Simple, profound truths are the realm of this Buddhist nun. Her message? The gift of happiness truly lies within our own hearts and minds. Gen Kelsang Nyema, exuding a peacefulness that immediately connects with the audience, starts by asking three questions: Are you having a good day? Why? Tomorrow, would you rather have a good day or a bad day? She teaches that we cannot put our happiness at the whim of other people and of circumstances. If we want to be happy, we have to «stop outsourcing our happiness to other people» and cultivate a source of inner peace. What happens next is quite astounding. The whole crowd of 350 people proceeds to meditate with Nyema. Theres a little squirming at first, but as she leads the audience through a calm citation of how to rest the mind, audience members feel a collective relaxation flow into the room and through the people. Fascinating! Refreshing.

This talk was part of TEDxGreenville UNZIPPED, held April 11, 2014, at the Kroc Center in Greenville, South Carolina. For more information about Gen Nyema and her co-presenters, please visit tedxgreenville.com/2014presenters

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

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As the Athletic Director and head coach of the Varsity Soccer team at Ryerson University, Dr. Joseph is often asked what skills he is searching for as a recruiter: is it speed? Strength? Agility? In Dr. Josephs TEDx Talk, he explores self confidence and how it is not just the most important skill in athletics, but in our lives.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)

We have to talk about porn! We have to talk about what message porn is sending and what it teaches our children! More and more extreme content found in mainstream porn, making people less sensitive to sexual aggression. Despite these alarming facts, porn is still one of our biggest taboos. Today, most children are first exposed to pornography at a worryingly young age, in fact, porn is the number one sex educator among young teenagers. Porn is a drug, but why isn’t it treated as an addiction?
In addition to being a public speaker, author and educator Maria is also head of youth organization Changing attitudes. As an expert on issues concerning pornography and sex-buying she has given more than 400 public talks. In her research, she has met with more than 500 people in prostitution, as well as thousands of sex-offenders. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

In his 2nd TEDxBuckhead Talk, orator, tv host, social influencer, activist, and entrepreneur Wallace Peeples, better known as Wallo267, urges you to activate your “fuck it button” to ignore others’ limiting opinions and beliefs of you so you can access your greatest potential in his signature unorthodox style of unflinching honesty and humor. This event was curated by Jercori Freeman. After serving a 20 year prison sentence, Wallo took Instagram by storm proving he could catch lightning in a bottle again and again. His powerful highly viral videos share his life story, cautioning viewers against wasting their time and/or potential. He tells audience to eliminate excuses and drives home his point that it “costs too much to be a criminal.” With over 21 million social media impressions monthly, Wallo has converted his followers into evangelists, sharing with their friends and followers his unorthodox high-energy motivational videos full of inspiration, humor, and hard-earned lessons. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

When your job hinges on how well you talk to people, you learn a lot about how to have great conversations – and most of us don’t converse very well. A great conversation requires a balance between talking and listening. This balance is important because bad communication leads to bad relationships, at home, at work, everywhere.

Celeste Headlee has worked in public radio since 1999, as a reporter, host, and correspondent. She was the Midwest Correspondent for NPR before becoming the co-host of the PRI show The Takeaway. She also guest hosted a number of NPR shows including Tell Me More, Talk of the Nation, Weekend All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition.

Celeste holds multiple degrees in music and still performs as a professional opera singer. Shes the granddaughter of composer William Grant Still, the Dean of African American Composers. Celeste is an avid hiker, biker, paddler and dog walker.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx

The average person wouldn’t think that they can learn something from decoding the body language of a murderer. Little do they know, there is more than a little to learn through this unusual approach to protecting your
friends, family and finances. In this out-of-the-box TEDx talk, retired ATF Investigator and Human Lie Detector, Janine Driver cracks the detecting deception through the nonverbal hot spots of murderers. Janine Driver is the founder, president, and lead instructor for BLUEStreak Training, an elite certification program that offers award-winning advanced communications training. BLUEStreak helps executives, sales people, and other professionals build executive presence; explode their selling skills; and create and deliver business presentations that win new business.
Janine and her team of the world’s most sought after subject matter experts have helped clients become the total leader, which ultimately led them to win billions of dollars in new business contracts. Her elite A-list clients come from a wide variety of industries. Janine has made appearances on NBC’s Today, The Rachael Ray Show, and HLN.
Janine’s background includes being a federal law enforcement officer within the United States Department of Justice for 16-years, where she trained over 60,000 lawyers, judges, and law enforcement officers how to read body language and detect deception. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at www.ted.com/tedx

In a country torn apart by war and suffering a plunging economy, Ukranian devotees are braving sub zero winter temperatures to distribute Srila Prabhupada’s books this December. And they’re being rewarded by a receptive public.

“They’re tired of hearing scary news about the war. The whole society is starving for something positive. So when they see harinama or are inpired by book distributors, they feel very indebted. We just got a long letter of appreciation from one member of the public who was so moved to see our winter Harinama on the street.”

With the war rendering people “politically and economically depressed and hopeless,” according to Acyuta Priya, they have become more receptive to spiritual values.

34-year old Sgrolmamtsho married Dongrub at the age of 21 (in 1993) without experience of housework, fieldwork, and fetching wood. Filmed by her husbands younger brother, phagspadongrub, in Amdo, the film concentrates on the daily life of Tibetan village women--fetching water, feeding livestock (swine, a cow, a mule), milking, cleaning the stables, cooking, household religious activity, weeding fields, transporting manure to fields, fetching wood for fuel--along with commentary by Sgrolmamtsho about her life and family. (Rare insight into Tibetan village womens lives. Tibetan soundtrack; English subtitles. 52 minutes. Color.)

This is a video chronicle of a Lindblad Expeditions/National Geographic voyage of West Africa. 16 countries in 34 days starting in South Africa and ending in Morocco. I shot and edited this video onsite as the trip was happening. I have no control over the locations we went to. I simply made a video of their experience.

The Most Sacred Place

A few days ago our parikrtama party visited Radha Kunda, the most sacred place in the universe. We approached Srimati Radharanis kunda with all the humility we could muster and bathed in the sacred waters. We also listened to a discourse on Radha Kundas glories and relished kirtan and prasadam afterwards.