Oprah.....Me, in her presence!

I attended the very first O You!  Conference in Africa on Monday where I got to see Oprah and hear her speak....in the flesh!  A dream come true for me!  It was an amazing day filled with power and wisdom and girliness.  I loved it!

Thrilled to be there with my special friend Laura!

Oprah walking onto the stage - taken from my phone!

And isn't it a thrill that she is back on tv in South Africa on TLC on a Thursday evenings at 21h00 and Sunday mornings 11h50?!

Let me tell you about what Oprah said:

“Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?” 

― Mary Oliver, New and Selected Poems

"You never give up, You are never too old and You always find a way", she says.

"It is well with my soul!" Oprah says that her life is good because of "WHO I AM!"  She recommends:

• Live in service
• Live life with an open heart
• Live to give, receive and be love
• Live your purpose. Learn to serve from the centre of yourself.  Look for the series of threads that run through your life.  Its the defining thread.  The passion is the thread that connects the dots of your purpose. 
• She believes that your purpose is your spirit seeking expression, the fullest highest expression of yourselves as human beings so on your way out, you can say: "I did this Earth thing!"  We, she believes, are spiritual beings having a human experience so we need to connect to our spirits or spiritual lives. Take what you do and live it!  In God (the Space that is All) I live and breathe and have my being.  Delight yourself with Spirit.

What Oprah knows for sure: 

• You become what you believe and not what you want or desire.  
• You are not your circumstances, you are your possibilities

Oprah recited this poem at the age of 7 and used it hang onto during her dark years of rape at 9  and sexual abuse and the death of a baby at 14 years.  She is a survivor and a thriver!

• Life happens FOR you , not TO you, so when life is at its hardest, when you are in the eye of the storm, say "Thank you" and "This too shall pass"

• Be responsible for the energy that you bring to this space, this room, this life. This she learnt from Jill Bolte Taylor, a neurophysicist who experienced a stroke in her left hemisphere of her brain and wrote a book: My Stroke of Insight which confirms Oprah's belief that we are all energy fields and we attract to us the energy that we put out.  We have all heard : "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" but "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction" is what she prefers.  
• Are you paying attention?  What is whispering to you now?
• Joseph Campbell said: "A privilege of lifetime is to be who you are."
• Find tools to nurture your spirit
• Gratitude is the highest spiritual prayer
• The reason why we are still all here is because we still have more to do
• Get still:  "Be still and know" (Psalm 46:10)  When you don't know, DO NOTHING!  Because others will drown out the voice of God.

Did I mention how intelligent and powerful she was, poems rolling off her tongue with such tangible passion and a soul-touching "felt-ness"?

• Have a vision and then make small steps that move you towards you vision.  Make your vision greater than money. Build a team in support of your vision.  Have people in place to execute your vision.  Look at their track record.  Surround yourself with good people.
• When Oprah was asked by Nelson Mandela how she thought the country would change, she said " Change will happen through the women - how they think and support each other. And so she started her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls.

Oh, it was a beautiful experience and I am still digesting all the information and energy of the day, the guest speakers, the people we met and the inspiration of felt Oneness there.  I wish for you all a dream come true!