Iyanla Vanzant Quotes & Sayings

Their issues are not your issues. — Iyanla Vanzant

Within me so that my divine relationship with all men will be restored. I ask for the will to forgive and move forward in love. I lay down my weapons. I open my heart. I forgive. I let it be! And so it is! — Iyanla Vanzant

When you find yourself in a new situation, everything that requires healing is going to rush to the surface. — Iyanla Vanzant

In love, there is a total acceptance of self, and a willingness to give of self without an expectation of receiving anything in return. When you love, you are not afraid to share the truth of who you are, and you accept the truth of others without judgment. — Iyanla Vanzant

A man who is not accountable to anyone is a danger to himself — Iyanla Vanzant

The way you get more is by having a daily spiritual practice. — Iyanla Vanzant

There comes a point in time when you must know that everything you have already given or done is enough. This is not something anyone else can tell you. You must know. Giving without receiving doesn't prove anything except that you know how to be taken advantage of. — Iyanla Vanzant

We must each learn to feel comfortable in our own uniqueness by rising above the fear of being wrong and the aversion to being different. — Iyanla Vanzant

Set an intention to heal any unexpressed anger that may be present in your life. Go to a quiet place with pen and paper. Take a few deep breaths. Ask your anger to speak to you. Write down the thoughts and feelings. When you are finished, forgive yourself for holding on to the anger for so long. — Iyanla Vanzant

Until and unless you know that you are enough just the way you are, you will always be driven to look for more. Knowing that you are enough is a function of consciousness. Your enough-ness develops in direct proportion to the relationship you have with your true identity. Until you wholeheartedly believe in your own worth, in spite your of accomplishments and possessions, there will be a void in your Spirit. I had more than a void. I had a gaping hole that no amount of achievement, money, or acknowledgment could fill. I'm not good enough, and I will never be good enough to deserve this kind of attention. — Iyanla Vanzant

If you want to be at peace, you have to be clear about your intetion and - moment by moment - in alignment with your intention — Iyanla Vanzant

Parents are teachers, guides, leaders, protectors and providers for their children. — Iyanla Vanzant

In all relationships, regardless of their nature, there comes that moment when you understand that there are some things you will never understand. When you are standing in that moment, just be right with it. — Iyanla Vanzant

I'm okay, you're okay. Now let's go to work. — Iyanla Vanzant

Acceptance means that you know, regardless of what happened, that there is something bigger than you at work. It also means you know that you are okay and that you will continue to be okay. — Iyanla Vanzant

The road of life is strewn with the bodies of promising people. People who show promise, yet lack the confidence to act. People who make promises they are unable to keep. People who promise to do tomorrow what they could do today. Promising young stars, athletes, entrepreneurs who wait for promises to come true. Promise without a goal and a plan is like a barren cow. You know what she could do if she could do it, but she can't. Turn your promise into a plan. Make no promise for tomorrow if you are able to keep it today. And if someone calls you promising, know that you are not doing enough today. — Iyanla Vanzant

If you want to run the show, God will let you. If you want to pull all the strings, that's up to you. If you want to insist that what you are doing is the way it should be done, even when you are not getting anywhere, go right ahead. God will let you run yourself ragged, if you choose to do so. Unfortunately, you may not always be aware that you are in God's way ... God has no need to prove to you what God can do. — Iyanla Vanzant

You can't do anything as long as you are afraid of what might happen. Fear clouds opportunities, erases possibilities, and limits the ability to move beyond the place in which the mind is stuck. No matter how difficult we think the problem is, we must muster up the courage to face it. — Iyanla Vanzant

The voice I had accepted as Divine Guidance was actually the voice of my ego leading me right into destruction. — Iyanla Vanzant

I took my kids everywhere. I didn't have money for child care, so I took them to college with me and they sat in the hallway. — Iyanla Vanzant

Comparison is an act of violence against the self. — Iyanla Vanzant

What is it that would make a creature as fierce, majestic and powerful as a lion is, subject itself to the intimidation of a man a whip and a chair? The lion has been taught to forget what it is. — Iyanla Vanzant

Trust is not about being comfortable. It is about being willing to move beyond your comfort zone when there is absolutely no evidence you will be supported. Think of it this way. Trust is based on your ability to stand your ground and rely on your own abilities, knowing that no matter what happens, you will be better off than you were in the beginning. — Iyanla Vanzant

An unpeaceful mind cannot hear God. Any unpeaceful feeling is the indicator that what I am thinking is forgivable. — Iyanla Vanzant

When you have something to do life will not allow you to ove foward until you do it. — Iyanla Vanzant

We're all in prison. All of us are in prison, but some of us have a key. — Iyanla Vanzant

Acknowledgemen t of what you feel, what you know, what you need is the first step toward healing. — Iyanla Vanzant

Spiritual consciousness does not make your problems go away; it does, however, help you view them from a different vantage point. — Iyanla Vanzant

Why are you measuring? This is how you block, delay, hinder, obstruct and deny his place in the life as a father. — Iyanla Vanzant

Our minds work like a garden. It is fertile ground that accepts any and everything we plant. Good or evil, constructive or destructive, our lives will bear the fruit of the seeds we plant in our minds. — Iyanla Vanzant

If someone has offended you, insulted you, or disappointed you, let it go! If you are remembering all the ways you have been hurt or forgotten, let it go! Ask yourself, what good does it do for me to hold on to this? — Iyanla Vanzant

Prayer is asking for rain. Faith is carrying an umbrella. Faith is the inner sense of knowing that with divine order working on your side, all things will come together for your good. Faith is knowing that there is a divine plan and purpose for everything in life — Iyanla Vanzant

It is not your duty or responsibility to change the minds of other people. The nature of their thinking is advanced or limited by their experience. In your presence, they have an opportunity to learn about you and, perhaps, to grow. — Iyanla Vanzant

Today I am devoted to addressing all the little things about me and in my life that I have not mastered! — Iyanla Vanzant

No matter how painful your past has been, you have made it through. — Iyanla Vanzant

Your willingness to look at your darkness is what empowers you to change. — Iyanla Vanzant

People are hurting. People are suffering. But you can not get everywhere. — Iyanla Vanzant

Life gives you an endless supply of do-overs. — Iyanla Vanzant

The only relationship we can have in this life is the relationship we have with ourselves. We cannot love anybody more than we love ourselves. We cannot treat anyone any better than we treat ourselves. When you forget you, give up on you, or devalue yourself, anyone coming into your life has a universal responsibility to follow your lead. — Iyanla Vanzant

Each of us face a moment in our lives called 'the breakdown moment.' This is the time when you must stand toe to toe, eyeball to eyeball, with the very thing you have tried desperately to avoid. In that moment, when there is nothing standing between you and the thing you fear the most, you will be forced to step into your greatness, because that is what life is demanding of you. — Iyanla Vanzant

There is a lot of healing going on. Really! More people are vegetarians, more are in the green movement, more of us are tearing down the old paradigms and embracing same-sex marriage, single motherhood, men raising babies. — Iyanla Vanzant

We set the standard of how we want to be treated. Our relationships are reflections of the relationships we have with ourselves. — Iyanla Vanzant

All of us have ways in which we mask and cover our pain. — Iyanla Vanzant

I don't think there's such a thing as a selfish prayer. Prayer puts you in communication so you can talk about whatever you want to talk about. — Iyanla Vanzant

What do you do when it seems as if people want to stay in their pain. They have a story to tell and they tell you every chance they get. Well, believe it or not, they may like where they are. Our job is to leave them there. You can point the way out of pain, but you cannot force them to get out. You can support the move beyond their limitations, but you cannot make the move for them. — Iyanla Vanzant

You are always being prepared for something better or protected from something worse. — Iyanla Vanzant

Everything God does is purposeful. And since God is in each of us, each of us has a purpose. — Iyanla Vanzant

We have a tendency to always test people's love. 'I want to see how badly I have to behave before you'll leave me. Because I don't really think you want me anyhow.' — Iyanla Vanzant

Beloveds, you are fine, just the way you are! Perfect in your imperfection! You are divine! Growing brighter and more brilliant each day, you can accept the truth of who you are. — Iyanla Vanzant

Everything is just as it needs to be. And if we would forgive, our minds and hearts would open and we could see another possibility. — Iyanla Vanzant

Everything we experience-no matter how unpleasant-comes into our lives to teach us something. — Iyanla Vanzant

The remedy for life's broken pieces is not classes, workshops or books. Don't try to heal the broken pieces. Just forgive. — Iyanla Vanzant

The event is not what you should be working on. You should be working on your response or reaction to an event. You either react to it - that means you become victimized, and you say this thing is happening to you - or you respond to it and say the solution must come through you - that's where you stay focused, not on the rightness, wrongness, fairness of the event, but on the appropriateness of your response. — Iyanla Vanzant

[God is] all that is. Everything. Everything. Breath, life. Just get Webster's Dictionary and throw it on the floor. It's everything ... God is everything. — Iyanla Vanzant

Accept all invitations to do a new thing. Dare not limit yourself. Move toward your wildest # dream , take the labels off your mind, and step boldly into your greatness. — Iyanla Vanzant

Lives fall apart when they need to be rebuilt. — Iyanla Vanzant

Black Girls rock because we have no other choice. — Iyanla Vanzant

My grandma always said, "Trouble is what God uses to prepare you for better things!" If you have trouble in your life, you are in a valley. If you are in a valley, you are being prepared for something bigger, better, greater; something you probably could not handle now. — Iyanla Vanzant

Till your mental soil with determination. Fertilize your emotional soil with positive words. And plant the seed of your heart's desire with your disciplined efforts. — Iyanla Vanzant

When you know something or someone in your life is unhealthy or unproductive, that you have grown beyond where they are and where they want to keep you, you must let go. If you tell yourself you do not see it when you do, or if you tell yourself it will get better, you are not being honest with yourself. Stop trying to fix things or change things. Simply let go. — Iyanla Vanzant

Many self-employed people provide services that are nonessential. So whether you get your hair done less or your hair cut less, or your nails done less, as a writer and a speaker I was very clear that corporations weren't being as open and as generous and I wasn't getting the kind of work that I usually got. — Iyanla Vanzant

So many of us invest a fortune making ourselves look good to the world, yet inside we are falling apart. It's time to invest on the inside. — Iyanla Vanzant

Some of us pray demands. Some of us pray complaints. Some of us pray knowing, and some of us pray not knowing. But prayer is the attitude that you hold in your heart. — Iyanla Vanzant

From speaking with my mother I learned that forgiveness is a process that begins with the choice to end your own suffering. — Iyanla Vanzant

I was sitting on the bus, and the sign said if you're ready to better your life, come to Medgar Evers College, and I got off the bus and went to Medgar Evers College. — Iyanla Vanzant

I am not my sister's keeper. I am my sister. — Iyanla Vanzant

I now realize that just because you can take a punch does not mean you must stand in front of a fist, particularly not when the fist is your own. — Iyanla Vanzant

You're never healing the level you're on. You're always healing the level you came from. For example, you know things today that you didn't know in your first marriage. — Iyanla Vanzant

I grew up in the Holiness Church, where prayer was an event. — Iyanla Vanzant

Everything happens when it needs to happen; everyone is always where they need to be. You will never miss out on what is meant for you, even if it has to come to you in a roundabout way. — Iyanla Vanzant

It is important to acknowledge all your feelings and not beat yourself up for having them. Your feelings are not good or bad, they just are. — Iyanla Vanzant

Everything that happens to you is a reflection of what you believe about yourself. We cannot outperform our level of self-esteem. We cannot draw to ourselves more than we think we are worth. — Iyanla Vanzant

Sometimes on the journey, you step in dog poop. But you don't let the whole journey be about the fact that your shoe got poop on it. — Iyanla Vanzant

You know that you've healed an issue when you can talk about it and you're not weeping, when you can speak to it and identify the lesson. You know that you've healed an issue when, having gone through that, has a benefit that you live today. — Iyanla Vanzant

Every day is your day if you claim it. — Iyanla Vanzant

I have a daily message, 'Stimumail,' which I use to stimulate the mind and heart. I have the opportunity to touch over 60,000 people I have never met. I also use Twitter and Facebook. — Iyanla Vanzant

You are the light of the world. You are an instrument of the Divine. You are the greatest miracle in the world. Life is graced by your presence. — Iyanla Vanzant

I had to get really clear about what was meaningful & what wasn't, who I was & who I wasn't & who I wasn't going to be anymore. — Iyanla Vanzant

What I am doing; how I am being as I am doing it; and does it bring honor to my community? What is the lesson in what I am doing? And most importantly, am I having fun? — Iyanla Vanzant

When you're the strong one, people don't give you permission to hurt. — Iyanla Vanzant

Release and detach from every person, every circumstance, every condition, and every situation that no longer serves a divine purpose in your life. All things have a season, and all seasons must come to an end. Choose a new season, filled with purposeful thoughts and activities. — Iyanla Vanzant

WE [black women] HAVE ADAPTED TO A SOCIETY THAT DOES'NT HONOR US. — Iyanla Vanzant

I surround people in unconditional acceptance and love to such a degree that everything that is unloving about them rises to the surface. — Iyanla Vanzant

You can accept or reject the way you are treated by other people, but until you heal the wounds of your past, you will continue to bleed. You can bandage the bleeding with food, with alcohol, with drugs, with work, with cigarettes, with sex, but eventually, it will all ooze through and stain your life. You must find the strength to open the wounds, stick your hands inside, pull out the core of the pain that is holding you in your past, the memories, and make peace with them — Iyanla Vanzant

You are never angry for the reason you think you are. There's an older hurt under that. — Iyanla Vanzant

Sharing what you've learned and helping others is a good source of renewal. — Iyanla Vanzant

When you need to be loved, you take love wherever you can find it. When you are desperate to be loved, feel love, know love, you seek out what you think love should look like. When you find love, or what you think love is, you will lie, kill, and steal to keep it. But learning about real love comes from within. It cannot be given. It cannot be taken away. It grows from your ability to re-create within yourself, the essence of loving experiences you have had in your life. — Iyanla Vanzant

In speaking the truth of your experience to another, it will serve you well to realize that how they choose to respond is not your responsibility. — Iyanla Vanzant

I've always told the truth. I think that's been part of the foundation of my career. I don't put myself above people. I don't put myself different than people. And I, for one, know that none of us is immune. — Iyanla Vanzant

We go into a relationship looking for love, not realizing that we must bring love with us. We must bring a strong sense of self and purpose into a relationship. We must bring a sense of value, of who we are. We must bring an excitement about ourselves, our lives, and the vision we have for these two essential elements. We must bring a respect for wealth and abundance. Having achieved it to some satisfactory degree on our own, we must move into relationships willing to share what we have, rather than being afraid of someone taking it. — Iyanla Vanzant

Just give yourself permission to tell the truth to yourself. — Iyanla Vanzant

We must learn not to give up when requirements are not met or when commitments are broken. To do so is a refusal to allow mistakes to be corrected and a demonstration of an unwillingness to forgive yourself or anyone else who needs forgiveness. — Iyanla Vanzant

Your interests will guide you. Give no concern to what they say you cannot do. Be willing to accept the challenge. Take time to retreat to that quiet place within the pit of your soul and unleash your right to decide what is best for you. — Iyanla Vanzant

possibilities You have in store for me.Today, — Iyanla Vanzant

Comparing yourself to others is an act of violence against your authentic self. — Iyanla Vanzant

I've learned we all get exactly what we need, when we need it, in order to learn what God intends for us to know so we can be who God intends for us to be. — Iyanla Vanzant

If you don't like your sister or don't get along with your father, let's find out if you like yourself. Let's not sugarcoat anything about it. — Iyanla Vanzant

When you really believe that you are worthy of the best, that you deserve the best & that there is enough of the best for you to have plenty, there will be no need for you to hold on to what you have. Allow yourself to imagine what your life would be like if your hands and heart were to receive something better than what you are holding onto right now. — Iyanla Vanzant

forgive myself; and ask them for forgiveness. More important, I had to see the best in them, no matter what they chose for themselves. — Iyanla Vanzant

No storm can last forever. It will never rain 365 days consecutively. Keep in mind that trouble comes to pass, not to stay. Don't worry! No storm, not even the one in your life, can last forever. — Iyanla Vanzant