TED Talk: What Makes a Good Life? Lessons from the Longest Study on Happiness
TED Talk: How Compassion Could Save Your Strained Relationships
Why Our Screens Make Us Less Happy - TED Talk
Tips for breaking an addiction to screens (2 min)
Mental Health Benefits of Getting Outside (2 min)
The Wisdom of Trauma (See their website for next showing)
“Trauma is not what happens to you. Trauma is what happens inside you, as a result of what happens to you.” — Dr. Gabor Maté
The Wisdom of Trauma is a feature-length documentary that was released in June 2021. I have heard amazing things about this film (from those who saw it during the first screening period) and I love Gabor Mate, one of the main creators of this film! I highly recommend watching it for anyone who wants to learn more about trauma and mental health.
The Wisdom of Trauma - website w/ info and trailer
The Wisdom of Trauma (preview)
SYNOPSIS:
Trauma is the invisible force that shapes our lives. It shapes the way we live, the way we love and the way we make sense of the world. It is the root of our deepest wounds. Dr. Maté gives us a new vision: a trauma-informed society in which parents, teachers, physicians, policy-makers and legal personnel are not concerned with fixing behaviors, making diagnoses, suppressing symptoms and judging, but seek instead to understand the sources from which troubling behaviors and diseases spring in the wounded human soul.
One in five Americans are diagnosed with mental illness in any given year.
Suicide is the second most common cause of death in the US for youth aged 15-24.
Depression kills over a million people a year globally and 50,000 in the USA.
Drug overdoses kills 70,000 in the USA.
The autoimmunity epidemic affects 23.5 - 50 million people in the US.
What is going on? The interconnected epidemics of anxiety, chronic illness and substance abuse are, according to Dr Gabor Maté, normal. But not in the way you might think.
“So much of what we call abnormality in this culture is actually normal responses to an abnormal culture. The abnormality does not reside in the pathology of individuals, but in the very culture that drives people into suffering and dysfunction.” — Gabor Maté
In “The Wisdom of Trauma”, we travel alongside bestselling author and Order of Canada recipient Dr Gabor Maté to explore why our western society is facing such epidemics. This is a journey alongside a man who has dedicated his life to understand the connection between illness, addiction, trauma, and society.
“I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I wish to practise resignation, unless it was quite necessary. I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to put to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms, and, if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion…”
-- Henry David Thoreau (Walden)
“Here is my secret. It is very simple: it is only with the heart that one can see rightly. What is essential is invisible to the eye.”
-- Antoine de Saint-Exupery (The Little Prince)
“The beginning of love is the will to let those we love be perfectly themselves, the resolution not to twist them to fit our own image.”
-- Thomas Merton
“The one who plants trees knowing that he will never sit in their shade, has at least started to understand the meaning of life.”
-- Rabindranath Tagore
“There isn't time, so brief is life, for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving, and but an instant, so to speak, for that.”
― Mark Twain
"The dream of my life is to lie down by a slow river and stare at the light in the trees-to learn something by being nothing."
-- Mary Oliver
"Do what you can, with what you have, where you are."
-- Theodore Roosevelt
"Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams, who looks inside, awakes."
-- Carl Jung
“Out of your vulnerabilities will come your strength”
-- Sigmund Freud
“Let everything happen to you
Beauty and terror
Just keep going
No feeling is final”
― Rainer Maria Rilke
“And you? When will you begin that long journey into yourself?”
– RUMI
“Ring the bells that still can ring. Forget your perfect offering. There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.”
-- Leonard Cohen
”...to really remember that though life is full of that which is hard and heartbreaking, we are each held together by a love that knows no bounds. We are here to grow and know love... It’s what heals us, and sustains us…”
-- Sarah Blondin
-”For small creatures such as we, the vastness is only bearable through love”
-- Carl Sagan
"Sit down before fact as a little child, and be prepared to give up every preconceived notion, follow humbly wherever and to whatever abyss Nature leads, or you shall learn nothing."
"If you’re brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting and set out on a truth seeking journey either internally or externally, and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher and if you are prepared most of all to face and forgive some of the most difficult realities about yourself, then the truth will not be witheld from you..."
"Live in the sunshine, swim the sea, drink the wild air."
-- RW Emerson
"Adopt the pace of nature: her secret is patience."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“In the midst of hate, I found there was, within me, an invincible love. In the midst of tears, I found there was, within me, an invincible smile. In the midst of chaos, I found there was, within me, an invincible calm. I realized through it all, that in the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger- something better, pushing right back.”
-- Albert Camus
"Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower. "
-- Albert Camus
"Would you like an adventure now? Or shall we have our tea first? "
-- Peter Pan
"Why should a relationship mean settling down? Wait for someone who won’t let life escape you, who’ll challenge you and drive you towards your dreams. Someone spontaneous who you can get lost in the world with. A relationship with the right person, is a release not a restriction. "
-- Beau Taplin
"Nature loves courage. You make the commitment and nature will respond to that commitment by removing impossible obstacles. Dream the impossible dream and the world will not grind you under, it will lift you up. This is the trick. This is what all these teachers and philosophers who really counted, who really touched the alchemical gold, this is what they understood. This is the shamanic dance in the waterfall. This is how magic is done. By hurling yourself into the abyss and discovering it's a feather bed."
-- Terence McKenna
"Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate."
-- C.G. Jung
"We don’t stop playing because we grow old...we grow old because we stop playing."
-- George Shaw
"There is another word for this extremist noticing—this sense of first sight unencumbered by knowingness, by the already-been-theres and seen-thats of the adult mind—and that word, of course, is wonder."
-- Michael Pollan, (The Botany of Desire: A Plants-Eye View of the World)
"The paradox of education is precisely this - that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated."
—James Baldwin
"Go confidently in the directions of your dreams. Live the life you’ve imagined. As you simplify your life the laws of the universe will be simpler."
— Henry David Thoreau
"I think I learned some things about love too. It doesn’t look the same for everyone. It can come in so many forms. And how can there be anything be wrong with a life if it’s spent with a person you love?"
— Anne with an E
“I remembered that the real world was wide, and that a varied field of hopes and fears, of sensations and excitements, awaited those who had the courage to go forth into its expanse, to seek real knowledge of life amidst its perils.”
-- Charlotte Bronte
"Guard well your spare moments. They are like uncut diamonds. Discard them and their value will never be known. Improve them and they will become the brightest gems in a useful life."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“I've come to believe that there exists in the universe something I call "The Physics of The Quest" — a force of nature governed by laws as real as the laws of gravity or momentum. And the rule of Quest Physics maybe goes like this: "If you are brave enough to leave behind everything familiar and comforting (which can be anything from your house to your bitter old resentments) and set out on a truth-seeking journey (either externally or internally), and if you are truly willing to regard everything that happens to you on that journey as a clue, and if you accept everyone you meet along the way as a teacher, and if you are prepared – most of all – to face (and forgive) some very difficult realities about yourself... then truth will not be withheld from you. Or so I've come to believe."
—Elizabeth Gilbert (Eat, Pray, Love)
"Every morning you wake up, ask am I happy, am I healthy, am I strong, if not: breathe mother f-er!"
- Wim Hof
“Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will evade you, but if you notice the other things around you, it will gently come and sit on your shoulder.”
-- (maybe Henry David Thoreau?)
“The world is not in your books and maps, it is out there.”
-- Gandalf
"Bad behavior is the language of the wounded."
-- Jane Fonda
"Every healthy individual like every healthy country should be in constant revolution."
-- Jane Fonda
"And that’s what is so insidious about talk. Anyone can talk about himself or herself. Even a child knows how to gossip and chatter. Most people are decent at hype and sales. So what is scarce and rare? Silence. The ability to deliberately keep yourself out of the conversation and subsist without it’s validation. Silence is the respite of the confident and the strong. "
-- Ryan Holiday, Ego is the Enemy
"Loneliness is just space expanding around you. Trust uncertainty. Sadness is life holding you in its hands and changing you. Make solitude your home."
-- Rachel Corbett
"Today is your day, your mountain is waiting, so get on your way."
-- Dr. Seuss
"You get there by realizing you are already there."
-- Eckhart Tolle
"What you know doesn't mean shit, what you do consistently... that’s what becomes who you are..."
-- Tony Tobbins?
"The highest good is like water, nourishing life effortlessly, flowing without prejudice to the lowliest places. It springs from all Who nourish their community, With a benevolent heart as deep as an abyss. Who are incapable of lies and injustices, Who are rooted in the earth, And whose natural rhythms of action Play midwife to the highest good of each pregnant moment.
-- Tao Te Ching
"A bird sitting on a tree is never afraid of the branch breaking, because her trust is not on the branch but on its own wings."
“If you treat an individual as he is, he will remain how he is. But if you treat him as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.”
―Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
“The most beautiful people we have known are those who have known defeat, known suffering, known struggle, known loss, and have found their way out of the depths. These persons have an appreciation, a sensitivity, and an understanding of life that fills them with compassion, gentleness, and a deep loving concern."
-- Dr. Elisabeth Kübler-Ross
"Life shrinks or expands in proportion to one’s courage."
-- Anais Nin
"The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting."
-- Sun Tzu (The Art of War)
"Character cannot be developed in ease and quiet. Only through experience of trial and suffering can the soul be strengthened, ambition inspired, and success achieved.”
-- Helen Keller
"It is only in adventure that some people succeed in knowing themselves - in finding themselves."
--Andre Gide
"If you put shame in a Petri dish, it needs three things to grow exponentially: secrecy, silence, and judgment. If you put the same amount of shame in a Petri dish and douse it with empathy, it can't survive."
-- Brene Brown
“Happy are those who dream dreams and are ready to pay the price to make them come true."
— Leon J. Suenens
"Anyone can give up, it's the easiest thing in the world to do. But to hold it together when everyone else would understand if you fell apart, that's true strength."
― Chris Bradford, The Way of the Sword
"Live with intention. Walk to the edge. Listen hard. Practice wellness. Play with abandon. Laugh. Choose with no regret. Appreciate your friends. Continue to learn. Do what you love. Life as if this is all there is."
-- Mary Anne Radmacher
"People do not seem to realize, that their opinion of the world is truly a confession of character."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
“The question is not what a man can scorn, or disparage, or find fault with, but what he can love, and value, and appreciate.”
-- John Ruskin
“Our job is to love others without stopping to inquire whether or not they are worthy. That is not our business and, in fact, it is nobody's business. What we are asked to do is to love, and this love itself will render both ourselves and our neighbors worthy.”
-- Thomas Merton
"If you didn't use your back-up plan, you played it too safe."
-The Most Interesting Man in the World
"Success is peace of mind, which is a direct result of self-satisfaction in knowing you did your best to become the best that you are capable of becoming."
-- Coach John Wooden
"Man, I see in fight club the strongest and smartest men who've ever lived. I see all this potential, and I see squandering. G#d d#mn it, an entire generation pumping gas, waiting tables; slaves with white collars. Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need. We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war... our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off."
-- Tyler Durden (Fight Club)
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
-- Maya Angelou
"An autotelic person needs few material possessions and little entertainment, comfort, power, or fame because so much of what he or she does is already rewarding. Because such persons experience flow in work, in family life, when interacting with people, when eating, even when alone with nothing to do, they are less dependent on the external rewards that keep others motivated to go on with a life composed of dull and meaningless routines. They are more autonomous and independent because they cannot be as easily manipulated with threats or rewards from the outside. At the same time, they are more involved with everything around them because they are fully immersed in the current of life."
-- Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi
"The definition of success--To laugh much; to win respect of intelligent persons and the affections of children; to earn the approbation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to give one's self; to leave the world a little better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition.; to have played and laughed with enthusiasm, and sung with exultation; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived--this is to have succeeded."
-- Ralph Waldo Emerson
Wild Geese - By Mary Oliver
You do not have to be good.
You do not have to walk on your knees
for a hundred miles through the desert repenting.
You only have to let the soft animal of your body
love what it loves.
Tell me about despair, yours, and I will tell you mine.
Meanwhile the world goes on.
Meanwhile the sun and the clear pebbles of the rain
are moving across the landscapes,
over the prairies and the deep trees,
the mountains and the rivers.
Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,
are heading home again.
Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,
the world offers itself to your imagination,
calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting -
over and over announcing your place
in the family of things.
‘i love myself.’
the
quietest.
simplest.
most
powerful.
revolution.
ever.
- Nayyirah Waheed
“When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement.
I was the bridegroom, taking the world into my arms.
When it is over, I don’t want to wonder
if I have made of my life something particular, and real.
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.
― Mary Oliver
Take refuge in your senses, open up
To all the small miracles you rushed through.
Draw alongside the silence of stone
Until its calmness can claim you.
—John O'Donohue
'We do not choose to be born.
We do not choose our parents,
Or our times or country of birth,
Or the circumstances of our upbringing.
We do not—most of us—choose to die
But within all this realm of choicelessness
We do choose how we shall live—
Courageously or in cowardice,
Honorably or dishonorably,
With purpose or adrift.
We decide what is important and what is trivial
What makes us significant is what we do,
Or refuse to do.
We decide and we choose
And so we give definition to ourselves.'
-Joseph Epstein
'Out of the night which covers me,
Black as the pit from pole to pole,
I thank whatever gods may be
For my unconquerable soul.
In the fell clutch of circumstance
I have not winced nor cried aloud.
Under the bludgeoning of chance
My head is bloody, but unbowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
Looms but the Horror of the shade,
And yet the menace of the years
Finds, and shall find me, unafraid.
It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll,
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul.'
-William Ernest Henley