By: Priya Migneault"When you look at remarkable individuals(...) I mean people who are successful in whatever they set out to do. You'll find that the thing they have in common is that they have nothing in common. These are individuals who've figured out what their unique gift is the universe gave them when they incarnated, and then put that at service of their goals," says TedX speaker Caroline McHugh. See we are always look at influential people as if they are larger than life, but we shouldn't because no one is larger than life. These people grow into the spaces their lives were given when they entered this world, and the reason you may think they are larger than life is because you haven't taken up nearly the space you were meant to in this world yet. We all have a place in this world and your mind is limit to which you achieve in your life. But in order to grow and take up space you need to first know who you are. "Your job is not like to be like the people I have (on my screen) behind me. In fact your job is to be as unlike them as you can possibly be," says Caroline. By this she means you aren't meant to be anyone, but yourself. You are not here to be a replica. You are here to be you. But mine and Caroline's question is "Who do you think you are?" Caroline, who did this TedX talk in 2013, says "Just be yourself. The word "just" is what I find interesting because it implies two things. Number one, that was an easy thing to do. Number two, that that was an original piece of advice." Being yourself and figuring out who you are are not easy tasks. You need to dig deep. During her talk, Caroline, also asks people to instead of looking at your life expectancy look at what you want to get out of life. What do you expect from life? And what does life expect from you? Both are challenging questions, that require quite a bit of thought to go behind them. Now most people don't consider tapping into the voice that can answer these questions until there old. "You get to this stage of life, and you realize there are more summers behind you than there are in front of you and everything intensifies. You become more honest; you become less compromising," says Caroline, "We call our oldies 'eccentric'. But in fact what they're being is authentic." When we are young we are great at being ourselves because don't know any different, but once we hit the age of about seven we learn to adapt to social conformity. From there we don't decide to be ourselves for many reasons, mostly social, and then come back to realizing who we are when we are much older. It's like an hourglass. When you think of yourself or the I, you usually come from one of these two mindsets; superior or inferior. When your in a superior mindset someone needs to be below you, and when you are in an inferior mindset someone has to be above you. In between these two extremes of the ego we come to the interior mindset, where outside beings don't effect you and you have no competition, because no one can compare to you and you can't compare to anyone else. But in order to get to the interior self you need to know who you are, and there are at least four different versions of you. The first version of you is the one everyone else sees. It is the perception others have of you in there minds, and there are millions of perceptions of you. You are different in every persons mind. Kinda crazy, right? The second version of you is the one you wish everyone saw. It is the way you want to be perceived by others. For instance, when you walk into a job interview you want to seem confident and so you put on that outer appearance. Now, the two more inner versions of yourself are what is most effected by change. The change needed to effect these versions has to be deep and you will usually know when these 'intervals of possibility' as Caroline likes to call them, will happen. You will feel it. "You know there are times in your life where you come to a burification on the path and you sense that the potential for change is heightened. You know if you make a change, the speed of your life will change," says Caroline. “Unfortunately, some of these intervals of possibility, are catastrophic. If fact, most of them are catastrophic, because most of us would rather sleepwalk until something happens to wake us up. And what will happen is someone you love will get sick, or you’ll get sick. Or maybe someting impersonal (happens), like 9/11. But something happens that rocks you back into your inner self, and makes you ask the question ‘who do you think you are?’” You need to be able to figure out who you are and ask this question before catastrophe happens, because when catastrophe happens you are weak and fragile. You need to ask yourself this question when you are strong and supported. Now, you need to ask this question 'If you could be the person of your dreams, who would you be?' This question forces you to think about the third version of yourself, the one who you think you are. Sometimes this third version of you can actually get in the way of you becoming the person of your dreams. The third version is what we call 'the ego'. “You have good days and bad days. There are days you wake up and think you’re the bee’s knees. And other days you wake up and you can’t even say your name. When you wake up and feel like the bees knees it’s not even you’ve got a reason. It’s like free flowing joy in your body. Everything works on those days, and other days nothing works," says Caroline, "Those are two extremes of your ego. You need an ego, if you didn’t have an ego you’d be toast. But your challenge is to take your ego from its dominate position and pull it back, so it is in service to you. (For that) you need to find the still point in the middle of those two extremes. And it is the state of mind that cannot be changed by anything that happens outside of you.” An example of this is the sky. The sky doesn't get depressed when it is covered with clouds, but it also doesn't think it is the bee's knees when it has a rainbow, it just simply is. It is able to understand the impermanence of clouds, just it understands the impermanence of the rainbow. That is humility. "Humility is not thinking less of yourself; it is thinking of yourself less," says Caroline. A great way to gain humility is to change your mindset from thinking 'I'm the centre of attention' to 'You are the centre of my attention'. When you are standing up in front of your peers don't think 'there all gonna be looking at me', think 'I'm gonna be looking at all of them'. The fourth version of you is your true self. It's not what anyone else thinks of you, it's not even what you think of you, it is who you really are. Some people may refer to this you as your spirit, maybe your inner voice, call it what you will but it is the you that can answer the question of who you are. “You’re a spiritual being that happens to be in a physcial body." Caroline says, she learned this phrase in India, and while she was there she also learned how people leave a message on the world. The message you leave, like everyone else, is your life. What you did and how you lived are the message you leave on this earth and how you will be remembered. The thing is in order to live a truly authentic life you need to tap into the inner voice, the fourth layer of you, and live from there. Caroline ends her talk by saying, “If you can (tap into your inner voice) not only will the speed of your life get quicker, not only will the substance of your life get richer, but you will never feel superfluous again.” If you like to watch her full TedX talk click here. Hopefully this inspires you to take a look at who you are and who you wish to become.
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By: Priya MigneaultThe End of the F***ing WorldThis series has two seasons and both are super interesting. The End of the F***ing World is a dark British drama that features two teenagers, portrayed by Alex Lawther (James) and Jessica Barden (Alyssa), who runaway from their small town to get away from their families. The major twist is that James is not leaving with Alyssa to only get away from his single father, he also is a psychopath on a mission to kill Alyssa. Will he manage to kill her before the police find them or will they be caught before he gets the chance? You won't know until you watch the series. The End of the F***ing World is rated R and contains scenes of violence, gore, and sexual acts. It also brings up the topic of rape, if any of these things trigger you don't watch the show. I would say mature 16 year olds and older should be okay to watch this. LuciferLucifer has four seasons and is in the process of creating their fifth and final season. Lucifer Morningstar (Tom Ellis) is an LA nightclub owner and he's also the actual devil. After one of his friends is murdered he joins Detective Chloe Decker (Lauren German) with the LAPD to solve the case. Will the devil manage to contain his thirst for revenge and see the murder brought to justice by the detective or will his natural instincts to punish the evil take lead? This series contains violence, sex, and coarse language. Common Sense Media recommends that you be 14 or older to watch this series and I agree. The Good PlaceThe Good Place has three seasons on Netflix with a fourth one coming. Eleanor (Kristen Bell) dies and arrives in the Good Place where she is united with her soulmate Chidi (William Jackson Harper). She quickly reveals to him that she shouldn't be in the Good Place and that they somehow got the wrong Eleanor. Chidi, who was on earth a professor of ethics and morals, has to decide if he is going to teach Eleanor how to be a good person in the afterlife or let her be caught and sent to the Bad Place. This series is super fun and charming. I would recommend it to anyone 12 and up. |
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