I Thought Like Oprah Winfrey For a Week

The result? I am weightless. Thinking like Oprah Winfrey for one week is a work out!  And it is good. Must all good things come to an end?  Or can we own the good daily, walking it out like a new routine?  

Reshaped by what’s good in me, around me, and through me has become an exercise of the soul. A week later, I feel ten pounds lighter!  Why didn’t I mentally work out like this before?  Let’s see how queen Oprah got me feelin’ as light as a feather in just seven days.

Day 1: The Good Life

Oprah: “The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.”

Challenge: What can I praise and celebrate in my life today?

Realization: Gratitude begets gratitude. I celebrate my family, my health, a job I enjoy and knowing what makes me happy so I can share that with others. The list keeps growing as I sit with it. My idle mind compares, doubts, fears.  Yet, a fed mind that is full of gratitude postures one to interact with a lightness, a contentment, a willingness to give and not take.  It says to frustration, hush.  It says to inadequacy, enough.  It says to frustration, be still.  It says to uproaring reactions, you no longer hold what is sound.  It says to a sour attitude, you’re silly.  Go play!  Praising the life I have, being thankful for all of it, says, I know a multiplicative peace, simply by saying thank you. The good life can expand.

 

Day 2: Can I Keep What is Good?

Oprah: “Doing the best at this moment puts you in the best place to for the next moment.”

Challenge: How can I prolong my best days?

Realization: I struggle with the let down from a joyful day like today. I want to remain in the happiness of a good day but know there is always a coming down of sorts. If I seek out to do my best each day and feel satisfied in knowing I did, then the high moments are a bonus and not an occasion. A trick to staying even-keeled in joy can derive from simply doing and saying, “I did my best.”

 

Day 3: Who Do I Invite in to Witness the Good and the Not So Great? What Does That Say About Me?

Oprah: “Lots of people want to ride with you in the limo, but what you want is someone who will take the bus with you when the limo breaks down.”

Challenge: Do I have someone I can invite into my current season of life?

Are my expectations for success dependent upon how people around me see me? Is my value weighed by their scales? Who do I invite into the good and the not great?

Realization: I understand this quote is mostly about being choosy of good and worthy people in my life, yet it sinks deeper to me as I consider this: who on earth would I be OKAY with SEEING ME in my limo break down and catching the bus? I must bow my ego and let those in who I trust to partner with me in triumph and in challenge.  Even though days like today bring a sense of defeat in my lack, I invite laughter in and choose those friends in my corner to be the ones who can adapt and love me no matter what the zeros say.

 

Day 4: Who Do I See?

Oprah: “As you become more clear about who you really are, you’ll be better able to decide what is best for you – the first time around.”

Challenge: Am I seeing myself and others as true vessels for the Divine to shine through?

Realization: I adapted to this mindset for today while debating a couple job offers. Which would make me greatest, among those who surround me?  Suddenly, as I recall our identity as purposeful beings, those around me became more than competitive colleagues, someone’s  noisy children, or the person who took my parking space. Before my eyes, I saw that each of us have a purpose to be used as vessels of light in whatever sphere of influence we dwell. I not only gained clarity on who I really am designed to be, but was reminded that each of us have a significant purpose, and this transformed the way I see and care for complete strangers. Now, I can make decisions on what job offer is best for me knowing we all have a purpose and no one is greater than the other.

 

Day 5: Can I Choose Good in the Grey?

Oprah: “Real integrity is doing the right thing, knowing that nobody’s going to know whether you did it or not.”

Challenge: How often do I choose a path for recognition? How often do I choose what is really life-giving?  Can I face dark corners with confidence in my choices?

Realization: I think this is a daily practice. I weave in and out of conscious living or living by my conscious so often that it’s easy to wonder what is right anymore.  When I center myself and know I am divinely loved, valued, provided for, and deserving of a hopeful tomorrow simply by being a child of divine light, I find strength to pick up what is bright in a dim situation. I am protecting what’s good even when no one is looking.

 

Day 6: Am I Intentionally Allowing Goodness?

Oprah: Breathe. Let go. And remind yourself that this very moment is the only one you know you have for sure.

Challenge: Is what I am holding onto tightly today adding any value to my life? What can I exhale from?

Realization: I see that joy is waiting for me. It is my job to be the decision maker and say no to what kills joy and yes to what breeds it. All I know and have for sure is this moment of the sunset atop the mountains in front of me and I can enjoy it if I choose to! My day has become still, knowing right now is enough, and right now is good.

 

Day 7: Is Fear Stopping Me from Growing?

Oprah: “The thing you fear most has no power. Your fear of it is what has the power. Facing the truth really will set you free.”

Challenge: In this moment, what am I fearing? Is it really that scary or am I just disengaging?

Realization: I desire to be free. Always. Yet my carnal mind weighs in with contrasting outcomes until I’ve thought myself out of a possibility. Today, I chose to deliberately face a once haunting place I don’t want to revisit, but now I see the truth is: the present moment has redeemed what was once scary.  I can see that deciphering between hesitation and hindrance can lead me to a place of peace if I dare to move forward and engage.

Thinking like Oprah can make a mind full of fits transform into a fit mind. Being in good shape is up to us.  If we can train our souls to find, own, share, learn, protect, allow, and face the good, we can lift the burdens of those heavy hearts around us. We can stay light.

By Christie Brooke

 

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