TED's 31 days of Ideas - Day 18: Say your truths and seek them in others

Say your truths and seek them in others

By Alanna Shaikh

I believe human connection is at the core of everything that matters in the world, from global things like politics and climate change to tiny things like crossing the street. Despite that belief, it's easy to get caught up in a one-woman cocoon of working, consuming media and buying stuff. I take human connection for granted; I forget its value and forget to nurture it.

Elizabeth Lesser's TED Talk, "Say your truths and seek them in others," smashed my cocoon to pieces. She starts with the lessons she learned from being a midwife. "Everyone in this room is a former baby with a distinctive birthright," she says, and we are all possessed of a "unique spark." As she moves on to discuss connecting intensely during her sister's cancer treatment, I found ways to strengthen the human connections in my own life.

Listening to Elizabeth Lesser reconnected me to my own yearning for sacred awe and left me with a new understanding of deep time. Even better, it left me with a sense of what I should do to get there.