Wow! Two big days. Yesterday was the third seminar in the Brighten Your Light series. Helen Deborah Lewis led us through some fun and bonding acting exercises. It was pretty hilarious and gently pushed us out of our comfort zone. A perfect place to be. We followed that with a discussion on finding ways to raise up our happiness levels and find Joy. One element I emphasized was the need for connection. You can be filled with gratitude, speaking positively, and forgiving like crazy, but if you are unconnected I don’t believe you can be happy. We need to connect with each other in deep and nurturing ways to find our path to Joy.
Today was my last official class for the Design Your Life course I have been in. This is sad for me. I have come to care so much for this boiled down group of hard-core, bad trait beating, negative thought busting bunch of brave and dear souls. We’ve come a long way baby! I am not sure exactly how it happened, but they managed to get the whole sordid middle school science teacher “haunting” out of me. Some one mentioned a great video of a TED Talk about vulnerability, we all agreed he could forward it through the email list. It was good to know we still have a connection.
When I got home from the class, I was browsing through some of the “Inspiration” posts on WordPress and I came across this post called Listening to Shame. Serendipity strikes again. It is the same woman, Brene Brown, who gave the vulnerability talk at TED. This video is great and I don’t want to blow the ending for you, but she ends with this point, “Empathy is the antidote to shame. If we are going to find the path back to each other, vulnerability is that path.” Brene says the two most powerful words when we are in times of struggle are “Me Too”.
Be brave. Be vulnerable. Be empathetic. Be happy!
Also, please keep your eye on the Testimonials page. The seminar participants should be posting their comments soon.