similar findings.
All of this should be causing us to raise an eyebrow. The literature is telling us that it is far from being clear cut that things like bad knee arthritis ALWAYS mean pain. And the research is also giving us clues that the mind and our thought processes definitely play a role. So the question now becomes, if bad thought patterns can play a role in health problems such as arthritis, why not in other diseases such as cancer, as the book suggests?
You be the judge. I found that the main value in this book was getting me to look at how our thinking does influence the functioning of our bodies- as well as our life in general. Note that I'm NOT saying that you can think yourself well all the time either.
Remember that while Louise Hay did change her thought patterns and was cured of cancer, she has also written that she used other alternative treatments as well, such as foot reflexology and colon therapy (Chapter 16). Therefore, my advice is to look at ALL the options when dealing with a health problem, one MAJOR one being changing your mental patterns (which is the what the book does a nice job of addressing). And for this reason, I can recommend this book to anyone who needs physical healing or otherwise. Other alternative healing books of interest include The Divided Mind: The Epidemic of Mindbody Disorders and The 5-Minute Plantar Fasciitis Solution. Thank you Louise Hay!
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487 of 555 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
This Book Saved My Life, December 21, 1999
Louise Hay has been there and done that and this is evidenced by the content of her book. When I first bought a copy of You Can Heal Her Life, I read the first 2 chapters, and put the book down. I was angry because Ms Hay was telling me like it was, and I didn't want to hear the truth. I didn't want to look at myself and take responsibility for my life and my happiness and my health. I wanted to be told that My situation was beyond my control. A couple of years later, I picked up that copy of You Can Heal Your Life, ready to read it and hear the truth that saved Ms Hay's life, years before. As I worked through the exercises and started practicing the affirmations in the way Ms Hay instructed, I literally began to heal my life of suicidal depression, kidney disfunction, arthritis, and the hurt of child sexual abuse, as well as a slew of other problems. A miracle happened. I started to become happy. Since this time, I have continued to use the mirror exercises and affirmations that she describes, and continued to work to change my thought patterns. As a result of this, my attitudes have changed, and I have become a much more positive, optimistic person. Everything that I need in life seems to come to me as I need it. I used to get sick with great regularity, catching everything whether it was a common disease/disorder or not, and I rarely get sick or become injured now. I am happy almost every day and am seeing my dreams come true. The last 10 years, since I read You Can Heal Your Life for the first time, have been a wonderous journey, and I wouldn't trade it for anything. While I did the work, I owe a debt of gratitude to Louise Hay for writing and marketing this book so that her message could reach me and countless others. I have seen the same kind of results in almost a dozen other people who have read You Can Heal Your Life. There is a better way, and this is it. Give it a try, you're worth it! Love and Peace!
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43 of 50 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Truly a beautiful book that comes from an honest heartfelt, December 7, 2001
Truly a beautiful book that comes from an honest heartfelt place. The book is artistically beautiful yet has depth and soul. It would be hard for anyone to pick this up and not want to look deep into the pages.I bought a copy for myself and then purchased several other copies for gifts. It is about life and about creating the life that you want in spite of the obstacles set before us. Truly beautiful and rich in soul. You will be inspired by this book - I was!
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