Alicia Keys: “Oprah Taught Me To Say No And Find Joy”

Alicia Keys recently went on ‘Happy Place’ podcast and opened up about some deep issues of an over-worked, over-achiever’s life. The ‘Girl On Fire’ says that she learned a lot from the 66-years-old Oprah Winfrey.

“I would be so overwhelmed or overworked – I was just saying yes to everything and then I’d be exhausted. And there’s no joy, it steals your joy. That was a big lesson that actually Miss Oprah shared with me. She said to me that she had also experienced that and how she was always looking outside of herself for the answer,” Alicia Keys said speaking truth to “joy” and how we might steal it from ourselves sometimes.

In nuggets of wisdom Oprah dispensed to Keys she said, “And she finally realised that she’s the only one who knows herself, and we’re the only ones who truly knows what’s good for us and only us. She started to say, ‘You know what a resounding yes feels like’. Today, that sounds so obvious but in that moment no one had ever explained it so simply.”

Alicia Keys released a brand new track ‘Underdog’ at the beginning of the year that has been trending ever since. She added in the interview, “I do think boundaries is amazing. I didn’t have any, I had none. I had no boundaries, I didn’t even know how to put them in place. In fact, I gave them away willingly, happily, gratefully.”

On the power of ‘no’ she says, “I didn’t understand that you could say no. It took me so long to know on tour I could say, ‘Oh this is my someone special to me birthday. Let’s make sure that I’m not working on that day.’ I didn’t even know how to do that. I think things like that in regards to boundaries are really important.”

By: Nupur Saraswat