This book has been recommended to me by multiple people over the past few years. Though I had purchased it last year, it was only around 3 weeks back that I did start reading. The trigger was a video clip from a podcast where actress Vidya Balan spoke about how she faced hormonal imbalances and PCOD. One point she mentioned was that all hormonal imbalances (including PCOD) faced by women stem from thought patterns of rejection of the feminine nature. That's when she linked the concept of mind-body connection to this book.
As I flipped through the pages of this book, I came across a 60-page table that listed various physical ailments, the probable cause linked to our mind, thought or behavior, and affirmations for new thought patterns. I looked up some of the ailments and the causes that either I or my family members have faced in the past and it was such an eye-opener. And it made so much sense.
The philosophy behind this book can be summed up in these two lines:
"We are each responsible for all our experiences".
"Every thought we think is creating our future".
The author talks about how our thoughts are linked to our beliefs and how our beliefs are shaped by parents and childhood experiences. She emphasizes that the point of power is ALWAYS in the present moment and we can take charge of the thoughts we are thinking now that would shape our future.
She then provides a comprehensive process to unravel our thoughts, identify the source of our beliefs, understand our resistance, and then make the required change in our thinking patterns through affirmations, journaling, meditations, and mirror exercises.
There were a lot of interesting observations while I read the first section. For eg,
When we affirm "I approve of myself" in front of a mirror, those aspects that we don't approve of ourselves yet arise from our subconscious.
This line felt so relevant to me - "The more you dwell on what you don't want, the more of it you create". Louise states that affirmations are meant to focus on "What I want" in a positive tone and present tense, as they plant a seed in our subconscious to manifest.
The second section focuses on taking these ideas to practice in different areas of life - work, relationships, wealth, and body.
As I finished reading, 3 questions came up:
- If we are responsible for every experience, what about situations like childhood trauma, abuse, or loss of loved ones? Past-life actions(Karma) can be a possible explanation for the same but this isn't talked about in this book
- As we start to explore and work on each and every thought, we might end up in an analysis-paralysis state that could lead us to self-blame. There is a very fine line between self-acceptance and self-blame and too much analysis can make that line blurred.
- The correlation of physical ailment with the probable thought pattern can also be interpreted in reverse logic. What if I experience a certain negative thought now? If I know that this thought might lead to a certain ailment in the future, won't that cause fear? Won't that fear itself lead to planting the seed in the subconscious?
This book has some powerful ideas and practices that will help us understand our repeated patterns and behaviors. But I also feel that some part of it has to be taken with a pinch of salt.