The morning it was announced that Oprah's new book would be available in bookstores I must admit I was caught off guard. Like millions others I consider myself one of her biggest fans and could not fathom how I missed that she had a book in the works. Regardless, I was determined to make up for lost ground by getting a copy before it was sold out.
The stack of unread issues of magazines I purchased where I had only gotten as far as reading the "What I Know For Sure" column quickly came to mind; Yes I read most magazines from back to front. Would I really have the time to read an entire book right now and furthermore why did I really need my own copy immediately? I was hooked on her thought-provoking messages and her interesting perspective on life. Her stories practically leaping from the television screen or from the pages of her magazine, yet still I straddle the fence of living life to the maximum versus being full of inspiring moments. Had I become addicted to the high of a story of triumph and victory assuming the position of cheerleader for someone else? Or subconsciously in need of the next stirring message to excite my attention but not allow it to move me to action? What was it that I knew for sure?
1. Nothing is more powerful than the messages we whisper to ourselves in each thought. Whether when standing in front of the mirror as we get dressed or on our commute, we set the tone for how the day receives us and how people treat us.
2. During our worst "personal bests", our conscience always brings to light areas to course correct. Our refusal to grow can delay us from reaching our full potential in other areas. Next level living comes at the cost of next level teaching and our willingness to grow. It's not when life is moving seamlessly along that I see who I really am, but when my hot buttons are pushed and I watch and listen to myself at times that my conscience says "you're better than this and until you get that we will repeat this course work". Life always wants to pull from us the best of who we are but it's a tight fight at times as we battle it out with "well this is who I've always been". We can soar like Eagles or stay at ground level. Always our choice. Seldom do we continue to rise loaded down with excess baggage.
3. To be alive is our first miracle and for every next breath we take realize that gift of love. Our heart beats for us; now that is love!
4. What we're searching for we already have. Whether it is direction, 'a sign', the truth or love. It is in us and all around us. Often times we can't recognize it because it doesn't fit the limitations of our thoughts. So we go back and forth and around in circles not realizing all along what we're searching for is already 'here'.
5. What irritates us about a person is often a reflection of something inside of us. In some way there's always a connection to 'like' behaviour.
6. My most life changing exchanges are the sentences I whisper in prayer whether spoken out loud or said silently. Regardless of how long or short they are, the seconds that follow are usually filled with the soothing feeling that Someone visited the moment and assured me that every word spoken was heard.
7. To unconditionally love ourselves is an ongoing journey of honesty, acceptance, appreciation and forgiveness. How else will we ourselves be free? How else are we able to love others unconditionally? Any resistance to being vulnerable with life and love is a deeper resistance and at times rejection of 'self'.
8. When we become so absorbed in anything that we use it to define us it has become our master. Controlling virtually every decision we make. When an idea or chase of anything overtakes us, is our ego saying "without this I am less"? In the delay of its arrival it helps us to realize we are always enough.
9. Not a day goes by where change does not take place. For this I'm grateful. At the highest moments, my heart is full and during the lowest of times my heart learns to stay open. At either point my life is being made rich through the gift of experience.
10. We make excuses for others because the truth would mean we could no longer force feed ourselves a lie.
11. Life and love have something in common. They are both best experienced when we let go of our need to be in control.
12. You need to be flexible enough to be in the company of others and also be comfortable enough to stand alone. At any given time, you will find yourself in one place or the other.
13. We have choices in situations we believe ourselves locked into. Set yourself free.
14. A person will never disappoint who your intuition tells you they really are.
15. To tell the uncomfortable truth knowing there's a great possibility of judgment and loss keeps your conscience clear and your life free of people who don't belong in your space.
16. We all at some point need help and we ask for it in ways that are most comfortable for us. That 'cry' is not always heard by our nearest and dearest, but someone always comes. Someone always sees you.
17. You can compare most times you will experience in this life to being in a relationship: you're either infatuated, in lust, both heels in, or just passing time.
18. Rejection may be a hard pill to swallow but it is our most honest friend. It is either preparing us to go even further, keeping us from what is not for us, or spring cleaning our lives of experiences and people whose chapter has ended.
19. When we become desperate for something, we accept anything believing that the counterfeit will fulfill us. When we decide to be honest, we realize just how draining fillers in life can be. The death sentence now being that we have chosen to live beneath our true desires. The expansion of our dreams die the moment we make the decision to settle.
20. Hurt people hurt people. Healed people free people because they themselves have done the work to be free.
21. We carry stories throughout our lifetime about ourselves that we use to measure who we are. Those definitions are what line our thinking and attract to us who and what we really believe about ourselves. In some instances our inner thoughts not others, are our worst enemies.
22. People show us in every interaction whether personally or professionally, how much or how little they value us. When we decide to invest time in trying to alter their opinion we have chosen to validate the thought that what they think of us is our business. The question really is, what do we think of ourselves?
23. There is such truth in the thought that we see life how we are, not necessarily how it is. We have to some degree mastered the art of projecting our thoughts and feelings unto others and in so doing seldom can we accept another's perspective as we can only see our own as the truth.
24. Life is a cocktail and with each "sip" it reveals to us who we really are. For some of us we may choose to be comatosed by denial, failing to accept who we are therefore making it about others never ourselves. For others it becomes the sweetest hangover, where we waltz with the reality that life happens to teach us something, in the worst of times hoping we will see how perfectly flawed we all are. Accountability keeps us honest concerning our role in our own life.
25. Nothing is more freeing than giving ourselves permission to be whoever we are. Do the things we love and in the company of those we love. Life is meant to be enjoyed, not restricted and pressured by the expectations of others.