It’s not every day that one of your favorite teachers gives a TEDx talk—but lo and behold—one of my favorite teachers just did! And it’s phenomenal!! Sorry for the excessive use of exclamation marks. I’m just so excited to share this talk with you. (!!!)
Professor Matthew Whoolery, PhD, is not only one of my favorite teachers, but he’s also a good friend and one of the first people to review my book (he even gave a blurb that appears on the first few pages). During my studies at the university, he and I had a lot of conversations about many of the ideas that he presents in his talk.
The primary focus of his message (and one of the ideas I emphasize in my book) is our need to forget about ourselves and essentially “lose ourselves” in the service of others (and God); because ironically when we lose ourselves in this way…we end up finding ourselves.
Here is one of my favorite quotes from Professor Whoolery’s talk:
“You don’t need to esteem yourself—positively or negatively. The burden you carry is partly because in our culture we view ourselves as separate individuals. So we think a lot about how we’re doing—how we feel about ourselves. You don’t need to do that. Let go of that. Because, in fact, we are not separate individuals but interconnected with each other.
“Leo Tolstoy wrote a short story and the lesson that he taught in that story was that in this life we are not given to know what we need for ourselves but given to know what other people need. This binds us together—in love.”
Watch the video below and let me know what you think!
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Reblogged this on jars of clay.