[Video] 5 Life Lessons From Iyanla Vanzant On Leveling Up

Iyanla Vanzant once again lit up the stage with wisdom at the 2018 Essence Empowerment Experience in New Orleans, during the Essence Festival. Breath Of Life Daily was grateful to be apart of the experience and catch a few highlights from her powerful session. The full video can be found at Breath Of Life Daily on YouTube. Check out a few gems we gleaned from her session:

Seek To Evolve In Peace
Iyanla began with an empowering story of what it looks like to do the inner work of healing without interference. Get centered. Aim to be in a place without distractions or energy that weighs you down. Focus promotes fertility. "What you need is IN you."

Be Willing To Get Up. Do The Work
Elevate your Position, Posture, and Perspective, to better serve GOD'S Purpose for you.
Once we change our posture we'll change our position. Take an idea and stop talking about it. Iyanla is an advocate for people "doing the inner work" to become your best self. It's necessary. Her acronym for PAIN: Pay. Attention. Inward. Now

Be Fully Present
How are you standing up in your life? What is your posture some of us need to change our posture. Sometimes things fall apart, so they can fall in line with divine assignment. The struggles we experience help shape our character. We should utilize our trials like sandpaper to bring about something good. Honestly "Who would you be without your hard times, who would you be had you not learned how to make it on very little?"

Be Willing, Honest, Open
Your W.H.O is your H.O.W! If we wanna know how to get through, how to overcome, we have to be willing to take a look inside ourselves and be open to GOD's will for us completely. Who - Willingness Honesty, Openess. "For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it. What will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul? Or what can a man give in exchange for his soul? - Matthew 16:25-26

Give every thought OVER 
Observation. Examination. Validation. Refrain. Be aware of what feelings and thoughts you come across but make sure to test the validity in them. "Validate what you're thinking. If you feel bad and you have that thought, feel bad, just don't dwell in it." "If you have a negative thought or heavy thought, tell somebody."

If you're on the other side of the conversation and somebody is telling you about their pain.
"Just be present with them." It's not our job to try to fix or change anything. Sometimes it's good to just listen.

Iyanla charges each of us to work with ourselves in a more genttle, kind, and loving way and encourages us that we can do it wherever we are.