Top 451 Quotes & Sayings by Iyanla Vanzant - Page 4

You can't do anything as long as you are afraid of what might happen. Fear clouds opportunities, erases possibilities, and limits the ability to move beyond the place in which the mind is stuck. No matter how difficult we think the problem is, we must muster up the courage to face it.

It is not your duty or responsibility to change the minds of other people. The nature of their thinking is advanced or limited by their experience. In your presence, they have an opportunity to learn about you and, perhaps, to grow.

When you stand and share your story in an empowering way, your story will heal you and your story will heal somebody else.

Everything that's happening in our world is a function of what is going on inside of people. We are violent in our minds. We are violent with one another. We walk past one another in the street and don't even look nor make eye contact - don't speak. We can be outraged about the missiles and the planes. I'm more outraged that somebody will walk past me in the street and not look me in the face and say good morning.

No matter how painful your past has been, you have made it through.

When you can look a thing dead in the eye, acknowledge that it exists, call it exactly what it is, and decide what role it will take in your life then, my Beloved, you have taken the first step toward your freedom.

It is important to acknowledge all your feelings and not beat yourself up for having them. Your feelings are not good or bad, they just are.

You do not have to love what is going on in your life, but you must accept that it, whatever it is, is going on. As long as you do not accept reality, you are powerless to define the role you will play.

When you give to others to the degree that you sacrifice yourself, you make the other person a thief.

What keeps us from achieving our heart's desires is not anything outside of us, it's the conflict inside.

I let go of the past and choose to accept every situation as being for me and not against me.

The ego encourages you to constantly prove yourself and what you already know. When you are in the presence of someone you feel the need to impress, the ego's automatic response is 'I know.' The moment you say 'I know,' you are demonstrating that you don't know. You can learn something valuable from everyone, in every situation.

Don't get hung up on the hard times, the challenges. Tell your story by highlighting the victories. Because it's your victories that will inspire, motivate, encourage other people to live their stories in grander ways.

Why do we hold onto negativity? For some reason, we believe that others are affected by our experience of remaining upset, hurt or angry. Holding on to pain, anger, guilt or shame is the glue that binds us to the situation we want to escape.

Breathing deeply and releasing fear will help you get to where you want to be.

When you make a decision and a commitment to do something good for yourself, it is like dropping a pebble in a pond. It has a rippling effect. The firmer the decision, the stronger the frequency and wider the range of things that will be reached.

Loving yourself has nothing to do with being selfish, self-centered or self-engrossed. It means that you accept yourself for what you are. Loving yourself means that you accept responsibility for your own development, growth and happiness.

Always remember who you are. Know that you are never required to apologize to anyone for being yourself.

I am now willing to forgive myself . . . for believing I could offer something to others before I have offered it to myself.

We make our days pleasant or miserable. If we insist on being miserable, irritable and nasty, more than likely the day will give us exactly what we give it. A day is too valuable to waste on misery and unhappiness.

You must be willing to examine and explore your dark side. You must acknowledge how bad you can be and how horribly unloving you can behave. When you know how deep and dark your dark side is, it helps you stand a little taller in the light.

Create what you want as opposed to being stuck in what you didn't have.

Forgiveness leads to a shift in perception. It transforms the hurt into healing.

Until you heal the wounds of your past, you will continue to bleed

We must learn not to give up when requirements are not met or when commitments are broken. To do so is a refusal to allow mistakes to be corrected and a demonstration of an unwillingness to forgive yourself or anyone else who needs forgiveness.

It's time for you to move, realizing that the thing you are seeking is also seeking you.

No whining, no complaining about anyone. Everybody in your life has come to teach you lessons.

Comparing yourself to others is an act of violence against your authentic self.

Without the a test you don't have a testimony.

Challenges come so we can grow and be prepared for things we are not equipped to handle now. When we face our challenges with faith, prepared to learn, willing to make changes, and if necessary, to let go, we are demanding our power be turned on.

There are times when we do not recognize that it is time for us to move forward. When life is ready for us to move and we resist, life will move us by any means necessary. What may feel like a disaster is actually a graduation. Remain open to being guided, supported and protected by the universe.

Just give yourself permission to tell the truth to yourself.

As you move through the day, be aware of how you treat yourself. Be aware of what you do to and for yourself, because you set the standard for others. As you grow in your awareness of how you treat yourself, you will probably become aware of the example you have set for others. You may realize that the time has come to set a new example.

The way to achieve your own success is to be willing to help somebody else get it first.

When we find ourselves in the same situation repeatedly as a result of our conditioned responses, we must stop and do a new thing. The situation may look different. The route we take there may be altogether different. The lesson we must learn does not change. Get honest! Pay attention! Change what you do to create a change for yourself!

Sometimes you have to lose everything in order to gain yourself.

Education does not take place when you learn something you did not know before. Education is your ability to use what you have learned to be better today than you were yesterday.

I don't think anybody can be held accountable or responsible for anyone's behaviors expect the individual. This goes beyond that particular situation.

If you don't have a vision you're going to be stuck in what you know. And the only thing you know is what you've already seen.

This is probably one of the most difficult challenges any parent could face - learning to love the other parent enough to make the children first.

We can think, speak, and bring the best possible outcome into existence by focusing on where we are going, not on where we think we are.

Give yourself permission to smile a lot today. In fact, why not make it a habit!

If you want to hear God laugh, tell Him your plans.

Anger simply means that your personal power - your personal space, your personal sense of being - has been violated

You've got to be willing to lose everything to gain yourself.

In the process of planning and having a wedding, I forgot there would actually be a marriage, a union of minds, bodies, souls, and issues that would come together as soon as the ceremony was over.

[God is] all that is. Everything. Everything. Breath, life. Just get Webster's Dictionary and throw it on the floor. It's everything... God is everything.

There are no guarantees in life, but it is a sure thing that you will get back what you give. If you give 100 percent of your attention, energy, and time to a thing, you will get exactly that back. Make sure you give all that you have to make sure you will get all that you need.

You're never healing the level you're on. You're always healing the level you came from. For example, you know things today that you didn't know in your first marriage.

Who you are is strong enough to bare your pain

A man can't be in the space where there is feminine rage and bitterness. He doesn't know how to navigate it.

Today, I choose awareness. I choose to be aware of the beauty of life and living. I choose to be aware of the simple pleasures in life. I choose awareness of joy, awareness of peace, and awareness of love.

You can't just cry about the pain. You can't just pray about the pain. You must eliminate the pain.

I am the one I have been looking for.

Perhaps you went to bed last night thinking about the overdue bills, the lack of finances, the problematic people and situations you have to face. This morning you woke up. Did you give thanks? If you didn't, it is probably because you forgot that when praise goes up, the blessings come down. That should be enough to inspire you to be thankful.

When you know something or someone in your life is unhealthy or unproductive, that you have grown beyond where they are and where they want to keep you, you must let go. If you tell yourself you do not see it when you do, or if you tell yourself it will get better, you are not being honest with yourself. Stop trying to fix things or change things. Simply let go.

You will stumble at time, forget what you want, fall headfirst into your old habits and beliefs. Fear not! Always remember to be patient and loving with yourself and others because that is what God does all the time.

Once you get clear on who you are, what you do, and what you have been CALLED to do, you become powerful.

The only way to get what you really want is to let go of what you don't want.

Black Girls rock because we have no other choice.