Part 2 Oprah #thelifeyouwantMIA

To all of you who went with me in spirit here are some more highlights to give you a taste of what you missed from not actually being there – first each participant was provided with a wrist band which changed colour according to what was happening on stage it was called our energy band.

Friday night was Ms O alone giving you her history from Mississipi to present reminding me that my favourite quote from her is : “I’m the master of my fate, I'm the captain of my soul ".I must say she looks exactly like she does on TV and she has obviously lost weight being on this 'life you want' tour.

Saturday started with meditation led by Deepak as only he can do it "the self of you is the self of the universe .....meditation is developing a spiritual muscle “ - we all developed some spiritual muscle as you could drop a pin in the arena during meditation and it would have sounded like a bomb.

Then we had Elizabeth Gilbert who told us to grab life with both hands... stop settling  .... even if you feel you are boxed in and can't free yourself – start now to plan and save  – she gave us a story of a mother of 5 whose husband left her with the children but she had a dream of touring the world - well she saved a dollar a day for over 20 years and when her last child graduated from school she booked her cruise ... follow your dreams.

Next came Rob Bell a minister from Michigan  he was new to me but he won't be new anymore - he spoke of  validation we all want to be validated  - as Oprah says " everyone of us is looking for the same thing, we want to know we matter ". Minister Bell told us to look out for ourselves because we do everything for everyone else and leave ourselves out  - ain’t that the truth!

We next learnt our soul is in a cycle as out came an exercise instructor for a spinning gym called Soul Cycle which developed out of 2 women following their dreams and opening  a high energy cycle club where they use bright yellow cycles - of course we were on our feet jumping to the music - DJ KISS was our DJ for the 2 days with some serious dance music !!!!

Iyanla was the final presenter and although a little loud for me, her comedic touch balances that out. She told us about her life and how life has been her friend no matter how bad a week she has and the past two had been extremely rough as her assistant had a stroke - but through all her challenges life lifts her up. She apologized for not wearing the proper undergarments as she had forgotten them as she arrived in a rush Saturday morning and I thought to myself it takes a woman very comfortable in her skin to come on stage in front of thousands without a bra and huge girls one much bigger than the other - shows she has the ego thing under control.

Amy Purdy was there to present a Toyota award - the Miami  'standing ovation' which was given to a woman who took her and her husband’s life savings and bought a bus which they equipped with computers and drove into the ghettos to give underprivileged children a chance  because she didn't want to retire to a rocking chair on her porch.....well Toyota gave her $25,000 and Ms O matched it of course.

We ended knowing “the only courage you ever need is the courage to live the life of your dreams” – Oprah. A wonderful thing happened while I was sitting in the airport waiting on my flight home, I met  two women  and they both asked  "when are you going to do something like this in Jamaica ?" My answer - soon - we will not have Oprah but great speakers none the less so stay tuned.