'How to Public Speaking' and other videos, by Ze Frank

I conduct workshops in Communication and Public Speaking - we go into depth about internal components and external technique.

Ze Frank nails it in this short video. As always, he's straight up and quirky.   His style probably doesn't appeal to some, although I can't imagine it.

This is the most important lesson about public speaking, or in fact, about life - that you have to be you. Emulation of others is a good start but ultimately, you have to let go and be yourself. 

Enjoy!
Jeff Adshead

Hugs

“We need 4 hugs a day for survival. 

We need 8 hugs a day for maintenance. 

We need 12 hugs a day for growth.” 

Virginia Satir, family therapist

For a long time I have enjoyed the nurturing value of a sincere hug. I encourage you to reach out, hug someone every day as an expression of love, of care or of healing. 

 I put together some pictures and sayings about hugs for you to enjoy. 

Videos I love

Following are some of my favorite inspirational or educational videos. If you have any that you'd like to  recommend, please make a comment with a link. I'll keep adding to it and make some synopsis of each one when I get a chance. 

Enjoy!

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Daniel Beaty - Knock Knock
Def Jam Poetry

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Brene Brown
Power of Vulnerability

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Healing Power of Tears

“To love at all is to be vulnerable. Love anything and your heart will be wrung and possibly broken. If you want to make sure of keeping it intact you must give it to no one, not even an animal. Wrap it carefully round with hobbies and little luxuries; avoid all entanglements. Lock it up safe in the casket or coffin of your selfishness. But in that casket, safe, dark, motionless, airless, it will change. It will not be broken; it will become unbreakable, impenetrable, irredeemable. To love is to be vulnerable.”
― C.S. Lewis, The Four Loves

The greatest opportunity for intimacy and authentic love is given to us through our family. And yet, we often miss it, filling our lives with busy-ess and distraction from those gifts that are in front of us – our children. We work hard ‘for’ them, to provide for them, to keep them safe, but often miss the opportunity for genuine interaction.

Family is the place we, as children, can learn that we are loved – no matter what. Through our successes and failings, we will always be picked up, dusted off and sent on our journey by loving, caring parents. This is not, however, always our experience. Children often grow up with emotional wounds and are looking for ways to heal them.

It was a bird...

I had an odd experience the other day which made me drift into my land of metaphor again. I was driving when I was startled by a large brown bird hopping and dancing across the road in front of me. I swerved slightly and then noticed that it was actually a big brown leaf, blown across the street by a gust of wind.

In my mind I settled, decided not to worry about hitting it, "it's only a leaf." And kept driving, the entire incident having lasted no more than a few seconds.
Something wasn't right though. Because for a brief moment, it WAS a bird which caused me to react. Yes, I was perhaps deluding myself, or had a moment of lucid imagination. However, what force or process creates the difference between something being one entity and, in the next moment, becoming another? A bird and then a leaf?

This, of course sent me off into a contemplative process that sees everything as metaphors. (Thank God for the mental capacity to drive on autopilot).

Getting through struggles

I'm not who I was - a year ago, even a day ago.  I've met many people who are resistant to change, thinking that it implies some kind of loss of identity or personality we've become comfortable with. I think our inherent nature remains intact through transformation in our life and, in fact, becomes more free to be expressed as we grow, learn and uncover that true expression.

We go through various experiences that brought us to a shift in our life. Occasionally it'll come in the form of epiphany, revelation or realization but most of the shifts in our life are slight, incremental and gradual.  In the midst of them, these shifts go unnoticed but looking back, if we are aware, we can see how those experiences moved us, changed us.
In my coaching with participants of NextGen Academy, I find that, when someone is challenged by

Ten Rules for Being Human

From the book, If Life is a Game, Here are the Rules.  I picked up this book recently and find the Rules to be intriguing and simple. Here is a summary:

1. You will receive a body.
You may like it or hate it, but it's yours to keep for the entire period.

2. You will learn lessons.
You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called, "life."

3. There are no mistakes, only lessons.
Growth is a process of trial, error, and experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiments that ultimately "work."

4. Lessons are repeated until they are learned.
A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.

5. Learning lessons does not end.