Last night I watched The Oprah Finale with 6 of my girlfriends. A week earlier, after my kids were all in bed, I felt compelled to watch the recording I had been saving to watch with my husband. He was too tired, and went to sleep, but I secretly didn’t mind. Having the space independently to receive this level of wisdom from one of my best teachers – 25 years worth, allowed me to absorb more fully what I needed to hear. The moment it ended, I wanted to share it with my closest friends, and a week later as I listened again surrounded by their resonant energy, Oprah’s words landed a little bit deeper.
Now I am ready to encourage my husband to watch it or I may settle for him reading my blog – he prefers the bottom line : ) Here’s a synopsis of what I heard on the Oprah Finale, but I encourage you to listen for what resonates with you:
1. We all have a calling that comes from our heart, and it’s our duty to find it, and follow it. Your passion will spark the light in you. Use it to serve the world and make your contribution.
2. Your circle of influence is your platform, your ‘talk show’, and your power lies here. Every day you show people who you are.
3. You alone are responsible for creating your life. It doesn’t matter who your parents were, or how they treated you. They did their best. People make bad choices, and then blame others instead of taking ownership over who they are being, which is self–destructive.
4. You are responsible for the energy you create, and bring to other people.
5. What you do to others, you do unto yourself. If you treat others badly, it returns back to you exponentially. When you give love to others, it comes overflowing back to you infinitely.
6. All our pain and suffering stems from a universal feeling of unworthiness. Not good enough. Not deserving enough. Not smart or attractive enough. It is the common thread in our humanity.
7. Critical distinction: believing you deserve to be happy vs. knowing you are worthy of happiness because you are already good enough. When you think happiness is owed to you, it may elude you, but when you embrace who you are already are – life flows from the inside out. This is the power within to create your own life.
8. We all want validation: To be seen, heard, and that we say matters. This is the love we seek from others.
9. Knowing that we all suffer from unworthiness at some level, and want the same validation has allowed Oprah to stay in the place of non-judgment with an open mind and heart. There is no reason for anyone to feel superior.**
10. Know that God exists, and if you are still, and listen for the guidance that is bigger than our limited minds, you will hear it. God is love, and life, and is always speaking to you if you choose to listen.
11. No one completes you. Jerry McGuire was just a movie. You are already whole! (Got goosebumps hearing this as I posted these exact words to Maria Shriver last year on her website answering a question about what it meant for women to ‘have it all’ today. The resonance in this line from Jerry McGuire confirmed why so many suffer – looking to be good enough in someone else’s eyes when we already ‘have it all’.)
** I was thrilled hearing lesson #9 because it was confirmation for the message of my upcoming book: Creating Authentic Relationships: How Overcoming Judgment Can Transform Your Life. It is a spiritual practice to create a more compassionate authentic world, which Oprah has been modelled all these years on her show.
As I took in the finality of this moment in the Oprah Finale; awestruck that she hadn’t missed a show in 25 years because she knew we were all here waiting to learn, listen, and be transformed, I suspected that Oprah must be the most genuinely loved (living) person on the planet. 40 million viewers. She is certainly admired, respected, fun-loving, and has transformed millions of lives. But when you are more of who you are because of how someone else is showing up in your life (even through the tv screen) – this is the love that connects us all. She reflects back to us who we really are, and strive to be.
