Living Beyond Limits

As this is one of the best talks I've encountered, I am re-posting it.






After bacterial meningitis took her legs, Amy Purdy struggled with depression, and only beat it when she learned to accept her new reality, but not any limitations.  After being unable to find prosthetics that would allow her to snowboard, she built her own. Today, she is a world champion female adaptive snowboarder. In 2005, she co-founded Adaptive Action Sports, a non-profit dedicated to introducing people with physical challenges to action sports.

TED Talk - Before I die.......

      I have decided to pick a theme for each week's blog.  As it happens, last week's theme was downhill skiing/poetry.  This week's theme is "purpose" (i.e. life purpose).

     Candy Chang creates art that prompts people to think about their secrets, wishes and hopes — and then share them.

Candy Chang is an artist, designer, and urban planner who explores making cities more comfortable and contemplative places. She believes in the potential of introspection and collective wisdom in public space to improve our communities and help us lead better lives. 

Recent projects include Before I Die, where she transformed an abandoned house in her neighborhood in New Orleans into an interactive wall for people to share their hopes and dreams -- a project The Atlantic called “one of the most creative community projects ever.” Other projects include I Wish This Was, a street art project that invites people to voice what they want in vacant storefronts, and Neighborland, an online tool that helps people self-organize and shape the development of their communities. She is a TED Senior Fellow, an Urban Innovation Fellow, and was named a “Live Your Best Life” Local Hero by Oprah magazine. By combining street art with urban planning and social activism, she has been recognized as a leader in developing new strategies for the design of our cities. She is co-founder of Civic Center, an art and design studio in New Orleans. See more at candychang.com.

Before I die, I want to find my own unique way to help the world be a better place.  I also want to learn to smile more.

TED Talk - Our Basic Purpose/ Richard Layard

     On my drives to/from Tahoe, I usually listen to an audiobook or a course of some kind.  Most recently, it was "Man's Search for Meaning," by Viktor Frankl.  Dr. Frankl was a psychiatrist and a survivor of Auschwitz, who, based on his experiences, postulated that "meaning"(purpose?) was at the core of a mental attitude that could survive almost any hardship and that this attitude could be willed into existence (at least that's my interpretation.)

    I'm embedding a video from a TED talk(a favorite source) which embodies Dr. Frankl's tenets in a more easily understood and more current context.  Note that it is 22 minutes long.








This talk was given at a local TEDx event, produced independently of the TED Conferences. What should be our basic purpose in life? What kind of society should we live in? Prof. Layard argues that the objective for our society should not be to become richer and richer. Wealth, he claims, is related to happiness only up to a point - and where the two diverge, we should not forget that the promised happiness was the only reason we attempted to become richer in the first place.

RICHARD LAYARD is best known for his contributions to happiness economics. You are likely to know him as the author of “Happiness: Lessons from a New Science” (2005) – a book which redefined the simplistic economic link between income and happiness. He is also the
co-founder of the Action for Happiness movement, now counting over 30,000 members. In both 2012 and 2013 Professor Layard co-edited the World Happiness Reports. Professor Layard’s studies have over the years considered unemployment and inequality. Moreover his recent work on the importance of non-income variables contributing to aggregate happiness has focused on mental health.

The Story of Life in Photographs- Frans Lanting

In this stunning slideshow, celebrated nature photographer Frans Lanting presents The LIFE Project, a poetic collection of photographs that tell the story of our planet, from its eruptive beginnings to its present diversity. Soundtrack by Philip Glass.

Frans Lanting

Nature photographer

Frans Lanting is one of the greatest nature photographers of our time. His work has been featured in National Geographic, Audubon and Time, as well as numerous award-winning books. Lanting's recent exhibition, The LIFE Project, offers a lyrical interpretation of the history of life on Earth

Expanding Perception: The Power of Vulnerability

"Human connection is what gives meaning to our lives," according to Brene Brown.

 In order to form connection, we have to allow ourselves to be truly seen. People who have a strong sense of love and belonging have a strong sense of worthiness. People who have an underlying sense of not being worthy also tend to struggle with their sense of belonging. The "whole-hearted," as Brene refers to them, understand that in order to fully connect, we must allow ourselves to be fully vulnerable. Most of us, in some form or another, attempt to numb our vulnerability. It is when we accept ourselves as vulnerable, that we begin to truly live with compassion for ourselves and, in turn, for others. 

Personally, I struggle a lot with my sense of belonging......thankfully, not in my marriage or with people I allow myself to be vulnerable with. With those people, I can be my imperfect self and know that I am accepted. As trust is very difficult for me, I create "fortress walls" around myself as protection. This certainly doesn't help in my efforts to expand human connection. It basically conflicts with the "spirit" of the person I wish myself to be.

This talk by Brene Brown is one of the best I have listened to.


 Uploaded on Jan 3, 2011 http://www.ted.com Brene Brown studies human connection -- our ability to empathize, belong, love. In a poignant, funny talk at TEDxHouston, she shares a deep insight from her research, one that sent her on a personal quest to know herself as well as to understand humanity. A talk to share.




.

If She Can Can, We Can Can

Published on Jan 3, 2014

"I have cerebral palsy. I shake all the time," Maysoon Zayid announces at the beginning of this exhilarating, hilarious talk. (Really, it's hilarious.) "I'm like Shakira meets Muhammad Ali." With grace and wit, the Arab-American comedian takes us on a whistle-stop tour of her adventures as an actress, stand-up comic, philanthropist and advocate for the disabled.

TEDTalks is a daily video podcast of the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world's leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design -- plus science, business, global issues, the arts and much more.
Find closed captions and translated subtitles in many languages at http://www.ted.com/translate

• Standard YouTube License