ESSENCE Empowerment: Iyanla Vanzant

[MUSIC] So I have a very simple message for you today that I hope you will take out of here back into your life. Because you know, I always so you gotta do the work. And we have to do the work. We have to do our individual work. We have to do our collective work. You have to do the work. The reason I can stand before you today, not different from you, but just as a demonstration to you of what happens when you do the work. You gotta do the work. So, the question that I have for us to consider from this day forward, moving back into the world, wherever we are is, how are you going to stand in the sacred place in which you find yourself? How are you gonna stand? Sometimes when I read your letters and your emails, I just say, mm, oh baby, you got to stand, you got to stand. And it, it don't matter. If you can't stand but be bent, be bent. And as you can come up, come up. If you can come up halfway, come up halfway. You got to come up hunchback, come up hunchback. But the question becomes how you gonna stand whining and complaining, or knowing the truth about who you are? How are you gonna stand, moment by moment, when stuff comes up because it's gonna come up? If, if, I, I had a teacher say to me one time, have you heard that song, I Did It My Way? I said, yes, it's a very nice song. He said, really, that's not a good thing, to do it your way. You gotta do it the way the universe is calling you to do it. And sometimes it's difficult. Sometimes it's difficult to do it the way the universe is calling you to do it, but you're growing and building things within you that you need to grow and build within you. Like humility, like discipline. Discipline and strength and courage and integrity. So many of us live our lives out of integrity. We think one thing, feel one thing, say something else, and do something else. We're out of integrity. Integrity means you being sure that what you're thinking, what you're feeling, what you're saying, and what you're doing are all in alignment. That you're not just saying what somebody wants to hear, doing what you think you have to do, and, and, and, and then all the time inside BMWing. ****, moaning, and whining. [LAUGH]. Excuse me children. That was just the evil lip monster took control of my mouth for one minute. How you gon' stand? You got to be willing to be blind and trust your navigation tools. Your truth, your value, your worth, what matters to me, your culture, your tradition, your ancestors, you've gotta be willing to hold onto something bigger, stronger, wiser than you. When you're sheding and moving from one place to the next. Be willing to be wrong. You don't know it all. You can't know it all. You haven't stopped learning. You haven't stopped growing. And that's why you're still here. How are you gonna stand in the sacred place called your life? How are you gonna stand in the sacred place called your time? It's your time, it's your watch, your clock, your wings, your plane, your trip, your healing, your loving, your wealth, your body, it's you, it's your time. Forgive everybody, just forgive 'em, hell forgive 'em. Tell the truth. Tell me some truth about you. Tell me how loving you are. Tell me how strong and courageous and wise you are. Tell me how much you want it. And wanted more than you are afraid of it because, when you get ready you gone fly right into it.