Louise L. Hay

Choose Self-Approval: A Different Path to Growth

To close the loop, run a 14-day trial. Each evening, rate three items from 1–10: willingness to re-engage after mistakes, clarity of next steps, and energy at day’s end. Pair those ratings with one approving sentence about the day’s effort and one concrete next action. If the numbers rise—or your recovery time shrinks—you’ll have your answer to Hay’s invitation. And if they don’t, you’ve still learned what to adjust, which is, fittingly, another form of approval in action. [...]

Today I Choose Happiness: Practicing Emotional Agency

Crucially, choosing happiness does not erase pain; it reframes our stance toward it. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy advises making space for difficult feelings while moving toward values (Hayes et al., 1999). Hedonic adaptation reminds us that moods drift, yet repeated practices can reset baselines over time (Brickman & Campbell, 1971). Neuroplasticity offers the mechanism: neurons that fire together wire together (Hebb, 1949). Thus, on harsh days, the choice may be modest—one breath, one call, one kind sentence to oneself—but chosen again tomorrow, it becomes a life. [...]