Foreign So I figured out how to lean in to life to lean into life you already know the truth you’ve been making decisions having choices fulfilled throughout your life since you were a kid and these past years here at Skidmore have even more infused you know everybody has what I call this Instinct
This inner voice and the truth is every decision I’ve ever made that led me to the right space and place in my life every single person around me except for my best friend Gail that’s why she is my best friend Gail said you shouldn’t move to Chicago
You should stay here my bosses said you’re right here in Baltimore you’re little fish in a big pond so I listened to that inner voice that said go and I knew whether I got the job in Chicago which of course I did or not that it was
Time to leave because the truth of me was urging me forward and every decision I made after coming to Chicago when everybody said you should just take a salary it’s too big of a risk to own yourself to own your show what if that show fails then you’re stuck
I said I’m gonna bet on myself because the truth of me the inner voice that I was allowed to get still and feel said of intentional living about 1989 after I’d been doing my show for three years I ran across a book called the seat of the Soul by Gary
Zhukov and in it he talked about how every action follows is followed by a reaction which we all know is the third law of motion in physics but he also said that before there’s even a thought or an action there is an intention something struck me about that there’s
An intention that follow that it precedes every thought and every action and the outcome of your experiences is determined by the intention what I intended not just what somebody else wanted me to do or what I thought would please them but what do I really intend to happen from the outcome of
This decision or this choice and so I started to apply this intentional living and this intentional thinking to everything in my life come to be and changing the Paradigm to just from just doing a television show from just being on TV to actually intending to be of service to the viewers
Change the trajectory of the show The reason we were number one for 25 solid years is because we intended to be intentionally and I would say that the producers do not bring me an idea that I cannot find my thread of Truth in any show any conversation any interview
That I’m going to do what’s up so I said to the producer do not bring me an idea unless I can find the thread of Truth so that I could sit in the seat and ask the questions with the intention of accomplishing something bigger than the interview
So I remember the first time I used this principle of intention there was a mother on who had lost her 16 year old daughter she’d been murdered by her boyfriend a junior in high school popular Straight A’s cheerleader everybody loved her nobody ever suspected that the boyfriend was abusing her
I learned then back in the 90s that domestic violence for young girls for teenagers is at the same rate of domestic violence for grown women in this country what so I went into the green room and I asked the mother please tell me why you’re here what is your
Intention she said I’m here because your producers asked me to come I said but what is the reason you said yes what is your true intention in being here and she said I want people to know that my daughter’s life was bigger than her death everywhere I go people only want to talk
About her death and how she died and how I didn’t know or why I should have known but I want people to know that my daughter our daughter was loved she was loved by her siblings and loved by her friends and she loved us and she had a life that was bigger
Than her murder people know that your daughter’s life meant something that her being here on the planet Earth for 16 years truly mattered and here’s my intention I want everybody who hears your daughter’s story to be able to see their friend to see themselves and to
Know that to remain silent can be a killer and so every question that I ask you comes from the point of view of an intention to serve the life of your daughter so that her life would not have been in vain checking in with my inner
Truth with what is the real reason I’m doing anything and that leads me to my final dream and prayer for you it’s a big hard world out there but you’re ready for it and you’re ready because there is nothing more powerful than you using your personality to serve the calling of your soul
Every one of us has been called to the planet to use and In This Moment In This political moment where everybody is just hysterical In This Moment the call is for whatever side you choose to be on to use more of you to bring forth the light
And to do that you’ve got to have clarity about who you really are there is no life without a spiritual life We Are Spiritual Beings having a human experience so your real job as you go out to try to find one and have all of this anxiety and fear and your real job
Is to know the truth and to create a spiritual practice that allows you to stay in it to be clear I’m not talking about your religion I’m talking about whatever it is that nurtures the essence of you in such a way that you can do what you came here to do
We all want to be able to live out the truest expression the fullest purest expression of ourselves as human beings that’s what you want and in order to do that you’ve got to practice you’ve got to develop that spiritual muscle that allows you to check in with yourself
And not have to ask everybody else about a decision but to have the clarity of your own knowing the comfort of your own knowing I got everything because I practiced being grateful I ran across this beautiful quote the other day I can’t remember who it was
From that said do not waste your time Desiring what other people have remember the things that you now have are things you once only hoped for so I live in that space every day of practicing gratitude because I know that being grateful wherever you are whatever place or space in your life
Being grateful changes your personal vibration I was just having a conversation with Cheryl Sandberg the other day about her book option b and we all know she lost her beloved husband David and I said how did you get through it looking at the world for what you’re going to write down or
What you’re going to state to yourself by the end of the day that you’re grateful for you have a different outlook on life I’m just waiting on somebody to hold the door see if that makes the list some days you only have I’m still breathing because life gets in the way sometimes
But practicing gratitude as a spiritual practice to evolve you to bring you closer to the truth of knowing who you really are is one of the most valuable things I have ever experience and I do it I have journals and journals and journals and journals filled with five things a day if you
Don’t believe me just for a moment do this close your eyes everybody in here we’re gonna do this for five seconds you’re gonna inhale and on the exhale say thank you Foreign thank you
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