TED Talk Binge

I spent the last few nights sitting in a recliner taking care of my son who was just born.  I do not want to give out all the details but there was a close call, an emergency surgery, and a very worried husband.  My world was rocked pretty hard.  Fortunately everyone is home and doing well.  I have not slept much.  And during the nights, I could not seem to put my son down nor fall asleep with him while holding him.  I decided to watch some TV to pass the time.  “No mindless TV” I thought.  I began binge watching Ted talks.  I was in the mood for change, inspiration, self-improvement, and discovery.  I started with the happiness videos and a funny thing happened.  I got inspired and very excited.  I started taking notes.  I started thinking “oh my God, I need to tell other people to try this.”  All kinds of things have been happening.  I started meditating roughly 10-20 minutes a day with the help of apps like headspace and 10% happier.  I feel like it has already been helping me not get caught up in thoughts.  I then moved on to the videos on self-improvement and inspiration. 

A few monks I met at the high altitude Lukla Airport, Nepal.

After watching all these videos, taking notes, embracing the lessons, and feeling the desire to improve myself, I also noticed the desire to do something else with my life.  I came up with a new purpose for my life which is to be happy and to spread happiness.  I get excited when I think about doing things such as 30 day challenges, write a novel in 30 days in November, seek out rejection, start a blog, and just doing things for others that feel like a true contribution.  More importantly I am finally learning about me and what kind of life I should be living, not some scripted life where we are told what we are supposed to do.  

So what can I conclude right now about all this?  I think it is very hard to formulate a central theme to all this but I am thinking that it all leads to trying to live the best life I can and share it with others.  Things are changing rapidly and I will need to provide an update but I can safely say that if you are ever feeling in a rut or in need of a pick me up, you should definitely try a TED talk binge.  You might just end up changing the world.

I created a list of my TED Talk Binge highlights that I glance over often and it rapidly puts me into the right frame of mind and makes me feel better.  This took quite a bit of time to create.  I love this list.  Feel free to download it here.  Mike Mulick’s TED Talk Pearls

Here are a few of the videos that I think were important:

4.  Need some inspiration?  Scott Dinsmore’s talk can get you fired up.

5. More on meditating by Andy Puddicombe.

What do you think?  Ever have a personal crisis that catapulted you into action and all kinds of great things came out of it?  Drop a comment and let me hear about it.  If you are interested in hearing more about my TED talk binge, I’ll be soon sharing a post where I get into my top 30 TED talks for inspiration and action.