Iyanla Vanzant is again together with her first guide in seven years. Her new full-length guide introduces the observe of non secular hygiene.
In Spiritual Hygiene: A Practical Path for Clean Living, Inner Authority, and Divine, the Fix My Life staple transforms readers’ path of remembering, restoring, and realigning their inside temple.
Inspired by the life and demise of Iyanla’s daughter, Nisa, and her personal private therapeutic journey, this guide teaches that simply as we are inclined to our bodily hygiene, our psychological, emotional, and non secular wellness additionally requires aware day by day care and sacred upkeep. In conjunction with the guide’s launch, she returns to OWN with a brand new iteration of Fix My Life. On Inside the Fix, Iyanla revisits 12 of the present’s hottest and impactful episodes, giving new commentary and viewers an opportunity to journey alongside together with her and assist heal themselves by way of downloadable journal prompts.
Ahead of the brand new yr, Blavity spoke with Iyanla about her new guide and what non secular hygiene actually means.
The final time we spoke, we talked about you stepping away from tv for some time, and as you place it, to not concentrate on leisure, however inner-tainment, and you’ve got stayed booked and busy. You took half within the Tonight’s Conversation Live fall tour. I truly attended the DC present. How was it for you being on the tour with the panel of different consultants of their fields, whereas having to navigate serving to others and likewise listening to the opinions and recommendation given by a few of your different fellow panelists?
I feel Tonight’s Conversation is gorgeous. For me, it’s a youthful market, and to see the up-and-coming academics and audio system, it’s actually an excellent factor. And specializing in relationships as a result of that is likely one of the pitfalls of our human expertise—our relationship with each other. So I’m glad that there’s one thing centered on there. And as you understand, all kinds of approaches have been taken. And I used to be the OG on the panel. So I assumed it was actually a fantastic alternative and really wanted.
It was positively a social dialog starter. There was a whole lot of social media buzz about it. That was how I discovered concerning the tour. Even although you mentioned that most of the panelists have been of the youthful era, after I went to the present, there was a combination of individuals. There have been individuals of their 20s all the best way as much as their 70s. I feel it was like a multi-generational expertise. What did you’re taking from that when it comes to who attended the exhibits?
That all of us have the identical points. And although the bigger majority needs to maintain us separated, and we don’t essentially speak to one another—we’ll speak about one another—however that range within the viewers speaks to the truth that we’re all in the identical boat. And we’re all attempting to get the identical data. I assumed it was lovely that there was such a large breadth of ages and genders and races. That’s what made it so lovely. I feel that’s what we’d like extra of proper now.
Now you’ve gotten a brand new guide that’s half memoir and half information for readers. It’s your first guide in seven years, and it’s all about non secular hygiene. I personally love the title of the guide. If you may, how would you outline non secular hygiene?
Spiritual hygiene is the day by day clearing of your insides. The method you clear your outsides—you sweep your enamel. But do you cleanse your coronary heart? You comb your hair, however do you strengthen your spirit? So non secular hygiene, identical to it might be bodily hygiene, it’s how we hold our insides clear day by day—and never simply when we’ve got a disaster or a breakup or a monetary state of affairs. It’s about what we will do day by day to maintain our insides clear and launch the congestion, the smog, and the litter that we’ve gathered over time.
Now, there are a couple of ideas within the guide about what it takes to attain non secular hygiene, or no less than get on that journey, as a result of as you simply defined, that is one thing that builds over time and ought to be a day by day observe. You speak about releasing poisonous emotional patterns, creating boundaries, understanding what your traumas are, reconnecting together with your objective and being intentional about it, embracing sorrow and studying the way to thrive regardless of what life throws our method. Is there one frequent thread out of those that you simply lay out within the guide that you simply discover to be the most typical?
Self-awareness. Be conscious of who you might be, what you do, why you do it, the way you do it, and the outcomes you get in consequence. Self-awareness. So many people are unaware of who we’re and what we do and why we do it. And it’s both a behavior or habit or simply unconsciousness. We’re not current with ourselves. We’re so busy reaching out. And what non secular hygiene does is it turns your gentle inside as a way to see and acknowledge and perceive, “OK, that is what I’m feeling. OK, that is what I’m doing. This is how I’m doing. Why am I doing that? And what am I feeling after I’m doing it? And how do I really feel after I do it? And what’s the consequence it’s getting me?”
You converse loads, and also you train loads about patterns, pathologies, and breaking cycles, and I do know for lots of people, irrespective of the place you might be, the place you come from, 2025 was a very, actually exhausting yr for lots of people. And in accordance with numerology, 2025 is a common 9 yr in numerology, which talks concerning the yr of breaking cycles and patterns that now not serve us, ending relationships and the like. It was a yr designed to be a time for deep reflection and private development. Would you say that out of your work, from this yr, together with your tour, with the guide, and what you’ve seen via the individuals that you simply’ve touched, and clearly what’s going on on the earth that you simply see each single day, would you say that that’s confirmed to be true?
Oh, completely. And that’s why Spiritual Hygiene is popping out proper now in the beginning of the yr. Things needed to finish. You can’t construct a brand new construction in case you’re holding on to the previous basis. And so many people had cracks in our basis and mildew and moss and mildew in our basis—of our minds, of our lives. All of the folks that thought they’d be in an excellent authorities job till they retired, the place are they at now? And then what do they should do to get again on observe? And how do they outline themselves past that good authorities job? Or these individuals who have been dedicated to, let’s say for instance, DEI or no matter it was, that has simply sort of been swatted away. How do you regroup? Where do you get that steering? Where do you get that path? All of you could get inside. It’s about your inside authority as a way to dwell clear and be free to precise who you might be. 2025 was a troublesome yr for a lot of, however that’s what it was designed to be—in order that we begin new. And not reaching out, however reaching in.
I additionally love that Fix My Life is returning, in a special capability, clearly. And on this iteration, you’ll be reflecting in your most memorable and impactful episodes with some up to date commentary as you mirror on these fixes—or non-fixes, perhaps—that you simply took a part of. How did you go about selecting which episodes to incorporate? Because all of them are wonderful to me. So how did you go about making the choices?
We took the 12 highest-rated exhibits as a result of we figured most individuals have been extra acquainted with them. We look again on the Six Brown Chicks, Miss Bonnie. The just one we didn’t deliver into the fold this time round was Jay Williams, the daddy with the 34 children. And that was a aware alternative as a result of the youngsters are older now and to disclose that sort of stuff disrupts their life. So we have been aware of what we have been selecting, and likewise selecting exhibits that mirror what’s happening on the earth immediately. So that as we undergo the present, we’re taking a look at it because it was, however now I’m bringing in commentary and saying, “Wait a minute, that is what it seems to be like on the floor, however that is what’s happening beneath the floor, and the way does this apply to you?” That’s what we do with the Inside the Fix.
We take a look at the present. We clarify what’s happening beneath the floor. This isn’t nearly a lady who weighs 600 kilos and hasn’t been outdoors. This isn’t nearly a person slapping his spouse round. This isn’t nearly six Black girls preventing on social media. That’s not what that is about. This is what it’s about: How does this apply to you? Where is that this in your life?
Every present has a worksheet. People can go and obtain it. And they get the lesson, they get the repair. They get reflection questions so that folks can see this isn’t about leisure solely. And these exhibits have been completed nearly 12 years in the past.
I like that, as a result of it may be used as journal prompts as we enter into 2026 and we get this refresh. Obviously, individuals are going to need you to do a reboot now. What would you say to that? There’s a whole lot of fixing nonetheless to be completed, and a few of your former topics have but to attain good non secular hygiene themselves. So what would you say to people who find themselves going to observe these episodes and wish extra outdoors of the downloadable paperwork you’re giving us?
Well, they’ve to speak to OWN about wanting extra. When they requested me to do that, I used to be very clear. I mentioned I’ll do it, if we will do it this fashion. This isn’t nearly doing tv anymore. It’s 555,000 channels. This is about therapeutic. This is about reconciliation. This is about giving individuals one thing that they’ll use of their day-to-day dwelling expertise to alter how we method our dwelling.
The very first thing we do is Six Brown Chicks as a result of these have been six girls who used the social media platform. They had a breakdown and the platform got here down. But in immediately’s world, in the event that they did what they did again then, it might have been a struggle. It would have been canceling individuals. It would have been every kind of issues immediately. So I speak about that: Here’s one other method to doing it. We don’t at all times have to leap out and assault and cancel and do these sorts of issues as a result of we’re embracing some fairly dangerous behaviors out right here.
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