Here at BSO, we love Love LOVE the viral awesomeness that crosses our screens daily, but besides being full of fun, the internet is also a treasure-trove of tools and resources that make life easier and better.
One of my favorite things online is TED talks. What’s TED? From their website:
TED is a nonprofit devoted to spreading ideas, usually in the form of short, powerful talks (18 minutes or less).
Most of these amazing videos are less than 10 minutes long, and many are even only a few minutes long. Aja Frost at The Muse pulled together this great list of inspirational TED talks to watch if you’re needing some motivation or encouragement to get through a rough day. I’ve watched them all, based on her recommendation. They’re awesome.
1. Watch This When You’re Feeling Sorry for Yourself: Living Beyond Limits
It’s nearly cliche. “No matter how bad you have it, someone has it worse!” True. But it doesn’t make our situation any better. Our pain is our pain and it’s real to us.
That said, Amy Purdy will you inspire you in a way that doesn’t feel like you’re in a contest of “who has it worse?”
2. Watch This When You Feel Drained: Your Elusive Creative Genius
By Elizabeth Gilbert, the author of Eat, Pray, Love. She says we aren’t geniuses — we’re vessels of genius. This is paradigm shifting.
3. Watch This When You’re Sad: The Three A’s of Awesome
Neil Pasricha’s 1000 Happy Things blog won a Webby, and in this talk, he ets us in on his secrets to a happy life is a unique way.
4. Watch This When You’re Lonely: A Virtual Choir 2,000 Voices Strong
Composer and conductor Eric Whitacre had a really crazy dream: to lead a virtual choir. He got people from all over the world to send him audio recordings for the “performance,” but the magic happened after the video was posted.
5. Watch This When You Feel Negative: The Surprising Science of Happiness
Negativity is ugly. It brings nothing positive and rarely helps any situation. But it’s hard to stay positive all the time. Happiness is such an elusive, slippery thing. “Human happiness expert” Dan Gilbert says that we can actually synthesize happiness.
His best example of someone who used a positive attitude to find the good in everything is an innocent man who spent 37 years in prison and called his experience “glorious.” Yes, you read that right.
6. Watch This When You’re Stressed: How to Make Stress Your Friend
Kelly McGonigal, PhD, is a health psychologist with a solution for stress: make it your friend. Why not? If we’re gonna be constant companions with that ugly bugger (stress), we may as well learn to give along with it.
7. Watch This When You’re Depressed Or Feeling Down: Love Letters to Strangers
It sound a little unusual, but doing something to take you out of yourself is sometimes all you need when you’re depressed and feeling down. This video was eye-opening.
8. Watch This If You Are In Desperate Need Of Something Beautiful: Nature. Beauty. Gratitude
Louie Schwartzberg’s amazing images are presented with words from a Benedictine monk. You can’t leave this video feeling ungrateful!
