When your back is up against the wall, don't start swinging! Stop! Breathe! Do not abandon yourself!
Catalog
Iyanla Vanzant
Iyanla Vanzant (born Rhonda Eva Harris; September 13, 1953) is an American inspirational speaker, lawyer, New Thought spiritual teacher, author, life coach and television personality. She is known primarily for her books, her eponymous talk show, and her appearances on The Oprah Winfrey Show. She can currently be seen on television as the host of Iyanla: Fix My Life, and as a frequently featured guest teacher of Oprah's Lifeclass on OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. Vanzant was born in Brooklyn, New York on September 13, 1953, as Rhonda Eva Harris. She was given the title "Iyanla", which means "great mother", after being initiated and ordained as a priestess in the Yoruba tradition (as mentioned in her television interview on the Conn Jackson show). She attended Medgar Evers College and Virginia Union University. Vanzant holds a Juris Doctor degree from the City University of New York School of Law. She currently resides in Upper Marlboro, Maryland. She is also an ordained New Thought minister. In 2000, she was named one of the "100 most influential Black Americans" by Ebony magazine, which said that "Her books, lectures and television appearances have made her a multimedia high priestess of healthy relationships." In 2012, Vanzant was listed at #7 on Watkins' Mind Body Spirit magazine list of the 100 most spiritually influential living people." In 2014, she was co-speaker in Oprah's the "Life You Want Weekend" tour, which travelled to eight cities, also featuring Deepak Chopra, Mark Nepo, Elizabeth Gilbert and Rob Bel
How do we end our suffering? Change your thought patterns, and your life will change accordingly.
Suffering is unnecessary and not at all required by the benevolent forces of life. If you currently have the exact opposite of what you desire, change your mind.
We must now create an internal prompt that makes us aware that recurring thoughts have landed and are poised to disrupt our sense of peace and well-being.
A truth that is often difficult for people to recognize or accept is: if you can see it out there, it exists—or has at some point existed— within you.
As you become conscious of what you are thinking, resistance to your dominant negative thought patterns will motivate you to justify what you think and feel.
Often, we master thoughts, beliefs, and expectations about the very things we don’t want because of the silent, terrifying, unconscious thoughts that we repeat in our mind.
The ego has very few arguments that can survive the power of an earnest and heartfelt prayer.
When it comes to accepting what is, fear, resistance, denial, and against-ness serve to make a difficult experience more difficult.
If you want to change the condition and experience of your life, pay attention to every thought and every feeling so that you can make different choices.
Until we become aware of and acknowledge our contributions to our personal experience, we will blame, feel victimized, and cling to powerlessness.
When we have been through something that has left a negative imprint on us, more than just our brains are affected - it is also our hearts and our spirits.
Our unconscious dominant negative thought patterns which are hidden beneath the surface and to be healed must first be accepted.
Everything you are experiencing is a function of what you are thinking.
When we’re not aware of what we’re thinking, we’re very likely to repeat to ourselves the same dominant negative thoughts until we master them.
After many trials and errors, I realized that if I wanted to change my life, I had to increase my awareness of every thought and every feeling so that I could make different choices.
The mind is a powerful agent for change.
Getting past difficult experiences takes more than just a positive attitude.
The mind has a tendency to mull over negative experiences with greater detail than positive oneres, especially when we are attempting to create change or develop something different in our lives.
The human brain’s negativity bias, which wires us to give more attention to the negative than to the positive, means feeling bad can become so familiar that it almost feels good.