I read Austin Kleon’s book Steal Like An Artist recently. It’s a quick read – you could read it cover-to-cover in an evening – but it’s packed full of juicy wisdom.
My favourite insight is Austin’s theory that when people give you advice, they are really just talking to themselves in the past; their advice reveals their autobiography.
This struck me as a profound observation about human nature, and I’ve been wondering ever since what advice I might give to myself in the past that would tell the story of my life so far.
I came up with three things I’d share with past me:
1) If a doctor tells you there is nothing they can do for you, and you’ll just have to live with your condition/disease, take it upon yourself to find out if that is actually true.
Doctors are sometimes wrong. Do you know how I know that? I was given the “There’s Nothing We Can Do” speech by a doctor after spending several years going through a battery of tests, procedures, medication and surgery for an unknown disease.
I was gutted when I was told I’d have to get used to my sick body. I cried. A lot. But you know what? I decided to find out for myself whether it was actually true that my body would never get better. It wasn’t!
I used to feel that that doctor had done me a great injustice by turning me away, but I’ve come to look at it as the great blessing of my life. If I hadn’t been forced to look for healing outwith the established medical system, I would never have found the holistic therapies that made me whole again and that are now the basis of my career.
It is my hope that modern medicine will eventually embrace all forms of holistic therapy, so that perhaps instead of, “There’s Nothing We Can Do,” people might be told, “There’s More We Can Do.”
Here’s an inspiring example of a guy who was told he’d never walk unassisted again, and discovered the truth for himself.
2) Clear the junk you carry inside you
“We all have clutter in our hearts, and that’s what needs tidying.”
– Marie Kondo
When I was forced to look for alternatives to Western medicine for my healing, I learned about the mind-body connection: the inseparable nature of the mind and body and how they impact each other.
The truth was: I was sick for a reason and that reason was emotional rather than physiological in origin.
I was carrying a lot of “junk” around. In our culture, this junk is often referred to as “emotional baggage.” My inner junk consisted of past hurts, humiliations, unforgiveness, hatred, self-loathing, and regret. I’d often have imaginary conversations in my head with all the people I was angry with.
All this negative emotion created a lot of disturbance in my body so that, over time, my physical well-being suffered and I became ill.
Once I learned about the link between my mind and my body, I came to understand what I was doing to myself and set about clearing the junk I was dragging around.
Reiki helped me enormously and almost immediately. The day after attending my first Reiki workshop, I cried for hours in the staff toilets at work, releasing stifled tears I’d held back for years. (I once wrote an article about the healing power of tears.)
Julia Cameron’s “Morning Pages” also helped as a way to express my pain. All those imaginary angry conversations I’d have in my head? I wrote them down in my Morning Pages. I was surprised by how therapeutic that was.
And I made a conscious effort to turn my negative way of thinking around with the practice of affirmations, which I learned from Louise Hay. “I love and approve of myself,” was the one I used most often.
In one of my conversations with Malachor, after wondering how I could best be of service to others, he told me to create a “junk removal business.” I knew what he meant.
3) Follow Your Spirit
– Nantene
Last week we had a dinner guest at our house who asked how John and I met. Ah! I love telling that story and all the details: the past disappointments in love, the determination to find my soul-mate, the manifesting principles, the synchronicities, the guidance, and, of course, the moment we knew something magical was happening.
But the real story is what’s behind the details, which is the main piece of autobiographical advice I’d give to my past self.
The most important action you can take is to follow your spirit. You might instead call it your heart, or your intuition, or even God. It’s the inner leading, the inner wisdom, that “comes to you, through you, like a fountain.”
And in anticipation of any objections my past self may offer up about not knowing how to recognise our spirit, let alone know how to follow it, I’d simply tell myself to (re)read Conversations With God, Book 1. Pay attention to the Highest Thought, the Clearest Words, and the Grandest Feeling. The Highest Thought contains joy. The Clearest Words contain truth. The Grandest Feeling is love. Then I’d say, “Follow the Highest, Clearest, and Grandest and you won’t drift far from your spirit.”
Louise x
p.s. What autobiographical advice would you give your past self? I’m all ears!
p.p.s. If you liked this post, please share it with someone you care about.
