Did I just wake up from a dream? Did I just hear the “You get a car, you get a car, you get a car”from that infamous episode of the Oprah Winfrey Store. Well, it felt like it after such an amazing event last night in Atlanta. The day finally arrived where I would meet one of the biggest influencers in my life, Oprah Winfrey. This is the real SuperBowl for many of us. Many of us who watched hundreds of Oprah shows and wanted to one day meet this fundamental woman.

First of all, I bought my ticket within minutes of them going live. There was no texting or calling anyone. Honestly, I didn’t want to miss out on this opportunity. I really didn’t know what to expect when I signed up to attend Atlanta stop of her tour, the series dubbed Oprah’s 2020 Vision: Your Life in Focus. BOY, what a life changing experience.

Spanning nine dates in different cities over the course of three months, the day-long event was part self-improvement workshop, part dance party, and part lecture series. It was nothing short of incredible. The week prior guest was Oprah interviewing Amy Schumer, where they had honest conversation on parenthood, autism, IVF, and much more.

Day of the Life with Oprah

It seemed so surreal to go from spending years and years watching Oprah on TV to now seeing her live for the first time in Atlanta. Furthermore, this is the lady, I followed and chose to attend the same college she was a graduate of. The Big Blue Tigers ;Tennessee State University.

I gathered along with 12,000 other friends to spend the day learning from Oprah. Guests Tamela Mann, Julianne Hough and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson joined Oprah to share how to transform our mind, body and spirit.

The day started with music that got everyone pumped on their feet. Immediately, I felt energized, I felt this calm feeling all over my body, Thanks to Daybreaker, a global morning dance community, we were all set to enjoy an incredible day of wellness and inspiration. I could feel the atmosphere shifting to a higher vibration. Literally! The place was on FIRE!

Then finally, the moment we all were waiting for: “HELLLLLOOOOO Atlanta!” Oprah graced the stage, OMG the crowd went crazy. She talked briefly and shortly thereafter introduced Tamela Mann world renowned gospel singer and actress. Tamela looked amazing and shared with us her WW weight loss journey and losing 50 pounds. Her word for 2020 is “COMPLETION”. Tamela brought the house down with “Take me to the King” WOW!!! Oprah arrived back on stage eating a cough drop. She dropped some gems and shared her word of 2020 which is “Purposeful.” “I don’t leave my house because I’m 66 about to be”. I don’t do nothing I don’t want to do,” says Oprah. She asked us ” What is the word going to be for you to help you clarify your life in 2020?

Throughout her motivational speeches, we learned about Oprah’s rise from Chicago news anchor to media mogul. She helped us fill out a self-improvement workbook, The Big Quiet’s Jesse Israel led the stadium in silent meditation. Julianne Hough brought the State Farm Arena to their feet with her KINRGY exercise. We recited affirmations allowing our thoughts to flow from our mind to our body, discovering our superpowers. The energy was simply amazing. 

“I want you to live a life that you deserve,” Oprah said.

We were in the church of Oprah, and she was preaching the gospel. So what did we catch to change our lives?

Stay in your Lane

As Oprah told us to open our workbooks, she led us through an exercise in finding our wellness focus. She also shared an excerpt from one of her old journals. “Sometimes I can feel the connection between my own fears and the weight,” Oprah once wrote about her struggle with her body-image. “So what am I afraid of? That’s the question. The answer can set me free.” To Oprah, her weight was a manifestation of the fear of being worried about what other people think.

“I was living up to what other people thought I should be,” Oprah said. “It took me a long time to come into the fullness of myself.” “It took me 50 years to stop caring.” She quoted Marianne Williamson “We are all meant to be in our own flow!”

The workbook’s “wellness quotient” posited a series of statements on a scale of 1-4 to determine how strongly each statement applied to you in seven categories: Emotions, Learning, Work, Nutrition, Movement, Purpose, and Relationships. (For example: “I recognize what’s in my control and what isn’t,” or “I’m not ruled by my need to please.”)

According to Oprah, you want to be so full of yourself that “your cup runneth over,” that you have enough to offer to others. So what’s holding you back from being that highest, purest, truest vision of yourself?

Living With Clear Intention

Envisioning a new path starts with clarifying your why. Winfrey believes that intention is the why behind the why.

“You don’t get what you want in life. You get what you intend,” Winfrey said. “What you clearly, with clarity, define and intend. And that’s why some people succeed and other people fail, because of clarity of intention.”

The principle that Oprah said rules her life is Newton’s third law of motion: For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. The energy you constantly give off returns to you at all times. What you put out in all areas of your life is returned to you in direct proportion to how you put it out.

“Intention rules your life whether you know it or not,” Oprah said. 

Want to live a healthier life? Start by treating yourself in a healthier way. If you need more love in your life, set the intention to be more loving in the world, and it will come to you. If you’re not doing something with intention, why are you doing it?

The Power of Being Present

For me, the center of wellness is actually being able to be fully present in any given moment, and realize all is well, in any moment in spite of the swirl in life,” Oprah said.

Stress and worry is wanting something to be the way it isn’t. Accept the stress in your life, accept the moment for what it is, and then make a decision about what you can do to move forward.

“If you want to stay in the present moment, it’s about always allowing yourself to be connected to spirit,” Opray said. “Right now in this moment your are well.”

Avoid distractions from the present, as in experiencing experiences through Instagram. How many times have you been to some place, but you were distracted through your phone?

“Wellness begins with creating boundaries around how we communicate,” Oprah said. 

And the power of living in the moment extends to aging. “There is no life without a spiritual life.”

She shared a story of a family on a carriage ride in Chicago. Everyone on the carriage was is on the phone. “However when they get home they’ll say “we had this amazing carriage ride” but no one was actually present for the ride.” She nailed down the importance of being present in the moment.

I’ll tell you, the only number that actually gave me pause was 60,” Oprah, now 65, said. “But when I turned 50, my dear friend Maya Angelou was still alive, and Maya said to me, ‘Babe, the fifties are everything you’ve been meaning to be. It’s everything you thought you might do. This is it. It’s coming in. You’re not even there yet.'”

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Mindfulness Is Key

“Only you are in control of your wellness,” Oprah said. “Only you can bring yourself back to balance.” Release the comparison!

But it takes practice, which is what Oprah credits as being the reason her show was #1 for 25 years on the air. Everybody worked hard, but the show had flow because of her team’s shared principle of intention.

The common denominator that Oprah has found about the human experience after doing over 4,000 shows, between President Obama, Beyoncé, or every guest in between. Above all, everybody is trying to be heard? Also from all the guest, everyone said ” Was that alright, How did I do” did I do okay” after every show. She said, after “Beyonce taught me how to tweak, I said you are alright”.

‘”If you’re in the struggle, it’s because somewhere you betrayed yourself, because your life is supposed to flow. Life is not set up to punish you. You are punished by your lack of clarity. You are punished, and feel sadness, feel rejection, feel the pain in direct proportion from how far you are from the center of yourself,” Oprah said. “So I am wise enough now that when trouble comes, I don’t blame the trouble. I look directly to myself. What was I not clear about? Why am I here? Not because a greater source is trying to punish me. I’m here because of the lack of clarity of my intentions.”

“We are spiritual beings having a human experience,” words by Pierre Teilhard de Chardinare, are what Oprah lives by.  

She left us with “I Can! I Will! Watch ME!”

Did you attend in Atlanta? What about other cities? Share your thoughts!