On the Oprah Show, Oprah and Omega Institute co-founder Elizabeth Lesser sat down to discuss the meaning of spirituality and how difficult times can help you find your spiritual path.

By Elizabeth Lesser

The transformational journey is a voyage with a hundred different names: the Odyssey, the Grail quest, the great initiation, the death and rebirth process, the supreme battle, the dark night of the soul, the hero's journey. All of these names describe the process of surrendering to a time of great difficulty, allowing the pain to break us open, and then being reborn—stronger, wiser, kinder. Every religion includes in its texts, stories of descent and rebirth. From Jonah in the whale to Jesus on the cross, and from the Hindu hero Arjuna on the battlefield, to the prince Siddhartha leaving the castle in order to become the Buddha, the great ones have gone before us on this journey.

Find out more about Elizabeth's Phoenix Process

Super Soul Sunday's "The Journey Within" guests have not only experienced life-changing journeys—they've also written about them! Be sure to read an excerpt from Elizabeth Lesser, Elizabeth Gilbert and Iyanla Vanzant's books!

• Read about parenting in Elizabeth Lesser's Broken Open
• Find out what really happened while Elizabeth Gilbert was in Italy in Eat, Pray, Love
• Iyanla Vanzant writes about being pushed to her breaking point in Peace from Broken Peaces

Tune in Sunday, January 29, at 8 a.m./12 p.m. PT to watch their journeys on Super Soul Sunday!

By Elizabeth Lesser

For years I have used the words of poets to guide my life. And by poets, I don’t only mean Emily Dickenson or Walt Whitman. I lump into the job description of “poet” all sorts of thinkers and mystics: Jesus, Dr. King, Eleanor Roosevelt, Rachel Carson... Anyone who can still my restless and worried mind with the magic of a few powerful, purposeful words is crowned a poet in my gamebook.

Here’s what I do: I memorize one line from a piece of writing and I use it to begin and end my morning meditation. Sometimes that meditation lasts only as long as the line itself! Sometimes it happens in the car as I rush to work. I have found that a line of poetic writing is like a vitamin pill. If I can’t eat breakfast, at least I have the potent nutrients packed in a pill. And if I can’t spend a chunk of time wrapped in the healing cloak of silence and contemplation, at least I get the jolt of insight from my chosen line of poetry.

This week I have been using a line from Rumi—the Sufi poet from 12th century Persia. Rumi says:

"Let yourself be silently drawn

by the stronger pull of what you really love." *

I am drawn to this line when I in the process of making a decision. I think it’s particularly hard for women to make big decisions because our lives impact so many other lives—it’s as if there’s a jury in the room when we are trying to determine our next steps. Depending on your stage of life, that jury may include your children, your mate, your colleagues, your parents, or all of the above plus a myriad of other people who depend on you. When Rumi says “let yourself be silently drawn,” he is telling us to usher the jury out of the room for a while—to drop down beneath the choppy waters of the mind, into the deep stillness of the ocean.  Ahhhh. Sounds good, right?

That oceanic silence is within you—always.  It is waiting for you. And in its healing chambers, if you listen closely, you may begin to hear the voice of your authentic self. Rumi calls that voice “the stronger pull of what you really love.” Sometimes we’re afraid to get still enough to hear that voice. What if it should lead us in an unsettling, even dangerous direction? What if it tells you that what you really love is quite different from the life you are leading now? What if it messes with your head and you end up making a big, impetuous mistake?

Not to worry, because that’s not the way the still small voice works.