“Don’t get confused between what people say you are and who you know you are.”
Oprah Winfrey
Tonight’s episode of Oprah’s Lifeclass: The Tour features Deepak Chopra. Oprah and Deepak will be talking “spiritual solutions” to life’s most difficult problems. I traveled with Oprah’s Lifeclass on the the three-city tour to St. Louis, New York, and Toronto (don’t miss some backstage footage I took toward the end of the blog). Tonight’s episode was filmed on April 2nd from Radio City Music Hall in New York.
As always, I invite you to comment below and I will do my best to respond to your comments. I’d love to hear about your personal journeys. We are always looking for inspiring stories to feature on the site.
I invited my friend, author, and Positively Positive contributor, Elise Ballard, to the taping at Radio City. She did an amazing job putting together notes from the show. Below are some excerpts from her notes which I thought I would share.
One of the things I love about Deepak is that he is a man that minces not a word. Not one. He is straight to the point and gives no excess. There’s no B.S., and he really does seem to walk his talk.
During the show Perez Hilton, the notorious celebrity blogger, was one of the guests. I had read that Perez had drastically changed his ways and was no longer so ruthlessly mean on his blog (he’s even outed people), but many people had no idea he had changed and were surprised that he was on the show. Some of the audience members questioned him being there. One woman was upset because she felt the only reason he was on was because he was famous, and the only reason he was famous was because of his harsh negativity and mean-spiritedness. She had a point. I felt this was a very interesting conversation to have had, and everyone was straightforward and frank. I don’t feel that Deepak or Oprah let Perez off easy interview-wise, nor did they condemn him. Perez held his own and basically said that some people say you can’t look back and regret, but he didn’t believe that—he did have big regrets of how he acted and treated people in the past. However, he said he knew he couldn’t change the past and was committed to moving forward in his life much differently and in a much more positive and loving way.
TEN QUOTES FROM OPRAH’S LIFECLASS
“We are Spiritual Beings have a Human Experience. Not the other way around.”—Oprah Winfrey
“The highest form of intelligence is the ability to observe yourself without judging yourself.”—Deepak Chopra
“The goal is to be the observer of your thoughts and not let your thoughts control you.”—Deepak Chopra
“The world is a mirror for us—whatever you say about others is really how you feel about yourself.”—Deepak Chopra
(To Perez Hilton about why he was always ripping others down.)
“When we judge someone else, we are really judging ourselves.”—Deepak Chopra
“If he can’t be redeemed, then neither can I.”—Oprah Winfrey
(Regarding doubt professed by audience members about Perez changing his ways.)
“I’m not going to be defined by my past. I’m not going to let that prevent me from doing good in the future.”—Perez Hilton
“You can never feel good about yourself by bringing someone else down.”—Deepak Chopra
“The past is gone, the future is not here, now I am free of both. Right now, I choose joy.”—Deepak Chopra
“If you are living a life of love and giving and receiving the best you know how—you are living a spiritual life.”—Oprah Winfrey
FOUR EXERCISES FROM LIFECLASS BY DEEPAK CHOPRA
1.) “When you’re feeling upset or out of control of your thoughts, STOP.”
S: Stop
T: Take Three Deep Breaths and Smile Everywhere in Your Body
O: Observe How Your Body Feels
P: Proceed with Kindness and Compassion
2.) Our Ego Profile is our Bio: Our Roles/Accomplishments/How We Think the World Views Us.
Deepak asks us to create our Soul Profile by asking ourselves the following questions:
a.) Who are you? (not your roles in life, but who you truly are.)
b.) What do you want?
c.) What is my purpose?
d.) What do I want to contribute?
(Oprah said it took her two days to answer those questions when she went to India to study with Deepak—especially the first two. Deepak asked about ten questions to ask yourself. You’ll have to watch the class to get them all—he was going too fast for me to get them all down!)
3.) When making a decision, always ask yourself, “Will it make me happy and will it make others happy as well?”
4.) Write out your story or any story you want to happen from now through the next five years. Where are you or what is the story in five years?
In New York, I caught up with Deepak and Perez backstage. Below are some clips from my exclusive interviews with them.
(By the way, check out Deepak’s latest book, Spiritual Solutions: Answers to Life’s Greatest Challenges. I personally ready it and loved it.)
Tune in tonight night at 8/7c on OWN, online at Oprah.com, and on Facebook.com/OWNTV.
Here are links to the first four episodes in case you missed them:
EPISODE 1: WITH IYANLA VANZANT
EPISODE 4: WITH IYANLA VANZANT, TONY ROBBINS, T.D. JAKES, AND DEEPAK CHOPRA
Here is the full Lifeclass schedule and themes:
| March 26 | Stopping the Pain with Iyanla Vanzant |
| April 2 | Living Fearlessly with Tony Robbins |
| April 9 | Living On Purpose with T.D. Jakes |
| April 16 | Forgiveness with Iyanla Vanzant, Tony Robbins, T.D. Jakes, and Deepak Chopra |
| April 23 | Spiritual Laws of Success with Deepak Chopra |
| April 30 | Gratitude with Iyanla Vanzant, Tony Robbins, T.D. Jakes and Deepak Chopra |
Eric Handler is the co-founder of Positively Positive. He recently spoke at TEDx. Follow Eric on TWITTER.
