Wednesday, September 17, 2014

The Life You Want Weekend with Oprah


 This weekend I went to the Life You Want Weekend presented by Oprah Winfrey.  It was ah-mazing. Not like this pistachio froyo is amazing. Amazing as in empowering and validating.

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To be truthful, I really wanted to go because I wanted to hear Elizabeth Gilbert speak. I said in my last blog post that I have been reading (and rereading) a lot self-discovery journey stories.

I have been dawn to them probably because I, myself, have been on my own journey of self -discovery, or as Elizabeth Gilbert called it, The Quest.  She detailed how there are certain elements that everyone will experience when she can no longer ignore her destiny.  First of all, there is The Threshold. Once one crosses over The Threshold, she can never go back to the way life was before.  Once the journey begins, it is not smooth sailing.  The person on the quest faces all kinds of hurdles: Self-doubt, doubt in faith, tricksters, enemies that are really friends.  It can be confusing and unsettling, but in the end, you get to live life as you were truly meant to live it.  That is a pretty amazing accomplishment.

I really needed to hear this.  My quest has been full of bumps and pitfalls, some of my own doing, some just collateral damage of going on a quest.  Thankfully, Elizabeth addressed this saying that she used to pray for her life to change, yet without making a mess.  She stated that this is pretty impossible, and I felt grateful for that bit of knowledge about The Quest.

But as Iyanla Vanzant said, "If you made it through the past, you passed. You don't need to pass with an A." She said that sometimes you pass with an F for faith.  I'll take it.

She also said, "Do not be loyal to things that are not good for you."  I needed to hear this because if you are going to commit to The Quest, you can’t hold on to your negative baggage.

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Such a simply concept to understand, but super hard to actually do.


Between what Iyanla and Elizabeth, I was overcome by sense of validation.  The Quest is not easy.  Letting go of drama and not being loyal to things that no longer serve you is not easy.

And that is OK.

I also walked away with the urge to practice mediation on a regular basis.  It seems that each of Oprah's trailblazers meditate.  It is hard to listen to the universe if you can't quiet the mind. So as of Monday, I will be meditating everyday.  I will tell you this; the first day was hard. So very hard. Hard as in I don't want to do it ever again.  Because I hate doing things that I'm not good at.  Oprah said that these icky feelings should not be viewed as negative; it should be viewed as information.  The information I gathered has led me to believe that I really need to practice meditation more often.

I am feeling grateful for this bright spot of inspiration.

Have you felt validated about something you are working on? Has anything inspired you lately? 


1 comment:

New York Mama said...

What a great wknd & what great advice for self discovery! I have been a Iyanla disciple for many yrs. There are many things that I do in my life that I try to be consistent with and sometimes am not as successful. The one thing that I have & continue to do for ages that I could not do without is meditating. It has made a difference in my life all for the good for many years! It is probably the single most important thing I do on this journey of mine. Your journey sounds exciting too! How wonderful!