Love, No Matter What

Netflix have a whole lot of TEDTalks on their site at the minute. One I stumbled across was a TEDTalks series about learning to love both yourself and others.

With my ongoing August Ambition, this was exactly what I needed! There are 7 speakers with 7 different talks ranging from 5 mins to 25 mins in length.

Do you want to feel inspired? Well, here are my favourites for you to have a look at.

Andrew Solomon: Love, No Matter What

There are three types of acceptance according to Andrew Solomon; Self Acceptance, Family Acceptance & Social Acceptance. He also points out how love differs to acceptance. If you come out as gay, as Andrew did, your family might still love you, but they don't accept who you are.
He tells families; Don't pray for a cure, or ask us to change. Let us be whoever it is we are to be. accept and love us for who we are.

Brené Brown: Listening to Shame

Being vulnerable as absolutely essential to wholehearted living says Brené Brown. She talks about how she originally saw appearing vulnerable as a weakness, when that could not be further from the truth.
Vulnerability is not weakness. It's emotional risk, exposure, uncertainty. It's our most accurate measurement of courage.

Sally Kohn: Let's Try Emotional Correctness 
You can disagree with someone, but you must always treat them with respect says Kohn. As a lesbian Fox News panelist, her insight into a HUGE variety of opinions teaches her we're not that different after all.  In her short talk she tells listeners the following;
"Our challenge, is to have the compassion for others that we want them to have for us."


Sam Richards: A Radical Experiment with Empathy

In a self-described radical thought experiment, Sam Richards encourages his (American) listeners to feel empathy with those in Iraq by exploring the thought process of an Iraqi insurgent. If you step outside of your own shoes and step inside the tiny little world of someone else, the world appears radically different. It's the last and the longest talk in the series, but Richards has one message;
See the world from different perspectives. That's real empathy.