Create an Exceptional Life - Louise Hay and Cheryl Richardson

For many years one of my affirmations has been: Only good lies before me. It is a comforting thought that wipes out all fear of the future and allows me to wake up each day with confidence, feeling at ease. I am often delighted and even amazed to observe how Life brings my next good adventure to me.

That is how I felt when I heard that Reid Tracy, the CEO of Hay House, was cooking up a scheme to have Cheryl Richardson and me produce a book together. A huge smile lit up my face as the idea penetrated my consciousness with possibilities. 

At first, I had many questions: What would we write about? How would we blend our two styles? Since we live so far apart, would Life give us enough together time? But soon I realized that Life could not have come up with such a good idea without covering all the bases. And cover the bases it did. Cheryl and I found ourselves in various cities, both here and abroad, with the perfect amount of time to lay out the next chapter or two. And when we weren’t together, we would Skype—often in our pajamas, with our hair and makeup au naturel—and it was as if we were in the same room. 

Cheryl and I have both made phenomenally positive changes in our lives, and we want to share what we’ve learned with you. All of us can improve the quality of our lives if we practice the art of self-care and train our minds to think thoughts that make us feel good. When we do, we attract delightful experiences that enrich our lives. 

The idea Cheryl and I had was to present these methods in the easiest possible way so that you could, step-by-step, learn how to have peace of mind—to live worry free in a healthy body, with a comfortable income, while enjoying your relationships. Ultimately, we wanted to show you how to move from feeling like a victim to being the creator of an enjoyable life. 

As you read our new book, You Can Create an Exceptional Life, chapter by chapter, you will notice your shoulders relaxing, your brow lines smoothing out, and your tension and fearfulness dissolving as you realize that there is a better way to live. 

It is the journey that brings pleasure, not the race to a destination. We love you and support you as you move with us on this great new adventure toward an exceptional life! 

Let’s affirm: Only good lies before me. I can create an exceptional life.

Read More via healyourlife.com 

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Who Were You Meant to Be? - Cheryl Richardson

Everyday WISDOM

by Cheryl Richardson

Wise words from Louise Hay.

“My spiritual growth started when I was around 42,” Louise Hay began. “I had been married to a delightful Englishman who had given me the opportunity to learn the social graces, manners, and ways of operating in the world that had been missing from my childhood. I grew up in a violent family, and we never went anywhere or did anything. I ran away from home at 15, and while I did learn survival skills, I had no skills for living well in the world. So, when I married this man who was very worldly and had the best of manners, I learned a lot from him. We did all sorts of wonderful things together, and just as I was telling myself that good things can last and we’d probably be together forever, he told me he wanted a divorce. I was shattered.”

My goodness, that must have been awful, I told her.

“Yes. My husband was a prominent person, and our divorce was all over the newspapers. It was a very painful time because I immediately told myself, ‘See, once again, you can’t do anything right.’ But when I look back now, I see that the marriage was an important door that needed to close in order for me to move toward the next step on my pathway. If I had not been divorced, I would never have become this Louise Hay. Instead, I would have stayed the dutiful little English wife—a very good wife according to my concept of it, but not who I was meant to be. It was time for it to end.”

As I listened to Louise, I thought about the classic wake-up call, the often-abrupt and unexpected rupture that can occur in a comfortably numb life. I certainly had my share of these before I finally started to wake up—gut-wrenching heartbreaks, the shame of being fired from a job, and a real fire that destroyed our family business. In fact, it was that fire that ultimately brought me out of my deep sleep and planted me firmly on the spiritual path.

“It was a year later, after dealing with the loss of my marriage, that a new door opened,” Louise continued. “I had a friend who invited me to a lecture at a Church of Religious Science in New York. She asked me to join her because she didn’t want to go by herself. I agreed, but when I arrived, she wasn’t there. I was left to decide whether or not to attend by myself, and I decided to stay. So there I was, sitting in this lecture, when I heard someone say, ‘If you are willing to change your thinking, you can change your life.’ While it sounded like a small, tiny statement, it was huge to me. It caught my attention.”

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I asked her why she thought that was, and she admitted that she didn’t know. “I have no idea why it caught my attention because I was a person who never studied anything. I remember having a friend who kept trying to get me to go to the YWCA for classes, and I wasn’t interested. But something about this subject spoke to me at that time, and I made a decision to go back. I can now see the perfection in my friend not showing up. If she had, I probably would have had a different experience. You see, everything is perfect.”

Everything is perfect. When Louise said this, I realized that hearing that phrase is like hearing that everything happens for a reason. It’s a tough message to swallow when faced with tragedy or deep pain of any kind. But, by training ourselves to see the perfection in our most difficult moments—a perspective that, at first, can only be seen in hindsight—we learn to trust Life. We come to understand that, while we might not like a certain outcome, Life may be leading us in a new, more appropriate and beneficial direction.

Everything happens for a reason or Everything is perfect are beliefs born from a decision to see life as a schoolroom. When we choose to become a student of life who learns and grows from his or her experience, everything does, in fact, happen for a reason. In this way, we make our most difficult moments mean something by using them to our spiritual advantage.

Cheryl Richardson is the New York Times best-selling author of Take Time for Your Life, Life Makeovers, Stand Up for Your Life, and The Unmistakable Touch of Grace.

via healyourlife.com