The gift and power of emotional courage
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0:01 - 0:02Hello, everyone.
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0:04 - 0:05Sawubona.
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0:08 - 0:11In South Africa, where I come from,
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0:11 - 0:13"sawubona" is the Zulu word for "hello."
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0:14 - 0:17There's a beautiful and powerful
intention behind the word -
0:17 - 0:19because "sawubona"
literally translated means, -
0:19 - 0:22"I see you, and by seeing you,
I bring you into being." -
0:24 - 0:26So beautiful, imagine
being greeted like that. -
0:28 - 0:31But what does it take
in the way we see ourselves? -
0:31 - 0:34Our thoughts, our emotions and our stories
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0:34 - 0:35that help us to thrive
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0:35 - 0:38in an increasingly complex
and fraught world? -
0:39 - 0:43This crucial question has been
at the center of my life's work. -
0:43 - 0:46Because how we deal
with our inner world drives everything. -
0:47 - 0:50Every aspect of how we love, how we live,
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0:50 - 0:52how we parent and how we lead.
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0:53 - 0:56The conventional view
of emotions as good or bad, -
0:57 - 0:58positive or negative,
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0:58 - 0:59is rigid.
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1:00 - 1:03And rigidity in the face
of complexity is toxic. -
1:04 - 1:07We need greater levels
of emotional agility -
1:07 - 1:10for true resilience and thriving.
-
1:11 - 1:13My journey with this calling
-
1:13 - 1:17began not in the hallowed halls
of a university, -
1:17 - 1:19but in the messy, tender business of life.
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1:20 - 1:23I grew up in the white suburbs
of apartheid South Africa, -
1:23 - 1:27a country and community
committed to not seeing. -
1:27 - 1:28To denial.
-
1:29 - 1:33It's denial that makes 50 years
of racist legislation possible -
1:33 - 1:37while people convince themselves
that they are doing nothing wrong. -
1:37 - 1:41And yet, I first learned
of the destructive power of denial -
1:41 - 1:43at a personal level,
-
1:43 - 1:47before I understood what it was doing
to the country of my birth. -
1:50 - 1:52My father died on a Friday.
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1:53 - 1:55He was 42 years old and I was 15.
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1:56 - 1:59My mother whispered to me to go
and say goodbye to my father -
1:59 - 2:00before I went to school.
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2:00 - 2:04So I put my backpack down
and walked the passage that ran through -
2:04 - 2:07to where the heart of our home
my father lay dying of cancer. -
2:08 - 2:10His eyes were closed,
but he knew I was there. -
2:11 - 2:14In his presence, I had always felt seen.
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2:14 - 2:16I told him I loved him,
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2:16 - 2:18said goodbye and headed off for my day.
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2:20 - 2:24At school, I drifted from science
to mathematics to history to biology, -
2:24 - 2:26as my father slipped from the world.
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2:27 - 2:30From May to July to September to November,
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2:30 - 2:32I went about with my usual smile.
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2:32 - 2:34I didn't drop a single grade.
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2:35 - 2:38When asked how I was doing,
I would shrug and say, "OK." -
2:39 - 2:41I was praised for being strong.
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2:42 - 2:45I was the master of being OK.
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2:47 - 2:48But back home, we struggled --
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2:48 - 2:51my father hadn't been able
to keep his small business going -
2:51 - 2:52during his illness.
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2:52 - 2:55And my mother, alone,
was grieving the love of her life -
2:55 - 2:57trying to raise three children,
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2:57 - 2:59and the creditors were knocking.
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2:59 - 3:03We felt, as a family, financially
and emotionally ravaged. -
3:04 - 3:08And I began to spiral down,
isolated, fast. -
3:09 - 3:12I started to use food to numb my pain.
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3:13 - 3:14Binging and purging.
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3:15 - 3:18Refusing to accept
the full weight of my grief. -
3:19 - 3:23No one knew, and in a culture
that values relentless positivity, -
3:23 - 3:25I thought that no one wanted to know.
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3:27 - 3:32But one person did not buy into
my story of triumph over grief. -
3:33 - 3:36My eighth-grade English teacher
fixed me with burning blue eyes -
3:36 - 3:39as she handed out blank notebooks.
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3:40 - 3:42She said, "Write what you're feeling.
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3:43 - 3:44Tell the truth.
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3:45 - 3:47Write like nobody's reading."
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3:48 - 3:49And just like that,
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3:49 - 3:53I was invited to show up
authentically to my grief and pain. -
3:53 - 3:56It was a simple act
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3:56 - 3:58but nothing short of a revolution for me.
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3:59 - 4:03It was this revolution
that started in this blank notebook -
4:03 - 4:0630 years ago
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4:06 - 4:08that shaped my life's work.
-
4:08 - 4:11The secret, silent
correspondence with myself. -
4:13 - 4:14Like a gymnast,
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4:14 - 4:18I started to move beyond
the rigidity of denial -
4:18 - 4:21into what I've now come to call
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4:21 - 4:22emotional agility.
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4:26 - 4:29Life's beauty is inseparable
from its fragility. -
4:31 - 4:33We are young until we are not.
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4:34 - 4:36We walk down the streets sexy
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4:36 - 4:39until one day we realize
that we are unseen. -
4:41 - 4:44We nag our children and one day realize
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4:44 - 4:46that there is silence
where that child once was, -
4:46 - 4:48now making his or her way in the world.
-
4:49 - 4:54We are healthy until a diagnosis
brings us to our knees. -
4:55 - 4:57The only certainty is uncertainty,
-
4:57 - 5:01and yet we are not navigating
this frailty successfully or sustainably. -
5:02 - 5:05The World Health Organization
tells us that depression -
5:05 - 5:09is now the single leading cause
of disability globally -- -
5:10 - 5:11outstripping cancer,
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5:11 - 5:13outstripping heart disease.
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5:14 - 5:19And at a time of greater complexity,
-
5:19 - 5:22unprecedented technological,
political and economic change, -
5:23 - 5:25we are seeing how people's tendency
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5:25 - 5:29is more and more to lock down
into rigid responses to their emotions. -
5:30 - 5:33On the one hand we might
obsessively brood on our feelings. -
5:34 - 5:36Getting stuck inside our heads.
-
5:37 - 5:38Hooked on being right.
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5:39 - 5:41Or victimized by our news feed.
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5:43 - 5:45On the other, we might
bottle our emotions, -
5:45 - 5:47pushing them aside
-
5:47 - 5:50and permitting only those emotions
deemed legitimate. -
5:52 - 5:55In a survey I recently conducted
with over 70,000 people, -
5:55 - 5:57I found that a third of us --
-
5:58 - 5:59a third --
-
5:59 - 6:04either judge ourselves for having
so-called "bad emotions," -
6:04 - 6:06like sadness,
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6:06 - 6:08anger or even grief.
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6:10 - 6:14Or actively try to push aside
these feelings. -
6:15 - 6:17We do this not only to ourselves,
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6:17 - 6:19but also to people we love,
like our children -- -
6:19 - 6:24we may inadvertently shame them
out of emotions seen as negative, -
6:24 - 6:26jump to a solution,
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6:26 - 6:27and fail to help them
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6:27 - 6:30to see these emotions
as inherently valuable. -
6:33 - 6:38Normal, natural emotions
are now seen as good or bad. -
6:40 - 6:45And being positive has become
a new form of moral correctness. -
6:48 - 6:51People with cancer are automatically told
to just stay positive. -
6:54 - 6:57Women, to stop being so angry.
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6:59 - 7:01And the list goes on.
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7:02 - 7:03It's a tyranny.
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7:04 - 7:06It's a tyranny of positivity.
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7:09 - 7:10And it's cruel.
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7:11 - 7:12Unkind.
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7:13 - 7:15And ineffective.
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7:16 - 7:18And we do it to ourselves,
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7:18 - 7:20and we do it to others.
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7:21 - 7:24If there's one common feature
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7:24 - 7:28of brooding, bottling
or false positivity, it's this: -
7:29 - 7:31they are all rigid responses.
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7:33 - 7:35And if there's a single
lesson we can learn -
7:35 - 7:37from the inevitable fall of apartheid
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7:38 - 7:40it is that rigid denial doesn't work.
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7:42 - 7:43It's unsustainable.
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7:44 - 7:47For individuals, for families,
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7:47 - 7:48for societies.
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7:49 - 7:53And as we watch the ice caps melt,
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7:53 - 7:56it is unsustainable for our planet.
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7:58 - 8:00Research on emotional suppression shows
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8:00 - 8:03that when emotions
are pushed aside or ignored, -
8:03 - 8:04they get stronger.
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8:05 - 8:07Psychologists call this amplification.
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8:07 - 8:10Like that delicious chocolate cake
in the refrigerator -- -
8:11 - 8:13the more you try to ignore it ...
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8:14 - 8:18(Laughter)
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8:19 - 8:21the greater its hold on you.
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8:23 - 8:26You might think you're in control
of unwanted emotions when you ignore them, -
8:26 - 8:29but in fact they control you.
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8:30 - 8:32Internal pain always comes out.
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8:33 - 8:34Always.
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8:35 - 8:36And who pays the price?
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8:37 - 8:39We do.
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8:39 - 8:40Our children,
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8:41 - 8:42our colleagues,
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8:43 - 8:45our communities.
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8:49 - 8:51Now, don't get me wrong.
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8:51 - 8:53I'm not anti-happiness.
-
8:54 - 8:56I like being happy.
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8:56 - 8:57I'm a pretty happy person.
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8:58 - 9:04But when we push aside normal emotions
to embrace false positivity, -
9:04 - 9:09we lose our capacity to develop skills
to deal with the world as it is, -
9:10 - 9:12not as we wish it to be.
-
9:13 - 9:16I've had hundreds of people tell me
what they don't want to feel. -
9:17 - 9:19They say things like,
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9:19 - 9:22"I don't want to try because
I don't want to feel disappointed." -
9:23 - 9:26Or, "I just want this feeling to go away."
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9:29 - 9:31"I understand," I say to them.
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9:32 - 9:34"But you have dead people's goals."
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9:35 - 9:41(Laughter)
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9:41 - 9:47(Applause)
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9:47 - 9:49Only dead people
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9:49 - 9:53never get unwanted or inconvenienced
by their feelings. -
9:53 - 9:54(Laughter)
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9:54 - 9:56Only dead people never get stressed,
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9:57 - 9:59never get broken hearts,
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9:59 - 10:03never experience the disappointment
that comes with failure. -
10:05 - 10:09Tough emotions are part
of our contract with life. -
10:10 - 10:12You don't get to have a meaningful career
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10:12 - 10:14or raise a family
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10:14 - 10:17or leave the world a better place
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10:17 - 10:19without stress and discomfort.
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10:20 - 10:25Discomfort is the price of admission
to a meaningful life. -
10:28 - 10:30So, how do we begin to dismantle rigidity
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10:30 - 10:32and embrace emotional agility?
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10:34 - 10:35As that young schoolgirl,
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10:35 - 10:39when I leaned into those blank pages,
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10:39 - 10:41I started to do away with feelings
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10:41 - 10:44of what I should be experiencing.
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10:45 - 10:49And instead started to open my heart
to what I did feel. -
10:49 - 10:50Pain.
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10:51 - 10:52And grief.
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10:53 - 10:54And loss.
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10:54 - 10:56And regret.
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10:58 - 11:01Research now shows
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11:01 - 11:04that the radical acceptance
of all of our emotions -- -
11:04 - 11:06even the messy, difficult ones --
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11:06 - 11:08is the cornerstone
to resilience, thriving, -
11:08 - 11:12and true, authentic happiness.
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11:13 - 11:18But emotional agility is more
that just an acceptance of emotions. -
11:18 - 11:20We also know that accuracy matters.
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11:21 - 11:26In my own research,
I found that words are essential. -
11:26 - 11:29We often use quick and easy labels
to describe our feelings. -
11:29 - 11:31"I'm stressed" is the most
common one I hear. -
11:31 - 11:35But there's a world of difference
between stress and disappointment -
11:35 - 11:39or stress and that knowing dread
of "I'm in the wrong career." -
11:40 - 11:42When we label our emotions accurately,
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11:42 - 11:45we are more able to discern
the precise cause of our feelings. -
11:46 - 11:49And what scientists call
the readiness potential in our brain -
11:49 - 11:52is activated, allowing us
to take concrete steps. -
11:53 - 11:55But not just any steps --
the right steps for us. -
11:55 - 11:57Because our emotions are data.
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11:58 - 12:02Our emotions contain flashing lights
to things that we care about. -
12:03 - 12:06We tend not to feel strong emotion
-
12:06 - 12:09to stuff that doesn't mean
anything in our worlds. -
12:10 - 12:13If you feel rage when you read the news,
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12:13 - 12:17that rage is a signpost, perhaps,
that you value equity and fairness -- -
12:18 - 12:20and an opportunity to take active steps
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12:20 - 12:22to shape your life in that direction.
-
12:23 - 12:25When we are open
to the difficult emotions, -
12:25 - 12:29we are able to generate responses
that are values-aligned. -
12:30 - 12:32But there's an important caveat.
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12:32 - 12:34Emotions are data,
they are not directives. -
12:35 - 12:38We can show up to and mine
our emotions for their values -
12:38 - 12:40without needing to listen to them.
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12:40 - 12:46Just like I can show up to my son
in his frustration with his baby sister -- -
12:47 - 12:49but not endorse his idea
that he gets to give her away -
12:49 - 12:52to the first stranger
he sees in a shopping mall. -
12:52 - 12:53(Laughter)
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12:53 - 12:56We own our emotions, they don't own us.
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12:58 - 13:01When we internalize the difference
between how I feel in all my wisdom -
13:01 - 13:05and what I do in a values-aligned action,
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13:05 - 13:08we generate the pathway to our best selves
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13:08 - 13:10via our emotions.
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13:12 - 13:15So, what does this look like in practice?
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13:16 - 13:18When you feel a strong, tough emotion,
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13:18 - 13:20don't race for the emotional exits.
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13:21 - 13:25Learn its contours, show up
to the journal of your hearts. -
13:26 - 13:28What is the emotion telling you?
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13:30 - 13:33And try not to say "I am,"
as in, "I'm angry" or "I'm sad." -
13:33 - 13:35When you say "I am"
-
13:35 - 13:37it makes you sound
as if you are the emotion. -
13:37 - 13:40Whereas you are you,
and the emotion is a data source. -
13:41 - 13:43Instead, try to notice
the feeling for what it is: -
13:43 - 13:45"I'm noticing that I'm feeling sad"
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13:45 - 13:47or "I'm noticing that I'm feeling angry."
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13:48 - 13:50These are essential skills for us,
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13:50 - 13:52our families, our communities.
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13:52 - 13:55They're also critical to the workplace.
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13:56 - 13:57In my research,
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13:57 - 14:01when I looked at what helps people
to bring the best of themselves to work, -
14:01 - 14:03I found a powerful key contributor:
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14:03 - 14:05individualized consideration.
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14:05 - 14:09When people are allowed
to feel their emotional truth, -
14:09 - 14:12engagement, creativity and innovation
flourish in the organization. -
14:14 - 14:15Diversity isn't just people,
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14:15 - 14:18it's also what's inside people.
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14:18 - 14:20Including diversity of emotion.
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14:22 - 14:26The most agile, resilient
individuals, teams, -
14:26 - 14:29organizations, families, communities
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14:29 - 14:31are built on an openness
to the normal human emotions. -
14:32 - 14:34It's this that allows us to say,
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14:35 - 14:37"What is my emotion telling me?"
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14:37 - 14:40"Which action will bring me
towards my values?" -
14:40 - 14:42"Which will take me away from my values?"
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14:43 - 14:47Emotional agility is the ability
to be with your emotions -
14:47 - 14:50with curiosity, compassion,
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14:50 - 14:54and especially the courage
to take values-connected steps. -
14:56 - 14:57When I was little,
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14:57 - 15:00I would wake up at night
terrified by the idea of death. -
15:00 - 15:03My father would comfort me
with soft pats and kisses. -
15:04 - 15:05But he would never lie.
-
15:07 - 15:09"We all die, Susie," he would say.
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15:10 - 15:12"It's normal to be scared."
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15:12 - 15:16He didn't try to invent
a buffer between me and reality. -
15:17 - 15:19It took me a while to understand
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15:19 - 15:21the power of how he guided me
through those nights. -
15:22 - 15:26What he showed me is that courage
is not an absence of fear; -
15:28 - 15:31courage is fear walking.
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15:33 - 15:35Neither of us knew that in 10 short years,
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15:35 - 15:36he would be gone.
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15:37 - 15:40And that time for each of us
is all too precious -
15:40 - 15:41and all too brief.
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15:42 - 15:45But when our moment comes
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15:45 - 15:48to face our fragility,
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15:48 - 15:49in that ultimate time,
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15:49 - 15:51it will ask us,
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15:51 - 15:53"Are you agile?"
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15:53 - 15:55"Are you agile?"
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15:56 - 15:59Let the moment be an unreserved "yes."
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16:00 - 16:05A "yes" born of a lifelong
correspondence with your own heart. -
16:06 - 16:08And in seeing yourself.
-
16:09 - 16:11Because in seeing yourself,
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16:11 - 16:14you are also able to see others, too:
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16:15 - 16:19the only sustainable way forward
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16:19 - 16:21in a fragile, beautiful world.
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16:23 - 16:24Sawubona.
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16:24 - 16:26And thank you.
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16:26 - 16:27(Laughter)
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16:27 - 16:28Thank you.
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16:28 - 16:30(Applause)
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16:30 - 16:31Thank you.
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16:31 - 16:35(Applause)
- Title:
- The gift and power of emotional courage
- Speaker:
- Susan David
- Description:
-
Psychologist Susan David shares how the way we deal with our emotions shapes everything that matters: our actions, careers, relationships, health and happiness. In this deeply moving, humorous and potentially life-changing talk, she challenges a culture that prizes positivity over emotional truth and discusses the powerful strategies of emotional agility. A talk to share.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 16:48
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Susan David speaks at TEDWomen 2017 | ||
Brian Greene approved English subtitles for Susan David speaks at TEDWomen 2017 | ||
Brian Greene edited English subtitles for Susan David speaks at TEDWomen 2017 | ||
Krystian Aparta accepted English subtitles for Susan David speaks at TEDWomen 2017 | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Susan David speaks at TEDWomen 2017 | ||
Krystian Aparta edited English subtitles for Susan David speaks at TEDWomen 2017 | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for Susan David speaks at TEDWomen 2017 | ||
Ivana Korom edited English subtitles for Susan David speaks at TEDWomen 2017 |