Louise Hay - Empowering Women: A Guide to Loving Yourself, Breaking Rules, and Bringing Good into Your Life

Hay House Titles of Related Interest

YOU CAN HEAL YOUR LIFE, the movie,
starring Louise Hay & Friends
(available as a 1-DVD program, an expanded 2-DVD set, and an
online streaming video)
Learn more at www.hayhouse.com/louise-movie

THE SHIFT, the movie,
starring Dr. Wayne W. Dyer
(available as a 1-DVD program, an expanded 2-DVD set, and an
online streaming video)
Learn more at www.hayhouse.com/the-shift-movie

* * *

ECSTASY IS NECESSARY:
A Practical Guide, by Barbara Carrellas

LUCKY BITCH: A Guide for Exceptional Women to Create Outrageous
Success, by Denise Duffield-Thomas

PUSSY: A Reclamation, by Regena Thomashauer

RISE SISTER RISE: A Guide to Unleashing the Wise,
Wild Woman Within, by Rebecca Campbell

SECRETS & MYSTERIES:
The Glory and Pleasure of Being a Woman,
by Denise Linn

All of the above are available at your local bookstore, or may be ordered by contacting Hay House (see next page).

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Getting Started:
We Have Much to Do
and Much to Learn

I want to show you a perfect example of how women have been programmed in the past. This is an excerpt I came across from a 1950s high school home economics textbookreally!

1. Have dinner ready: Plan ahead, even the night before, to have a delicious meal on time. This is a way of letting him know that you have been thinking of him and are concerned about his needs. Most men are hungry when they come home, and the prospect of a good meal is part of the warm welcome they need.
2. Prepare yourself: Take 15 minutes to rest so that you will be refreshed when he arrives. Touch up your makeup, put a ribbon in your hair, and be fresh looking. He has just been with a lot of work-weary people. Be a little gay and a little more interesting. His boring day may need a lift.
3. Clear away the clutter: Make one last trip through the main part of the house just before your husband arrives, gathering up school books, toys, paper, etc. Then run a dust cloth over the tables. Your husband will feel he has reached a haven of rest and order, and it will give you a lift, too!
4. Prepare the children: Take a few minutes to wash the childrens hands and faces (if they are small), comb their hair, and if necessary, change their clothes. They are little treasures, and he would like to see them playing the part.
5. Minimize all noise: At the time of his arrival, eliminate all noise of the washer, dryer, dishwasher, or vacuum. Try to encourage the children to be quiet. Be happy to see him. Greet him with a warm smile, and be glad to see him.
6. Some donts: Dont greet him with problems or complaints. Dont complain if he is late for dinner. Count this as minor compared to what he might have gone through that day. Make him comfortable. Have him lean back in a comfortable chair or suggest that he lie down in the bedroom. Have a cool or warm drink ready for him. Arrange his pillow and offer to take off his shoes. Speak in a low, soft, soothing, and pleasant voice. Allow him to relax and unwind.
7. Listen to him: You have a dozen things to tell him, but the moment of his arrival is not the time. Let him talk first.
8. Make the evening his: Never complain if he does not take you out to dinner or to other pleasant entertainment. Instead, try to understand his world of strain and pressure, his need to unwind and relax.

There is nothing wrong with any of the above if that is what you want to do. But realize that almost all young women in those days were programmed to completely negate themselves in order to please their husbands. This was how a good woman was meant to behave. This was great for the men, not so great for the women. We women today are the ones who must rethink our lives. We can reinvent ourselves by learning to question everything, even those things that seem quite routine: cooking, cleaning, child care, running errands, chauffeuring. All the things we have done automatically for so long need to be reexamined. Do we want to live the rest of our lives as we have done before, with just a few pieces missing as time goes by?

Building up women does not mean having to diminish men. Male bashing is as bad as female harassment. We dont want to get into that. This kind of behavior keeps us all stuck, and I feel we have had quite enough of being stuck. Blaming ourselves or men or society for all the ills in our lives does nothing to heal the situation and only keeps us powerless. Blame is always a powerless act. The best thing we can do for the men in our world is to stop being victims and get our own acts together. Everybody respects someone with self-esteem.

I have great compassion for men and the difficulties they face as they move through life. They too are stuck in their roles and carry great burdens and enormous pressures. From childhood on, little boys are taught not to cry or to express emotions. They are taught to hold in their feelings. In my opinion, that is a form of child abuse and torture. Its no wonder that as adults, men express so much anger. In addition, most men regret the lack of a good relationship with their fathers. If you want to see a man cry, give him a safe environment and get him to talk about his father. Usually so much sadness comes up as men speak of all the unsaid things between them and how they wish their childhoods might have been different. How much they wanted to hear from their fathers that they were loved and valuable.

Women as a culture have been brainwashed into believing that in order to be good, we need to put everyone elses needs before our own. Many of us have lived our lives fulfilling the demands of what we