As life feels increasingly noisy, fractured and emotionally demanding, Marianne Williamson is inviting women to do something refreshingly radical: return to love. An acclaimed American author, spiritual teacher and global voice for conscious leadership, Marianne Williamson is visiting the UAE for the first time as part of the Kayan Wellness Festival 2026.
Her arrival feels timely, as anxiety is documented to be rising, certainty feels scarce, and many women carry the invisible weight of modern life – balancing ambition, expectation, care and constant stimulation when weeks soon disappear into months, and life rarely slows down.
Williamson’s message is not about retreating from reality, it is about meeting it differently. Choosing love over fear, she believes, is not a passive act, but a powerful inner discipline – one that allows women to reconnect with their clarity, authority and capacity to influence the world around them.
“Whenever we’re not at peace, that means fear is ruling our perceptions,” she says. “The presence of inner peace is a sign that our thinking is aligned with love.”
For Williamson, love and fear are not abstract ideas; they are the two core lenses through which we experience life. “Love is to fear what light is to darkness,” she explains. “In the presence of light, darkness disappears – and in the presence of love, fear disappears.”
Grounding in love before the world rushes in
In a culture that rewards speed and responsiveness, Williamson places enormous importance on the moments before the day begins. How we start our mornings, she says, determines the emotional tone of everything that follows.
“Just as you take a shower because you don’t want to carry yesterday’s dirt into the day, you ground yourself in love each morning so you don’t carry yesterday’s stress into the day,” she says.
That means resisting the reflex to reach for phones, headlines or social media as soon as we wake up. “When we first wake up is when our mind is most open to new impressions. Going straight to the news of the world is a very self-sabotaging thing to do.” Instead, she suggests a gentler ritual: closing your eyes, sending love to the world, and dedicating the day to being an instrument of love. It doesn’t require hours of meditation, as even a few intentional minutes can shift the nervous system and the mind.
“Before you even get out of bed, send your love to all the world,” Williamson says. “Own your mistakes, forgive where you can, and commit to being more loving today than you were yesterday.”
Listening beyond the noise
With external demands and opinions competing for our attention, hearing and trusting our inner guidance can feel impossible. Williamson describes this struggle as the difference between the ego mind and the voice of the soul.
“The ego mind speaks first and loudest,” she says. “The voice of the soul speaks quietly. It doesn’t force itself upon us, but rather, it waits in silence for our bidding.”
Aligning with love, particularly at the start of the day, creates the internal spaciousness needed to hear that quieter wisdom. It’s a practice, she says, much like strengthening a muscle.
“We have tremendous power within us, but we must develop that power in order to achieve its transformative results,” Williamson explains. “It’s about cultivating the habit of listening to love and putting it first in our lives.”
In practical terms, that means slowing our reactions, questioning fear-based thoughts, and allowing time for insight to emerge rather than forcing decisions from anxiety.
Strength without hardness
In uncertain times, emotional resilience is often confused with emotional armour. But Williamson challenges the idea that closing our hearts keeps us safe. “Being guarded, disconnected and hardened doesn’t protect us from hurt, it actually invites it,” Williamson says. True strength, in her view, lies in remaining open while staying grounded.
Keeping the heart open doesn’t mean abandoning boundaries. “It doesn’t mean we won’t say no when necessary,” she explains. “It means we stay grounded in gentleness, even when holding people accountable.”
There is, she believes, a profound difference between harshness and loving firmness, and the latter is always more effective. Williamson says that: “There is nothing harshness can achieve that can’t be achieved more powerfully through love.
Forgiveness as freedom
Forgiveness – of ourselves and others – runs through all of Williamson’s work. Not as a moral obligation, but as a practical path back to peace.
“We can have a grievance, or we can have inner peace,” she says. “We cannot have both.”
Holding onto resentment, she explains, hardens us from the inside. Forgiveness, by contrast, keeps us flexible, receptive and emotionally alive. “Love can transform any situation that hurts us, but only if we align with it,” she says. “Mercy toward ourselves and others is one of our greatest powers to heal, to let life repair itself and begin again.”
Returning to love in difficult moments
When anxiety spikes or we feel pulled off course, Williamson offers a simple but disciplined practice: pause.
“Stop for a moment. Say or do nothing. Return to stillness and ask that love guide your perceptions,” she says. “Deliver your thoughts into the light of love and wait quietly while your mind self-corrects.” With repetition, she says, this becomes easier and faster.
Why the UAE, why now
Speaking in Abu Dhabi at this moment holds particular meaning for Williamson. “When the world feels chaotic and fearful, our greatest hope lies in encouraging each other to love,” she says. “I’m honoured to give that message – and to receive it from others.”
Her final message to women living in the Emirates is both affirming and urgent.
“Women are the hope of the world,” she says. “Our hearts and minds are more temperamentally ready to embrace a kinder, gentler way of being. We need to encourage each other to speak the truth of our hearts – and take that truth beyond our homes, into the world as a force for good.”
This moment in time, she believes, is calling women forward. And love, she reminds us, is not a retreat – it is a responsibility.
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