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TEDAche | Stretching, Compassion & Rebounding

TEDActive spontaneous dance party

The wonders / dangers of attending a TED conference.

A few hours ago TEDActive ended.

I’m currently sat in my Whistler hotel room even though the party goes on with groups of tremendous souls from all corners of the globe still hungry to connect.

Alas, I’m all talked out after six days of immense conversations, nearly 100 TED talks plus a variety of moments which truly remind you of the spectrum of experiences this world has to offer.

I feel stretched.

Full of compassion.

Ready to bounce!

For me, the themes taken away included these ideas of:

  • stretching—reaching beyond your grasp and changing your mind / body / habitat as an attempt to find new solutions or better questions;
  • compassion—embracing and empathising with suffering as a means of connection to discover new perspectives;
  • rebounding—the act of trying again or even using the negative as a reframing exercise to grow or carve out new paths.

Events like these are dangerous if you’re not ready to change (or commit). No matter what your expectations are, in the giving of yourself to the experience you lose something: some light stuff (like sleep and the yearning of solitude) although also the dark (as the stories curated and the organic ones shared with your fellow participants fuel the yearning to be more).

The aim now is to digest, deconstruct plus apply the learning (especially from the other TEDx organisers in attendance—there were 350 of them) to the future TEDxWellington events, and selfishly, my journey.

Onwards!

Picture above is of the TEDActive spontaneous dance party whilst Aloe Blacc woke us up:

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10 comments

  1. This really resonates with me, having been to TED Active & Global last year, plus Success 3.0 Summit. I think at some point you reach saturation and just hope that your subconscious is still taking some something in. Make sure you give us your tip offs for which TED talks to watch ;-)

    1. Thanks Jodie – there were simply too many talks which blew my mind… Chris and the team did an stupendous job in curating them this year – I’m looking forward to seeing them all again :-)

  2. Not selfish to apply to your journey, you give far more than you take and through your sharing you will take all of us a little way too. Love the notion of ‘yearning to be more’, something that features for me too – have to be careful that it doesn’t become a stick to beat yourself with. Reminds me of the Mariane Williamson quote “Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure”. Onwards to your next adventure!

  3. Feels like some of the very things we talked about beneath the stuffed dead animals at the Sport. You’ve a knack for summing things up DK. You distill the brew to an essence then give us an inspiring whiff of the good stuff. Thank you!

    1. Ha what a wonderful afternoon that was – thank you again – appreciate your kind words as well my talented friend!

  4. Reading this on a Monday morning has given me more of a kickstart for the week than coffee ever could!
    Love your thinking about compassion.
    Safe travels, Thanks :)

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