Healing Truths

Oprah Winfrey – host of the most popular talk show in television history and founder of the Oprah Winfrey Network and the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa – believes a force deep inside you can show you your purpose – if only you listen. To figure out what to do, consider who you should be and what means the most to you. 

Winfrey offers life lessons derived from her career of talking with people, being resilient, seeking wisdom and listening. She punctuates her spiritual journey with quotes from famous friends and TV guests. Her approach is vested in the New Age, but many readers will find it uplifting and, clearly, Winfrey’s philosophy has worked well for her. If you’re wondering about your own life path or seeking inspiration, she offers guidance with warmth and star power.

A Dream

Oprah Winfrey started her career as a news anchor at a TV station in Baltimore, where she hosted a talk show, People Are Talking. She recognized that interviewing people was her life’s purpose.

Your life is not static. Every decision, setback or triumph is an opportunity to identify the seeds of truth that make you the wondrous human being that you are.Oprah Winfrey

Winfrey trusts her feelings, believes anything is possible and recognizes that all people have “the seeds of knowing” within them. Life is an ongoing, dynamic process and you will continually learn, grow and renew. Ideas will come to you and plant themselves like seeds in your mind. Focus on these gifts and strengthen them. Life will veer in different directions as you receive new insights. The roots of your calling are deep inside you. Nurture them.

Your struggles – job loss, a ruptured relationship or financial problems – usually come with little “whispers” that indicate that your life is trying to send you a message. Hear them. When you ignore these whispers, you invite chaos.

Resistance

Winfrey always felt at home on a stage. Yet when Harvard University asked her to give a commencement speech, she felt immense pressure. She kept putting off writing the speech, fearing she might have nothing fresh to say.

Find your lane. Make space for the flow to show itself. Follow the natural rhythm of your life, and you will discover a force far greater than your own.  Oprah Winfrey

She procrastinated, which made her feel guilty. Negativity and resistance pop up when you pursue something meaningful and important. Winfrey realized that resistance always accompanies achievement. Confront your fear. Let negative internal chatter pass through you. Find the courage to move forward. 

Passion

Often people work to achieve a goal but sabotage themselves just short of the win. Perfect your vision of what you want to achieve. That intention should come from your heart and be authentic to you. People will respond to your truth.

Trust that the universe has a bigger, wider, deeper dream for you than you could ever imagine for yourself.  Oprah Winfrey

Winfrey’s founding of the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa was a formidable challenge. But her intense desire to give impoverished girls an environment that would nurture them and help them reach for the stars guided her. Impoverished girls would learn, as Winfrey had learned, that their potential and possibilities matter more than their circumstances. She committed to making her dream a reality, and she always thought it would succeed. Almost 400 graduates from her leadership academy have gone on to universities. They learned that their only limits are those they set themselves.

In the Zone

Many top performers, no matter their field, work in their flow state – super focused, where everything seems to click and to be clear, and where time stands still.

My life’s goal is to be of service to a greater good. Wherever that true calling takes me, I’ve always been willing to go.  Oprah Winfrey

For example, National Basketball Association champion LeBron James plays basketball with incredible focus and passion and thus embodies the truest versions of himself. Once you set your course, give yourself room “to focus on the next right choice.” Finding flow brings a sweet intensity to life.

Fail Up

Mountains are serene from a distance, but climbing them presents a series of obstacles. Using those obstacles as an excuse to not make the climb would be easy. 

All dreams start from the core. Unless you are in total alignment with whatever you envision, the dream will get derailed. Your intention has to be pure.Oprah Winfrey

In trying to start her network, Winfrey hit one problem after another. The press pounded her. The media kept reporting her initiative as “struggling.” Then Winfrey realized she was privileged to be able to put her network together. She stopped describing it to herself as a struggle.

Sometimes the story you tell yourself no longer serves you; let it go. Every experience helps shape you into the person you’re meant to be.

Your Legacy

The late writer Maya Angelou was an important spiritual teacher for Winfrey. She made Winfrey feel loved and valued.

Once you accept…you have done everything that you can do, you surrender it. Let it go to the power and energy that’s greater than yourself.  Oprah Winfrey

Winfrey recognizes people’s growing desire to bridge differences, to stop attacking those who hold different beliefs and to focus on what people have in common. Listening deeply to another person relieves their suffering. Don’t wait until you retire to start thinking about your legacy. Do it now, and start living from that perspective.

Inside You

Winfrey says she started her book club because she wanted everyone to read To Kill a Mockingbird. She also admires The Wizard of Oz, in which Dorothy goes on a hero’s journey to find her “true self.” Her companions – the scarecrow, the tin man and the cowardly lion – represent the aspects of herself she disempowered.

On Winfrey’s show, a mother repeated her son’s dying words: “Oh Mom, it is all so simple.” From that moment, Winfrey has asked herself, “How am I making things more difficult than they need to be?” Your answer to that question, she says, points the way to the next step on your path.

Works for Winfrey

Oprah Winfrey is a beloved best-selling author, actress, television host, producer and household name. She has done a great deal of good in the world and has succeeded as few American women have. Much of her advice is sound – though couched in today’s notions of mindfulness and relentless positivity. You may wonder whether it applies only to someone who’s already resolved their basic financial needs. That is, you may wonder if you must have a certain amount of money before you can heed your inner whispers and find your truth? Winfrey would say, of course not. In any case, she writes with grace and remarkable self-effacement and expresses genuine concern for her readers. Her sincere desire to spread what she regards as healthful and helpful homilies shines through these pages. Winfrey offers many lovely sentiments, and her fans will gain from reading them.