New plan...

I keep forgetting that the purpose of the blog is not to repeat everything from the books... it is supposed to be my actions resulting from the books! After all the books should be read by you as every individual person gets books differently from others.

Like always I'm constantly changing my mind on how to attack the self help books. I guess I'm just too impatient to stick to one book till the end, so I thought to read a chapter a book one after the other. Keep things fresh so I don't get too bogged down with one author (no matter how good they are I always lose track of it half way through the book). I also get to see many different perspectives at once and also cover different topics that I am needing to follow.

As I had already read the first chapter of You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay, the next book chapters I have read since last night are:
*A very funny book called "The Absolutely Essential Penguin Guide to Etiquette" by Pat Lawson-Black & Tom Hazell. - How to behave in the mosh pit, on the mobile phone, and at Government House. 

First chapter covers Dealing with People, The Art of Conversation, The Eavesdrop, The ins and outs of service, Effective complaining, Attitude & the Gift.

Haven't had much of a chance to put it into practice yet, however I did put one tip into practice before reading thanks to advice from my mum. I got a quite inflammatory text from my ex who I need to be on good terms with for my kids. I am actually usually on good terms with him as he is a decent man. I was very angry and upset so I knew to call my mum first to calm myself down. She advised me to respond as the following tip from the book says:

 "Kindness and Courtesy are there own reward: The satisfaction is in knowing you have conducted yourself in an exemplary manner. Do It. It will make you feel good."

I answered with this in mind and his follow up texts were a lot more friendly and I felt calmer and more willing to see that while I disagreed, he did come from a place of caring.

*The other book is: WeightWatchers Healthy Parent Healthy Child by Karen Miller-Kovach - Simple rules for a healthy-weight home.

The first chapter mainly discussed BMI's and that it is best to take control of your child's weight while they are young as the longer they are overweight or at risk of being overweight the higher the risk they will have weight issues as adults.

Being overweight myself I know is not a good example to set for my children. I do have the extra difficulty of being on medication that makes it more difficult to lose weight, but not impossible. Unfortunately my son is on medication that is more extreme. His medication makes him hungry all the time and he has gone from a tiny thing that no matter what he ate stayed tiny, to a bigger boy. He already has enough difficulties in his life with his autism, I do not want that exacerbated by weight problems.

My daughter has a very healthy weight as she is a very serious dancer and also plays netball, however we do also need to pay a lot of attention to her diet due to the high amount of exercise she does and her huge growth spurt this year. We also need to pay attention to it due to her auditioning for a serious dance high school next year. While luckily they do not require the girls to be teeny tiny girls who look like they would fall over (would not send her there if they did), there is a body type she will need to fit mainly at this stage so she has the fitness and stamina to keep up with the high demand of the school. (Half their day is academic and the rest of the day till 5pm is dance - 5 days a week!)

I did learn that I must practice caution with focusing on healthy weights for children. It is best overall to try and maintain your child's weight as they grow. This will help them reach a healthier BMI without any risk to their growth.

Next book to read: Dale Carnegie's: How to Stop Worrying and Start Living

You Can Heal Your Life - Louise Hay Chapter One

First up I will be writing out the affirmations given in the chapters so they are easily accessible to myself. Affirmations need to be repeated often for belief patterns to change, but it's not always possible to remember the many affirmations you can do or remember to do them when you are slipping back into bad thought patterns.

While I may be putting many of the affirmations directly from the book, do not consider that this is all you need... you always need to read a book yourself to get the most from it.

"Everyone is always helpful"
 In the infinity of life where I am,
all is perfect, whole, and complete.
I believe in a power far greater than I am
that flows through me every moment of every day.
I open myself to the wisdom within, knowing that there is only One Intelligence in this Universe.
Out of this One Intelligence comes all the answers,
all the solutions, all the healings, all the new creations.
I trust this Power and Intelligence,
knowing that whatever I need to know is revealed to me,
and that whatever I need comes to me
in the right time, space, and sequence.
All is well in my world

Chapter One - What I Believe...

After reading this chapter I have realised that I do not truly believe I am deserving of much at all. I seem to be always unsuccessful at any job I do, unable to lose weight, unable to start a relationship, unable to keep a good home. Why do I do this? I really don't know. Louise says that we get into thought patterns that could be dating right back to when we were children. However we should not blame others. Holding on to resentments only causes us problems, forgiveness will set us free.

I grew up with a wonderful mum and dad, however my dad did die when I was only 9 after an illness of 2 years. I have had experiences though of feeling not good enough. I was the youngest in the family and was not treated as an adult for years after I became one - mainly because I was always just the little sister. At 35 I still feel alienated from some of my older siblings because of this. There is a definite age gap, however I get along very well with many friends who are the same age.

"The Universe Totally Supports Us in Every Thought We Choose to Think and Believe"
This is a very interesting thought. How else could it be that I never seem to get anywhere? I'm not stupid, I'm a nice, caring person. I should be successful in all my endeavours. I also need to remember:
"No person, no place, and no thing has any power over us, for "we" are the only thinkers in our mind".

I find it fascinating Louise's belief that we choose our parents based on what we need to learn or accomplish in this life. I love this belief and have adopted it as my own. It gives me great comfort to know that I have chosen this, so I should not waste the reason I am here... the time to work on my life's lesson is now.

The main issue is that like many I believe that I am not good enough... so it's not surprise that the universe will support me in this belief.  I also feel guilt, sadness, frustration, resentment and anger.

Many different things to look at.. the first steps are to love myself, forgive others for their actions:

"I forgive you for not being the way I wanted you to be. I forgive you and I set you free."

Also I need to approve of myself exactly as I am. Not how I think I should be by next year. Love myself for all that I am right now.

Do not blame others for how we have been or things in the past, I have the power to change my life myself, and do not blame or criticize myself.

I Can Do It.

I Can Do It

Well, it's been a while, obviously lost my flow again. However in the mean time I did go to the amazing seminar "I Can Do It" with many authors from Hay House speaking including the amazing Louise Hay herself. She is now 82 I think and she signed books for 2 hours!! When mine was signed I asked to hold her hand for a moment as I felt she would have that aura of peace around her that some amazing people have - and it was so true. I got an amazing feeling of love and acceptance.

I also got my book signed by Suzi Orman. In her lecture she asked us to think of an affirmation to believe we are financially successful. When she asked, I told her that my affirmation was to be financially successful to buy things for other people - she said "No, it is for you first and foremost then she actually didn't let me go until I repeated the affirmation that I was financially successful for my own benefit. She made me say it to her about 4 times! There were still people in the line behind me but she gave me that extra time to help me!

I ended up going a bit crazy and buying books from all the lecturers there, in some cases a number of books - so I have plenty to go through!

Everyone was so amazing and uplifting and had a wonderful message.

I have already read Louise's "You Can Heal Your Life". I will go back through it now. I think it is a good  idea to read a book through once then go back through chapter by chapter looking more closely. Gives you that much more ability to take it in on the second time. I will also be reading "You can heal your body", while discussing the former here so I can move on to discussing the latter straight after.