I went to see Oprah in Denver this month largely because I had noticed that so many attendees at my vision board workshops had selected her image for placement on their vision boards. [She was an inspiration for many 2020 visions.] The event, labeled Oprah’s Vision 2020: Your Life in Focus, was held at the Pepsi Center on March 7 (before it closed on March 16 due to concerns over the spread of the coronavirus) with her tour partner Weight Watchers. Denver was one of nine cities selected for the tour, and this was her last stop. I’m an Oprah fan (isn’t everyone?), but I might not have gone to this event if it hadn’t been such a hot topic of conversation at every workshop I led this year. Everyone was so into Oprah at one of my privately hosted workshops that I impulsively asked the hostess if she wanted to go. She whooped YES and we bought our tickets that day.
Oprah is an inspiration for many 2020 visions!
Hosting these workshops over the years, I’ve seen Oprah’s image placed in almost every area of the Bagua grid we use to organize our vision boards. (Read more about why and how we use the Bagua to organize our vision boards.) Here are areas on the grid where an image of Oprah (to evoke what she represents) might be placed:
- Wealth & Prosperity (upper left corner) or Career & Journey (lower center): Oprah is a mega-success in business.
- Fame & Reputation (upper center): Oprah represents authenticity in who she is and how she works.
- Career & Journey (lower middle center) and/or Creativity (middle right): Oprah is an incredible writer, interviewer, actor, speaker, producer, and TV personality who embodies a powerful career path and mind-boggling creativity.
- Health & Family (middle left): Oprah has shared her fluctuating weight woes with us like we’re family, and she shares tips with us on how we can stay healthy.
Using the feng shui bagua helps to make your vision board work for you. - Helpful People & Travel (lower right corner): Oprah makes us feel like she could be our best friend, and she has surrounded herself with people who help her deliver her message. Plus, she travels the world!
- Knowledge & Self-Cultivation (lower left corner): Oprah is a spiritual seeker and proud believer and reciter of scripture.
- Center of the Bagua, which holds the central or foundational image for your vision board: Oprah inspires us to live our best life.
It felt like a rock concert, with adoring and well-behaved fans.
Along with 15,000 other adoring fans, my friend René and I felt like we were part of a group of very well-behaved, well-dressed, adoring rock-star fans. Here’s what we did that day: We waited in lines to have our pictures taken with Oprah. (Well, with a giant image of her.)
We texted said photo to our friends and families. We danced in the aisles to the upbeat music of her opening band, DayBreaker; we made friends with our row seat mates; we stood and waved our arms; and we sat and meditated together. We listened to what her 2020 vision of wellness was for herself and then in our workbooks we wrote what our 2020 visions of wellness were for ourselves. We watched as she interviewed (really just chatted with) her best friend, Gayle King, on stage, inspiring us to reach out to our best friends. We cried when she spoke about her connection to Spirit in a moving story about saying good-bye to her dying mother. We cried again when she thanked her sister in the audience. We danced some more. We left inspired and energized (I say this with confidence since I heard so many express how inspired and energized they were as we streamed out).
Here’s my big take-away from my day with Oprah:
She is gloriously human. Unabashedly herself. And she celebrates both. She has mastered being Oprah.
Her message is not: Be like me. Her message is: Be Like You. Be your best you.
Her books, programs, magazine, even this national tour, are all about helping others to figure out how to master becoming their best self and to live their best life. Which is what a vision board helps you do.
Oprah’s message inspired me to post my photo with her on my vision board this year, too. Not because I want to be Oprah. But because she has inspired me to master becoming the best me I can be. I placed the photo in the Center of my board because a central part of my life and work is to continue hosting vision board workshops to help others do the same.