“Turn your wounds into wisdom…”

This is a well-known quote from Oprah Winfrey. Her words resonated for me because they seemed so appropriate to The Pearl Within – the idea that difficult experiences in your life can be transformed into wisdom, like the oyster that wraps a painful intruder in layers of lustre. 

It took some research, however, to find out when she said “turn your wounds into wisdom”. In fact, it was back in 1997, when she gave the commencement address at Wellesley College in Massachusetts. She was sharing with the graduates five lessons she had learned that helped her to make her life better. They are worth repeating, in a nutshell:

1. Life is a journey: it teaches you to be who you are, moment by moment. I started off trying to be Diana Ross, then Barbara Walters, until I realised I could be a better Oprah and found a way to answer my own truth.

2. When people show you who they are, believe them the first time. This is particularly important in relationships – when he doesn’t call back the first time, when you are mistreated the first time, when someone is dishonest the first time. Live your life from truth and you will survive everything.

3. Turn your wounds into wisdom. You will be wounded many times in your life. You’ll make mistakes. Some people will call them failures but I’ve learned that failure is really God’s way of saying, “Excuse me, you’re moving in the wrong direction.”

4. Keep a grateful journal. Every night list five things that happened this day and in days to come, that you are grateful for. What it will begin to do is to change your perspective of your day and your life.

5. Create the highest, grandest vision possible for your life because you become what you believe. If you were to ask me what is the secret to my success, it is that I understand there is a power greater than myself that rules my life. If you can be still long enough through the good times and hard times, to connect yourself to the source – I call it God, you can call it whatever you want – and allow the energy that is your personality, your life force, to be connected to the greater force, anything is possible for you.

No matter what opinion you might have of Oprah and her TV shows, there’s no denying she has overcome huge obstacles in her life to become the woman she is today. She certainly walks the walk so I’d always listen to what she has to say. 

Inspired by Oprah’s words, part of my highest, grandest vision for The Pearl Within is to help women turn their wounds into wisdom.