I am dealing with a lot of overwhelm these days and continue to listen to inspirational talks by meditation teachers and artists and others who uplift me.
I had been getting emails through Nataly Kogan’s newsletter for some time and have enjoyed the uplifting messages and memes there. But recently I decided to listen to her video talks. And I am so glad I did!
Nataly Kogan is the author of “Happier Now: How to Stop Chasing Perfection and Embrace Everyday Moments (Even the Difficult Ones)” and founder of the Happier company.
A quick introduction to Nataly and her approach to life based on her own life experiences and investigations is her TED talk.
This past week, Nataly gave a talk where she presented the first chapter of her new book as a conversation with the viewer. Start at around 7:10 in the video to get to the beginning of her presentation.
It hit home to me in watching this presentation that I had been beating myself up for years because I have been equating the lack of feeling positive with failure. If my meditation and bodywork practices did not lift my spirits and put me in a place of feeling better for long periods of time, then I was a failure at my practices.
Nataly states that human beings are not meant to always be positive. We are meant to feel the full range of emotions. and not being positive all the time makes you nothing less than a human being.
Nataly discusses making some mental shifts and provided 5 emotional health skills for helping us struggle less. Life is full of challenges, but it doesn’t have to be full of struggle. Like the Buddhist perspective of life is full of pain but it doesn’t have to be full of suffering.
It was good to see that I do use some of her emotional health skills. But there is happily room for me to grow and move into a place of less struggle!
Here are some highlights from the talk and her presentation.
Now go watch her talk! You will be inspired!
