I just watched the streaming online version of You Can Heal Your Life-The Movie and thought I would put down my initial thoughts.

First of all, I watched the movie version of The Secret a few years ago, and my first impressions feel much different and much more accepting after watching You Can Heal Your Life.  The most salient parts to The Secret were of a boy who was fixated on getting a new bike and a woman who got an expensive necklace. That is what I remember, and clearly that is why it rubbed me the wrong way.  It seemed to promote materialistic values and also felt a little hokey and wrong.  I ended up dismissing any positive messages or ideals I might have found from it because I felt the who basis was wrong.  In fact, the DVD was sent to me by a man who was trying to recruit me for some business scheme, so surely he sent it so I would jump on the "you can make millions too if you just believe it" bandwagon.  It wasn't for me.

The most poignant thing about You Can Heal Your Life-The Movie:Standard to me was the introduction and subsequent following of the "journey woman."  It shows a woman in her car, stuck in traffic, late for work.  You hear her thoughts, which of course, are awful.  Everything is terrible, she is a loser, of course these things are happening to her because they always do.  Nothing will ever change because it just won't, it has always been this way and always will be.

In writing this, and probably in reading it, it sounds perhaps a bit silly that anyone would fill their head saying these things to themselves constantly. However, I completely heard myself when I listened to that woman.  As I have started to slow down my thinking and hear what I have actually been saying to myself, I know I have been saying over and over "You suck." "You are a loser." "There is no way out."  I even say it out loud to my kids:  "I am a loser mommy."  Before I started listening in earnest to what I was telling myself, I don't think I realized I was trashing myself that badly.

The movie follows this woman on her journey (which is really just a walk in some pretty beautiful locations - as I look out my window at the London rain, I sure would like to be walking in that sunny prairie right now!) in between hearing the Hay House authors share their stories and espouse their ideals. You hear the woman vacillate between "I can't do that, my family will think I am nuts" and saying the affirmations, to "its not working, why isn't it working, there is no point in trying anymore, I am just going to sit here from now on," to "this is my life, this is really my life, and it is good."

I liked this, because it acknowledges all the things that go through my head as I work to incorporate these ideas into my life.  I hear Stewart Smiley sometimes, from Saturday Night Live, and wonder if this is all just a joke.  I see Samantha in the Sex in the City movie reading The Secret on the beach and tossing it aside because she gets that it is rubbish.  I worry that all the naysayers and those that poke fun at this type of self-healing are right, and that my friends and family will think I am a loser for trying it.  I have also found in the past that I have not been tenacious - that I have given up pretty quickly when I have these sabotaging thoughts or I hit road blocks.  The journey woman does this too, and somehow that is validating.

The other thing I liked about You Can Heal Your Life-The Movie is that while they certainly acknowledge money and financial rewards, it plays such a small part in the overall message. It was very well balanced between showing how the Law of Attraction and using affirmations or cognitive restructuring can bring physical health, purpose in careers and in helping others, positive relationships, overall feelings of well being, as well as financial security and abundance.  While they use the watered down term "the universe" a lot, they also talk about God and ancestors, the soul, and how thoughts, feelings, and our spiritual selves are all intertwined.

I know I will watch it a few more times, and try to pick out particular parts I want to write about, but as a first impression, I would say it was very worth a few hours of my day.  I think I will keep it to watch when I am feeling a little low, or tempted to give up again.