Yesterday, I Cried

“The most powerful spiritual healer, fixer, teacher on the planet.” —Oprah Winfrey

What if your deepest pain held the key to your greatest healing?

In Yesterday, I Cried, New York Times bestselling author and spiritual teacher Iyanla Vanzant shares her powerful personal story—a journey marked by abuse, neglect, heartbreak, and loss. With unflinching honesty and raw emotion, she invites us to witness how life’s most painful moments can transform into profound lessons of resilience, self-love, and spiritual growth.

Through deeply personal reflections, Iyanla shows how crying—once seen as a sign of weakness—became her pathway to strength, clarity, and healing. Her story is not just her own, but one many will recognize: the struggle to rise above past wounds and reclaim inner peace.

This soul-stirring work is for anyone who’s ever felt broken by life, yet still hopes to find wholeness. If you’ve ever asked, “Why me?” or “How do I move forward?”—this book offers an honest, compassionate answer.

Contents

Preface

Introduction

The Beginning

1. What's the Lesson When You Think You Figured Out the Lesson, and You Really Haven't?

2. What's the Lesson When You Are an Unwanted, Neglected, and Abused Child?

3. What's the Lesson When You Do Not Realize That You Are a Teacher?

4. What's the Lesson When You Don't Realize That Life Is a School?

5. What's the Lesson When You Are Poor, Ugly, and Feeling Bad?

6. What's the Lesson When You Are Raped as a Child?

7. What's the Lesson When You've Been Taught That You Are Unlovable?

8. What's the Lesson When You Don't Reconcile Your Past Before Moving Ahead?

9. What's the Lesson When You Engage in Self-Destructive Behavior?

10. What's the Lesson When You Are a Motherless Child Raising Children?

11. What's the Lesson When You Learn the Lesson, Then Forget It?

12. What's the Lesson When You Begin to Recognize Yourself as Who You Really Are?

13. What's the Lesson When You Lose Someone You Really Love?

14. What's the Lesson When You Have Mastered All the Wrong Lessons?

15. What's the Lesson When You Try to Cheat on a Test?

16. What's the Lesson When You Don't Love Yourself First?

17. What's the Lesson When You Get the Lesson but Don't Know What to Do With It?

18. What's the Lesson When You Let the Past Pass?

19. What's the Lesson When You Do It All Wrong and It Turns Out All Right?

Epilogue