I'm Oprah Winfrey. Welcome to Super Soul Conversations, the podcast. I believe that one of

the most valuable gifts you can give yourself is time, taking time to be more fully present.

Your journey to become more inspired and connected to the deeper world around us starts right

now.

Over the years, the centuries, so many teachers and poets and songwriters have talked about

the significance of knowing yourself. I know we've all heard to that own self be true,

Shakespeare. Or learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all. Whitney Houston,

what I know for sure is that in all the talk about loving yourself, you can't begin to love

yourself or even be true to yourself unless you know who you are, separate from your ego.

So, think about this for a moment. You're at home listening to me and taking in the thoughts

that I'm sharing right now. And there is an inner space that allows you to perceive these thoughts,

little, not even a space. I'm just using the word space because there is no other word.

There is the ability to perceive what I'm saying and be aware of what I'm saying. That is where

the true you abide in that awareness and the very center of yourself. And when you stray from

that center, you get lost and you make mistakes. I learned this the hard way. Your ego takes over,

everybody has an ego. I used to think that ego showed itself through someone being arrogant or

stuck up or haughty or the who does she think she is printing down a red carpet kind of thing.

Well, I'm in show business and the business of showing myself. So, I'm aware that there's a lot

of egoism involved in this business. And I always thought that I had my ego in check until I realize

that it's not just the obvious. It's not always acting out or showing off. In 2008, I chose Eckhart

Tolly's book, A New Earth, for my book club, chapters three and four literally changed the way I saw

myself and my ego. It changed for me what ego meant. And Tolly says that any identification with

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