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screwpinecaprice · 4 years

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It couldn't be too bad if I indulge myself to love her.

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It's a distant future diamond connverse AU boiiiiiis

We're calling this as an AU because I'm 1000% sure this ain't happening in canon.

So, this takes place pleeeenty of years into the future, and follows the theory that the pink Steven will reappear as an independent entity once Steven dies without passing down his gem. (Although, I'm not actually partial with this theory. I have a different theory regarding that and this is just the product of an imagination of a connverse trash that entertained the idea.)

(Warning though, I’m not great at explaining stories but I tried, ok.)

So, setting takes many years in the future.

A year after Steven Maheswaran's* death, his gem revived itself, taking the likeness of his 25 year old human form, but pink and stoic to near emotionless. (Basically like the first time we saw him.) After some reflection he concluded that Steven's story has ended with his death, and declared that he is a different person; A new person who desired other ambitions. He soon left Earth to find his place in space. Although he seemed to have lost most of his empathy along with his human half, he valued the life he had prior so he brought a few souvenirs on his departure; trinkets, weapons, Connie's ashes, etc.

Maybe call it fate, because not long after this event, an intergalactic war broke out and Homeworld needed him to step in as a leader.

(Yes there is war in this story, ladies. --War. War never changes.-- )

--Not sure who the enemy is here though. Maybe a different species of aliens that wanted to stake claim on their part of the galaxy? Or a different colony of gems, with their own Diamond matriarchs, and they're much more advanced because they never had the Pink Diamond drama which catalyzed a series of stagnation and degradation of gem efficiency? Yeah. Maybe we'll be going with the latter. ---

The war had kept going for so many years, many gems had been shattered, the Sun and it's Solar System was eventually destroyed, friends and allies sacrificed their lives, and the only diamond left (on our side at least) was the pink Steven; now called (the new) Pink Diamond. His empire was losing the fight and their fate looked bleak. Suggestions were thrown here and there until a plan was agreed: They need to lay low for a while to replenish their own army --a stronger one than what they currently had. And in order to make these level of gems, they must revert back to the traditional way of producing them. They haven't done this since Era three when they had discovered different ways to create Gems, but the old way instantly made more physically stronger soldiers and they badly needed the leverage.

However this is just step two of the plan. To make progress faster, they need at least one more diamond. So they made a new Diamond.

---I don't know how to make them sentient Diamonds, man. I'm just assuming it's not easy, and they need, like, a very special star or something like that. If this gets debunked, I'm just going to say this is an alternate way.---

With Pink managing over their ridiculously costly and admittingly very risky project, they found a special bright star and said, yepp this is the one. And drained it and hollowed it's planets, I guess.

Maybe there's some ulterior motive behind Pink enthusiastically approving this course of action out of all the suggestions presented on the table. His confidants were having a suspicious feeling upon learning that he insisted they mainly use Connie's cremated ashes to make the gem itself, (Aside from the realization of actually having used 'enthusiastically' to describe him.) moreso when it was revealed that in doing so will not create a new person other than what the ashes used to be.

--- As Connie was Steven's lover/wife, (You know what I'm implying here.) her biological construct had gradually changed, altering every part of her to the bones. Now, Gems have gemstones as their core being, yeah? (duh) Everything they physically and mentally are are in their gem. But as a human being, the only hard mineral Connie has in her body is her bones. So, like, her bones basically dual-stored the information her brain and DNA has because her bones partially acted like the equivalent of a gem. But nobody knew of this until recently. ----

According to him, he wanted to make sure he can get along with the new diamond, and based on his memories as Steven, he was sure a very familiar character like Connie Maheswaran would do just fine. ( Also, Connie has BAMF DNA. We need that passed down if we're fighting in an intergalactic war. Just sayin'. )

So, yeah, they made a new diamond by bringing Connie Maheswaran back from the dead.

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Although Connie, renamed 'Bluebell Diamond', retained the character traits she had in her past life, her memories seemed lost. It was an uncertainty how much 'info' she has intact, and there was a possibility that memories were left out. But Pink is relieved in the meantime. He's falling in love with her and he's afraid that if her memories were kept, she won't like how different he is now to the man she loved and married.

(spoiler alert: Of course she eventually gains her memories back! And a lot of things are overwhelming. I mean, one day you are a working wife of a domestic home, then the next you're instantly a queen of an empire that you had to get through to a losing war, among other things.)

More about their relationship happens, drama stuff I guess. You bet your kidneys it affects the whole in a way. How, i dunnoh yet! Why have I created this setting???? I did dig my own grave?

I can already feel the plotholes dancing on the tip of my nose that unfortunately I can't see. But crossing my fingers that I could get around it. But there might be a few alterations if I couldn't.

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ANyway. This was not what I had originally planned to post. It was suppose to be a 3-4 paneled comic that kind of made more sense as an intro to this AU. And I were to post it before the year end. But I effed up on my scheduling (turns out, it was a seriously horrendously stupid idea for me, a slow drawer, to attempt drawing full painted comic pages under four days during the rush of a holiday), and to make it worse I also effed up with the fourth page and I got stuck on it until now. Plus, I have pending commissions to focus on. I couldn't post the other pages without the last so I made this simpler one instead.

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festfashions · 5 years

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Giving Back - PLUR Outside the Festival

Happy 2020 fam! It’s a new year, which means it’s a clean slate and time to feel fresh and ready to hit the ground running! While you’re working on your resolutions or goals, I wanted to share a 2020 goal you should consider adding to your list: giving back to the community!

Giving back, doing charity work or finding ways to help others not only supports what PLUR really stands for, but makes you a happier person. It’s proven, you feel happier and better about yourself when you do things for others! So give back, and do good!

There’s lots of ways to participate in this within the EDM community, so I want to highlight a few ways the community is giving back and some ways you can contribute as well!

Insomniac Cares

Insomniac Cares is dedicated to making a positive impact on issues facing the communities and neighborhoods where Insomniac Events are held. For every event that sponsors Insomniac Cares, $1 per ticket transaction and all guest list attendees are required a mandatory donation which helps fund the programs.

Since 2011, Insomniac Cares has partnered with over 50 local and national charities and community organizations, donating over $2 million. Projects in the past have focused on defunct children’s art and music programs, providing housing for homeless youth, funding cancer research, and reforesting local parks.

Each year, the milestone event for Insomniac Cares is their EDC Las Vegas Charity Auction. Hosting numerous items up for bid from helicopter rides into the venue to artist meet and greets, the Charity Auction is an awesome opportunity for artists to give back AND fans to contribute in a larger way to the community!

In 2019 alone, the EDC LV Charity Auction raised $70,000 for Communities in Schools of Southern Nevada, a nonprofit devoted to working with schools and providing resources that are needed to help low-income students in K-12 succeed.

You can learn more about Insomniac Cares here.

Tomorrowland Foundation

Insomniac isn’t the only events company that gives back, the Tomorrowland Foundation is also doing amazing things to send good back to the world. They focus on children and young people ages 40-21, living in developing countries or regions in crisis, with parents that are preoccupied with ‘survival’ or with unequal chances in life.

These children are very often raised in poverty and have a high risk of spending themselves their whole life in poverty. The Tomorrowland Foundation wants to break this vicious circle by giving them chances to express themselves creatively and work on their self-esteem.

On April 18th 2018, the first Music & Arts School opened in Sekha, a small Nepalese village situated in the heart of the Himalayas. This Music & Arts School features four fully-equipped classrooms, a central courtyard and a stage. Teachers offer the children instruction in music, dance, art and theatre.

This school is 100% funded with the gifts of our festival goers and was officially opened by Lost Frequencies who represented the People of Tomorrow.

In 2019-2020 the Tomorrowland Foundation will collaborate with Mobile School, a nonprofit organization focused on working with street children all over the world. There are currently 57 mobile schools in 30 countries across four continents. Thanks to Tomorrowland Foundation they are able to continue and expand their great work around the world.

Tomorrowland Foundation is funded by a yearly contribution from WeAreOneWorld (the organization behind Tomorrowland) and attendee contributions. During the festival there are Donate Here carts where visitors have the opportunity to donate 2 “Pearls” (the Tomorrowland currency) to directly support the foundation. Plus all guest tickets require a mandatory contribution to the foundation.

Even cooler, each year, a secret restaurant is hidden inside the magical Tomorrowland Mainstage, where an exclusive dinner created by a world-class chef and his team is served to a select group of people. The full price of this experience is 100% donationed to the foundation.

You can learn more about Tomorrowland Foundation here.

There’s also lots of artists that have started their own foundations or organizations or unique ways to give back.

Bassnectar’s Be Interactive

Bassnectar is notorious for encouraging his fans to give back to their communities in various ways. For two decades the Bassnectar Team has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for charity and invested countless hours in creative campaigns which catalyze giving, good deeds, and volunteer DIY charity activism.

In 2018 he the team established Be Interactive -- a nonprofit organization inspiring ‘the empathic to make an impact through radical kindness, respectful creativity, volunteering, and charity.’ Four times a year they announce a new theme to rally around, and ways fans can collaborate with them. They also give money they raise from shows back to the community by funding projects directly in a grant application that anyone can apply for.

Funds come from $1 for every ticket sold to a Bassnectar-produced event, as well as fundraising events or donations made at the Love Here booth at Bassnectar Events.

Learn more about Be Interactive here. Be sure to follow their Instagram too if you want to stay up to date.

There’s also a lot of DJs doing charity that we don’t hear about at times until something major happens and they use their social platforms as a speaker box.

Recently, with the wildfires destroying Australia, lots of DJs have made a point to talk about how they are donating or how fans can as well. Flume (an Australian native, spoke about his personal donation, and Alison Wonderland updated her store for the month of January so that 100% of all profits will go towards helping.

Sometimes finding out how your favorite DJs are giving back is all about following their socials and seeing what they’re up to.

Matoma announced something awesome on his socials on Jan 15 about the importance of climate change and the effect touring has on the planet. He announced that his next tour of the US will be the first tour in the WORLD to use carbon drawdown initiatives to remove the carbon footprint it creates. He’s done work like this before, with is 2018 tour which was climate positive, as certified by the United Nations.

I think Matoma is onto something great, and we should all pressure our favorite artists and events companies to look into doing something similar.

Many events work really hard at sustainability and focusing on their environmental impact. This is something we should all consider when we attend an event, and do our part to positively impact the environment. Whatever event you’re attending, check out their website for details on how they are giving back, and if you can’t find anything, maybe reconsider that event. We need to put pressure (with our dollars) on event organizers to think about this stuff ahead of time!

I could literally turn this article into a book with the ways you can give back, be sustainable and help out the community via EDM. It is so easy to spread PLUR outside the festival. Our EDM community is already a great one, so doing some charity work or donations with groups in the community just helps show others how special we are. What will you do to give back this year? Share in the comments below some opportunities I didn’t mention!

#words #text #plur #EDM community #matoma #flume #Alison wonderland #Tomorrowland 2020 #Tomorrowland foundation #insomniac events #insomniac cares #sustainability #bassnectar #be interactive #EDC #Pasquale rotella #charity

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xaeneron · 5 years

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A Smol Nerd Talks about Backstory and Character Development

Hello frens,

I had someone ask about how I write character backstories, but since they included their discord information in the ask, I thought it might be better to answer that privately and put up this as a public post because the more I wrote, the more obnoxious it got. And because I thought it was interesting! I don’t claim to be an expert at any of this, especially since this is purely a hobby to me, but I do absolutely love character design and development and it makes me happy that the characters that I’ve put time and effort into are encouraging others to develop their own. So this is absolutely a post to skip if you’re not interested, but read on if you’re curious as to how my weird little brain works.

Essentially: Bits of insight into how I write character backstories, which blends a lot into character development and creation. Not really a step by step process, more word vomit.

...under a cut because holy fuck it got long. I’m sorry, I talk too much ><

Visualizing Characters

I’m not sure there’s really a starting place beyond “I would like this character to exist,” but I think it’s important to first stress how I view my characters in perspective to myself. No one method works for everyone, but it is kind of relevant to my own process.

My friends in undergrad made fun of me for this constantly, but for me, characters sort of...how do you put it, take up space in the mind. Even though they are functionally me since I created them, they’re...not? They exist as their own entities, telling me what they like and don’t like, what they’d like to do next, etc. Ive, who has dominated this space for years, has a tendency to claim any music that I listen to as his own (so I associate it with him), throws parties, and wants to play and write more stories when I want to sleep. I get that this is a really weird way of looking at characters because I’m essentially blaming myself for keeping myself awake, but I think it’s the best way to describe how I see the characters that I create. They’re friends that talk, and they develop their own opinions instead of me dictating what it is that they say (even though...well, I am. I’m sorry this is really fucking weird LOL).

Obviously I’m not saying that this can or would work for anyone, but it’s just how my brain works. It helps me visualize them, along with details like how their voices sound, the facial expressions they tend to make, the tone that they take when saying the same phrase as someone else, etc.

Assembling Personalities...

I know the original question was essentially just about backstories, but backstory writing and character creation bleed into each other a lot. Enough that I don’t really think you can do one without the other, and why as a result I’m kind of writing about both.

So that being said, when assembling those characters, I tend to go piece by piece and let things happen, instead of distilling in all the characteristics I want them to have. That’s a pretty surefire way to make a Mary Sue, and I have plenty of experience with making Mary Sues. A lot. It’s embarrassing. ;A;

Let’s take Ive, for example. His initial personality when I first made him was a happy-go-lucky, debonair, massive flirt without a care in the world. He waltzed through life, never getting attached to anyone or anything. A fairly simple and shallow character base. As I played, pieces just kind of came together - some from the Commander’s in-game characterization, and some from my own ideas. I let him pick up different facets of his personality over time, some good, some bad.

This works because Ive’s personality wasn’t set in stone from the get-go and changed drastically as time went on, but if you do have a personality you have your heart set on, then make sure your character responds to new challenges accordingly. Consistency is key, and the way they act in the present can also help you road map their past, figuring out how they got to where they are. And who knows, if you take another look, they might surprise you.

...Including the Weird Shit

Sometimes the tiniest quirks help make characters memorable to you, and help shape who they were and grow up to be. One of my OCs, Beck, is an obfuscating idiot who legitimately knows his way around a blade and is insanely clever when he wants to be. He also has a random deadly allergy to mangoes. Does he have a story that he (somewhat) fondly looks back on where his adopted daughter chases him around with a mango in retaliation for making fun of her? By golly yes he does. Is it important to the overall narrative? No. But does it establish more of his relationship with his daughter, even when she’s an adult? Yes. It also is the sort of anecdote that can snowball - what was he saying that was bad enough for her to chase him with tropical fruit? How did she even get a mango in the first place? Does she have a crush on someone? What sort of person is that? Is it someone new in town, or is it a stranger? What makes them different? Is Beck just assuming, and if so, is it because he’s dense or because he’s just trying to be a doting father? Even little things count, especially when sometimes it’s the anecdotes and sides stories that help make the world and characters you’re creating feel more real.

Write What You Know

This is pretty common advice, but it’s also pretty solid advice. It’s also something that I do often. None of my characters are straight self-inserts (arguably), but many of them have one or more facets of my personality, which makes it much easier for me to write them. Anyone who knows me personally will attest to this, particularly when you begin to note the amount of deadpan snarkers that my cast contains. My primary OCs (who don’t show up much here unfortunately) range from politely snarky to full on deadpan. Ive and Etiery are prime examples of this, while Richter also has his moments. Sharing traits with you helps writing their dialogue and motivations more organically, because again, it’s not what you want them to do, it’s how they would react as a living individual. If you’re not a naturally sarcastic person, it’s going to be harder to develop and accurately write a sarcastic character, etc. (Flashbacks to when I was a kid and my attempt at sarcasm and wit was “Go home old man, nobody needs you.”) Not impossible, of course, but something to keep in mind.

It’s not just personality, either. Rayne (one of my OCs) and Etiery are a chemist and engineer respectively because that is what I am. Part of the way their brains work stems from the fields that they choose to specialize in, and as someone in that field, I do have a certain amount of experience in thinking from that perspective. It’s okay to base characters on yourself or people you know, or take bits and pieces from people here or there. Again, it grounds you, and if you can write a realistic personality, you can write a more fleshed out backstory for said character, taking into account their motivations and decision-making.

Balancing Story vs. Personality

Part of storytelling is, well, getting across the story that you want to tell. In that, characters are instruments to help you move that plot forward. But if you’re fleshing out your characters, you also want the plot to be a vehicle to help them develop. Really, it depends on the story you want to tell and how you want to tell it, but if you’re like me and you focus first on characters, then my mindset is probably more applicable.

Essentially though, find a balance. You might need someone to do something for the sake of the plot, but think about if the one you’re picking is a good candidate for it, or if it’s better suited for someone else. If no one fits, maybe you need to take a look at the story step you’re making, or at the characters you’ve created. Remember also that although it’s easy to look at things objectively as an author and say things like “that’s so obvious, they shouldn’t go that way,” a character may still make that choice in the moment. Judgment - present, past, or future - can be questionable as it happens.

Pay Attention to the Timeline

This one’s pretty straightforward. One of the easiest things to mess up is to make your character too old or too young to be doing the things that they’re currently doing. Check and double-check. If you’re writing into an established timeline like GW2′s, make sure your character’s timeline fits with the established lore (unless you are very specifically breaking it for some reason). Ive, for example, is not one of the older generations of sylvari, but he is older than the sylvari protagonist in-game to account for his extra time spent training to compensate for his lack of eyesight. Keeping track of when events happen, often simultaneously, will help you decide how characters act and react - Etiery would not have been so kind (relatively speaking) to Ive had she met him before her fallout with her father, and as a result, they might never have become best friends, or friends at all.

Look at Things from All Angles

It’s important to look at a character and ask where they got certain characteristics from - are they naturally this kind/sarcastic/flirty/angsty/mean/etc., or did something happen that catalyzed that? If you’re writing backstory to explain that, take a look at the world you’re in or that you’re building - does the story you’re telling fit reasonably? Really challenge yourself to stay within your (universe’s) rules, instead of being tempted to bend them to make your character (and their story) exactly what you want. All universes have rules, and unless it is a specific plot point to break them, make sure you follow them! Making impossible loopholes to make sure your character has a degree by age 12 or can resurrect someone perfectly when the magic is explicitly stated to not exist can weaken your story and your character!

Richter is a good example of my personal thought process, being a glasses-wearing necromancer whose backstory is a street rat. He’s tall and awkward as an adult, so it’s not unreasonable that he was once a tall and gawky kid, the kind of kid whose arms are too long and everyone picks on. How does a kid like that survive on the streets? One of his major traits is the fact that he’s a bookworm: if he was orphaned, where did he learn to read? If he had parents long enough to teach him rudimentary reading skills (which he did), how much practical experience did he lose out on since he spent less time alone on the streets? As someone with a strong moral compass, Richter had to find a way to justify committing crimes to survive. A child like that would probably be too frightened to ask Grenth’s clergy or anyone at the schools in Divinity’s Reach (which he could not afford) to teach him in necromancy. How does he learn as a result? Is he afraid of his powers? Do people treat him differently because of them?

It’s kind of what I mean when I say pieces start falling into place. Start with a detail that you want for sure, and build up from that while maintaining its feasibility in the world that you’re working in.

And Don’t Ignore the Random

Seriously, I think this is my favorite part. Sometimes the things that you don’t expect sneak up on you and make it in. Fun fact for anyone fond of Ive: he originally wasn’t blind. OG Ive had nothing physically wrong with him. One day I was showing my friend my GW2 characters, including Ive in his full Rubicon set. I was nervous that she wouldn’t think it was as cool as I did, so I joked (although I would have anyway) that I didn’t know how he would see with the brim of the hat pulled so low. She replied, “Well, what if he has the hat pulled so low because he’s blind and it doesn’t matter to him?”

I chewed on that idea for the next day and a half, and suddenly a lot of things fell into place - why Ive and Eet get along as well as they do, more justification for Ive’s growing, below-the-surface jaded personality, an obstacle for him to overcome. I drowned in feels and texted her, and to this day it is still very much her fault that Ive can’t see.

His lack of vision is now one of the central pillars of his character, and it’s something I hadn’t even considered before my friend mentioned it in jest. So don’t ignore random inspiration!

#xae replies #anon ask response #character development #backstory #a lot of word vomit under the cut #i'm sorry in advance #I think about this shit a lot #lolol #I also love talking about my characters #so #ask away #conversation is welcome!#thanks if you bothered to read all of the vomit LOL

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paleorecipecookbook · 6 years

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How to Use Positive Psychology to Improve Your Health

What if it’s chronic anger, frustration, anxiety, sadness, or grief? Do those emotions also affect your health? And how can you let go of them?

The short answer is yes—positive or negative, your emotions do impact your health. The good news is that through positive psychology, you can retrain your brain to follow healthier, more beneficial emotional patterns and learn to let go of negative ways of thinking.

Here’s how you can use positive psychology to rewire your brain and improve your mood and your health.

Anger, sadness, frustration, or grief can, if left unchecked, wreak havoc on your health. That’s where positive psychology can help. Check out this article for more about positive psychology and get tips on how to change your thinking. #healthylifestyle #wellness #changeagent

What Positive Psychology Is and What It Can Do for Your Well-Being

Positive psychology is an evidence-based area of psychology famously championed by Martin Seligman. While president of the American Psychological Association, Seligman publicized positive psychology as a way of joining the more clinical, conventional side of psychology—the part that focuses on what’s “wrong” with a patient—with the people-oriented side of the discipline. (1) According to Seligman:

The aim of Positive Psychology is to catalyze a change in psychology from a preoccupation only with repairing the worst things in life to also building the best qualities in life. (2) [emphasis added]

Seligman—and followers of the positive psychology movement—build those qualities through character strengths. Character strengths are patterns of behaving, thinking, and feeling that we all have within us.

Why You Should Know Your Character Strengths

Seligman, together with psychologist Chris Peterson, described 24 different character strengths in their exhaustive work, Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification. While the unique combination of character strengths differs from person to person, they can include traits like:

Creativity

Bravery

Fairness

Kindness

Humility

Gratitude

Hope

Zest

And many, many more

Your individual character strengths color how you see the world and how your brain processes new experiences. Understanding your personal strengths can give you a greater sense of authenticity, and using your strengths in your day-to-day life can help you feel more engaged, productive, and positive.

If you’re curious about your character strengths, I recommend taking this free survey from the VIA Institute on Character. If you need help, a health coach trained in positive psychology can assist as you identify your strengths and learn to embrace a more positive mindset.

Why It’s Worth It to Refocus Your Thoughts

Practicing positivity and embracing character strengths—even for a short period of time—have been shown to lessen feelings of depression and increase a sense of happiness. (3) Research also shows that happiness has a positive impact on your overall health and longevity. (4) Positivity has been linked to: (5)

Immune system health

Cardiovascular health

Lower levels of cortisol and a healthy hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis

Better wound healing

Potentially protective effects on telomeres, the end caps on your DNA that prevent damage during replication

Positive emotions also appear to be connected with a person’s ability to bounce back from a stressful event. Experiencing positivity—even from watching a short, happy film clip, for example—can undo some of the cardiovascular effects associated with stress and anxiety, like increased heart rate and blood pressure. (6) Imagine what long-term positivity could do to improve your body’s resilience.

The Driver behind Positive Psychology: Neuroplasticity

Neuroplasticity is the ability our brains have to change based on stimuli like thoughts, behaviors, and emotions. The structure of your brain and the synaptic connections between your neurons can grow stronger or weaker based on your habitual patterns. In their book, The Emotional Life of Your Brain, Richard J. Davidson, Ph.D., and Sharon Begley state that neuroplasticity explains why expert violinists show extra development in the brain regions that control dexterity, why cab drivers in London tend to have great spatial memory—and why your thought patterns and emotional habits can affect your health. (7, 8)

Positive psychology builds on that concept by encouraging you to switch your mindset. If you traditionally focus on the problems you’re facing or the things that feel “wrong” in your life, changing this one aspect of the way you interact with the world can make a difference.

Three Small Steps to Rewire Your Brain for Positivity

Sometimes, just taking one small step toward positivity is enough to make a difference in your life. With that in mind, here are three easy techniques you can try out today to change your focus.

1. Choose Your Words Carefully

If you’ve been stuck in a pessimistic pattern for a while, it will start to come out in the way you think and speak. You may tend to frame everything negatively, or you instantly consider what could go wrong in any given situation.

Think about a recent challenge you encountered, remember how you thought and spoke about it, and take a look at the table below. Which column did you fall under? Can you try changing your internal dialogue to a more positive view?

Pessimistic Thinking Optimistic Thinking Your problems are permanent.

“This is always going to be a problem for me.”

Your problems are temporary.

“This will pass.”

Your issues are pervasive.

“This is catastrophic.”

Your problems are local.

“This isn’t the end.”

Your problems are personal.

“It’s all my fault.”

Your problems aren’t personal.

“This is a common problem for many people.”

Your problems are uncontrollable.

“There’s nothing I can do.”

Your problems are at least somewhat controllable.

“One step at a time.”

Changing the way you think isn’t a simple endeavor—but it’s well worth the effort. Mindfulness can help you challenge negative thoughts as they occur to you.

Being mindful means you’re aware of your body, your sensations, your thoughts, and your feelings as they occur. Mindfulness can improve your positive emotions while lessening feelings of negativity or stress. (9) The practice also helps you feel more compassionate—toward others and yourself. (10)

For tips on how to start practicing mindfulness, check out my article “How to Avoid a Near-Life Experience.”

2. Remember Your Past Wins

Positive psychology is a success-focused movement. Instead of thinking about all of the things that could you wrong in your current situation, you focus on what could go right—and you develop a clear plan to help you reach that success.

One of the best ways to do this is by thinking about a past success you enjoyed. It could be a promotion you earned at work, a time you overcame a fear or apprehension, or the last time you felt healthy and fulfilled. With that memory in mind, ask yourself:

What led to your success?

What did you learn?

Who helped you reach your goal?

What resources did you use back then, and can you use them again?

Often times, the same strategies that worked for us in the past can work for us again. Even if your past success doesn’t directly apply to your current situation, giving yourself credit for a time when you overcame obstacles to reach your goal can motivate you to keep trying now.

3. Try a Happiness Intervention

A happiness intervention is a simple writing exercise that can be helpful if you’re struggling with something that’s particularly challenging. It’s a great way to stop negative thoughts from taking over and reorient yourself toward positivity. Here’s how to do it—and be sure to get a pen and paper ready, as you’ll be writing by hand for this.

Think about what your life looks like several years in the future. Imagine yourself as reasonably successful. You’ve accomplished some of your big goals, and your life has improved.

Set a timer for five minutes and write about your future life until your time is up. Don’t worry about grammar, punctuation, or sloppy handwriting. Just get as many details down as possible in the given timeframe.

After you’re done, take a look at what you’ve written. How do you feel now? Did you learn anything about the challenges you’re currently facing? Do you feel motivated to take any small steps now to get to the future you wrote about?

If you enjoyed that happiness intervention, there’s no need to stop there. Try one of these techniques:

Write down three things that went well every day for one week. Be sure to note the reasons they went well too.

Determine your top five signature character strengths. Over the course of a week, try to use each strength in a new way every day. Record your results.

Write a thank-you letter. Take time to express gratitude to a friend or family member who helped you in the past.

The more often you complete a happiness intervention, the more effective it will be for you.

Need Help? Work with a Health Coach

If you’ve given these techniques a try to no avail or you’re fighting against years of negative habits, it may be time to work with a health coach.

A health coach can act as a guide as you learn how to reframe your thoughts and adopt a different mindset. And that mindframe switch can make a huge difference in your health and happiness. That’s why, in the ADAPT Health Coach Training Program, all of our health coach graduates are trained in positive psychology and character strengths.

Even if you’re facing serious negativity, a health coach trained in positive psychology can help reorient you toward a more success-focused conversation.

Now, I’d like to hear from you. Have you tried using positive psychology before? Do you plan on implementing any of these tips in your daily life? Leave a comment and let me know!

The post How to Use Positive Psychology to Improve Your Health appeared first on Chris Kresser.

Source: http://chriskresser.com December 05, 2018 at 01:50AM

#paleo #recipe #food #delicious #healthy #yum #diet

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jesseneufeld · 6 years

Text

How to Use Positive Psychology to Improve Your Health

What if it’s chronic anger, frustration, anxiety, sadness, or grief? Do those emotions also affect your health? And how can you let go of them?

Here’s how you can use positive psychology to rewire your brain and improve your mood and your health.

What Positive Psychology Is and What It Can Do for Your Well-Being

Why You Should Know Your Character Strengths

Creativity

Bravery

Fairness

Kindness

Humility

Gratitude

Hope

Zest

And many, many more

Why It’s Worth It to Refocus Your Thoughts

Immune system health

Cardiovascular health

Lower levels of cortisol and a healthy hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis

Better wound healing

Potentially protective effects on telomeres, the end caps on your DNA that prevent damage during replication

The Driver behind Positive Psychology: Neuroplasticity

Three Small Steps to Rewire Your Brain for Positivity

Sometimes, just taking one small step toward positivity is enough to make a difference in your life. With that in mind, here are three easy techniques you can try out today to change your focus.

1. Choose Your Words Carefully

Pessimistic Thinking Optimistic Thinking Your problems are permanent.

“This is always going to be a problem for me.”

Your problems are temporary.

“This will pass.”

Your issues are pervasive.

“This is catastrophic.”

Your problems are local.

“This isn’t the end.”

Your problems are personal.

“It’s all my fault.”

Your problems aren’t personal.

“This is a common problem for many people.”

Your problems are uncontrollable.

“There’s nothing I can do.”

Your problems are at least somewhat controllable.

“One step at a time.”

Changing the way you think isn’t a simple endeavor—but it’s well worth the effort. Mindfulness can help you challenge negative thoughts as they occur to you.

For tips on how to start practicing mindfulness, check out my article “How to Avoid a Near-Life Experience.”

2. Remember Your Past Wins

What led to your success?

What did you learn?

Who helped you reach your goal?

What resources did you use back then, and can you use them again?

3. Try a Happiness Intervention

Think about what your life looks like several years in the future. Imagine yourself as reasonably successful. You’ve accomplished some of your big goals, and your life has improved.

If you enjoyed that happiness intervention, there’s no need to stop there. Try one of these techniques:

Write down three things that went well every day for one week. Be sure to note the reasons they went well too.

Determine your top five signature character strengths. Over the course of a week, try to use each strength in a new way every day. Record your results.

Write a thank-you letter. Take time to express gratitude to a friend or family member who helped you in the past.

The more often you complete a happiness intervention, the more effective it will be for you.

Need Help? Work with a Health Coach

If you’ve given these techniques a try to no avail or you’re fighting against years of negative habits, it may be time to work with a health coach.

Even if you’re facing serious negativity, a health coach trained in positive psychology can help reorient you toward a more success-focused conversation.

Now, I’d like to hear from you. Have you tried using positive psychology before? Do you plan on implementing any of these tips in your daily life? Leave a comment and let me know!

The post How to Use Positive Psychology to Improve Your Health appeared first on Chris Kresser.

How to Use Positive Psychology to Improve Your Health published first on https://drugaddictionsrehab.tumblr.com/

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edsenger · 6 years

Text

How to Use Positive Psychology to Improve Your Health

What if it’s chronic anger, frustration, anxiety, sadness, or grief? Do those emotions also affect your health? And how can you let go of them?

Here’s how you can use positive psychology to rewire your brain and improve your mood and your health.

What Positive Psychology Is and What It Can Do for Your Well-Being

Why You Should Know Your Character Strengths

Creativity

Bravery

Fairness

Kindness

Humility

Gratitude

Hope

Zest

And many, many more

Why It’s Worth It to Refocus Your Thoughts

Immune system health

Cardiovascular health

Lower levels of cortisol and a healthy hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis

Better wound healing

Potentially protective effects on telomeres, the end caps on your DNA that prevent damage during replication

The Driver behind Positive Psychology: Neuroplasticity

Three Small Steps to Rewire Your Brain for Positivity

Sometimes, just taking one small step toward positivity is enough to make a difference in your life. With that in mind, here are three easy techniques you can try out today to change your focus.

1. Choose Your Words Carefully

Pessimistic Thinking Optimistic Thinking Your problems are permanent.

“This is always going to be a problem for me.”

Your problems are temporary.

“This will pass.”

Your issues are pervasive.

“This is catastrophic.”

Your problems are local.

“This isn’t the end.”

Your problems are personal.

“It’s all my fault.”

Your problems aren’t personal.

“This is a common problem for many people.”

Your problems are uncontrollable.

“There’s nothing I can do.”

Your problems are at least somewhat controllable.

“One step at a time.”

Changing the way you think isn’t a simple endeavor—but it’s well worth the effort. Mindfulness can help you challenge negative thoughts as they occur to you.

For tips on how to start practicing mindfulness, check out my article “How to Avoid a Near-Life Experience.”

2. Remember Your Past Wins

What led to your success?

What did you learn?

Who helped you reach your goal?

What resources did you use back then, and can you use them again?

3. Try a Happiness Intervention

Think about what your life looks like several years in the future. Imagine yourself as reasonably successful. You’ve accomplished some of your big goals, and your life has improved.

If you enjoyed that happiness intervention, there’s no need to stop there. Try one of these techniques:

Write down three things that went well every day for one week. Be sure to note the reasons they went well too.

Determine your top five signature character strengths. Over the course of a week, try to use each strength in a new way every day. Record your results.

Write a thank-you letter. Take time to express gratitude to a friend or family member who helped you in the past.

The more often you complete a happiness intervention, the more effective it will be for you.

Need Help? Work with a Health Coach

If you’ve given these techniques a try to no avail or you’re fighting against years of negative habits, it may be time to work with a health coach.

Even if you’re facing serious negativity, a health coach trained in positive psychology can help reorient you toward a more success-focused conversation.

Now, I’d like to hear from you. Have you tried using positive psychology before? Do you plan on implementing any of these tips in your daily life? Leave a comment and let me know!

The post How to Use Positive Psychology to Improve Your Health appeared first on Chris Kresser.

How to Use Positive Psychology to Improve Your Health published first on https://brightendentalhouston.weebly.com/

0 notes

shapesnnsizes · 6 years

Text

How to Use Positive Psychology to Improve Your Health

What if it’s chronic anger, frustration, anxiety, sadness, or grief? Do those emotions also affect your health? And how can you let go of them?

Here’s how you can use positive psychology to rewire your brain and improve your mood and your health.

What Positive Psychology Is and What It Can Do for Your Well-Being

Why You Should Know Your Character Strengths

Creativity

Bravery

Fairness

Kindness

Humility

Gratitude

Hope

Zest

And many, many more

Why It’s Worth It to Refocus Your Thoughts

Immune system health

Cardiovascular health

Lower levels of cortisol and a healthy hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis

Better wound healing

Potentially protective effects on telomeres, the end caps on your DNA that prevent damage during replication

The Driver behind Positive Psychology: Neuroplasticity

Three Small Steps to Rewire Your Brain for Positivity

Sometimes, just taking one small step toward positivity is enough to make a difference in your life. With that in mind, here are three easy techniques you can try out today to change your focus.

1. Choose Your Words Carefully

Pessimistic Thinking Optimistic Thinking Your problems are permanent.

“This is always going to be a problem for me.”

Your problems are temporary.

“This will pass.”

Your issues are pervasive.

“This is catastrophic.”

Your problems are local.

“This isn’t the end.”

Your problems are personal.

“It’s all my fault.”

Your problems aren’t personal.

“This is a common problem for many people.”

Your problems are uncontrollable.

“There’s nothing I can do.”

Your problems are at least somewhat controllable.

“One step at a time.”

Changing the way you think isn’t a simple endeavor—but it’s well worth the effort. Mindfulness can help you challenge negative thoughts as they occur to you.

For tips on how to start practicing mindfulness, check out my article “How to Avoid a Near-Life Experience.”

2. Remember Your Past Wins

What led to your success?

What did you learn?

Who helped you reach your goal?

What resources did you use back then, and can you use them again?

3. Try a Happiness Intervention

Think about what your life looks like several years in the future. Imagine yourself as reasonably successful. You’ve accomplished some of your big goals, and your life has improved.

If you enjoyed that happiness intervention, there’s no need to stop there. Try one of these techniques:

Write down three things that went well every day for one week. Be sure to note the reasons they went well too.

Determine your top five signature character strengths. Over the course of a week, try to use each strength in a new way every day. Record your results.

Write a thank-you letter. Take time to express gratitude to a friend or family member who helped you in the past.

The more often you complete a happiness intervention, the more effective it will be for you.

Need Help? Work with a Health Coach

If you’ve given these techniques a try to no avail or you’re fighting against years of negative habits, it may be time to work with a health coach.

Even if you’re facing serious negativity, a health coach trained in positive psychology can help reorient you toward a more success-focused conversation.

Now, I’d like to hear from you. Have you tried using positive psychology before? Do you plan on implementing any of these tips in your daily life? Leave a comment and let me know!

The post How to Use Positive Psychology to Improve Your Health appeared first on Chris Kresser.

0 notes

denisalvney · 6 years

Text

How to Use Positive Psychology to Improve Your Health

What if it’s chronic anger, frustration, anxiety, sadness, or grief? Do those emotions also affect your health? And how can you let go of them?

Here’s how you can use positive psychology to rewire your brain and improve your mood and your health.

What Positive Psychology Is and What It Can Do for Your Well-Being

Why You Should Know Your Character Strengths

Creativity

Bravery

Fairness

Kindness

Humility

Gratitude

Hope

Zest

And many, many more

Why It’s Worth It to Refocus Your Thoughts

Immune system health

Cardiovascular health

Lower levels of cortisol and a healthy hypothalamic–pituitary–adrenal (HPA) axis

Better wound healing

Potentially protective effects on telomeres, the end caps on your DNA that prevent damage during replication

The Driver behind Positive Psychology: Neuroplasticity

Three Small Steps to Rewire Your Brain for Positivity

Sometimes, just taking one small step toward positivity is enough to make a difference in your life. With that in mind, here are three easy techniques you can try out today to change your focus.

1. Choose Your Words Carefully

Pessimistic Thinking Optimistic Thinking Your problems are permanent.

“This is always going to be a problem for me.”

Your problems are temporary.

“This will pass.”

Your issues are pervasive.

“This is catastrophic.”

Your problems are local.

“This isn’t the end.”

Your problems are personal.

“It’s all my fault.”

Your problems aren’t personal.

“This is a common problem for many people.”

Your problems are uncontrollable.

“There’s nothing I can do.”

Your problems are at least somewhat controllable.

“One step at a time.”

Changing the way you think isn’t a simple endeavor—but it’s well worth the effort. Mindfulness can help you challenge negative thoughts as they occur to you.

For tips on how to start practicing mindfulness, check out my article “How to Avoid a Near-Life Experience.”

2. Remember Your Past Wins

What led to your success?

What did you learn?

Who helped you reach your goal?

What resources did you use back then, and can you use them again?

3. Try a Happiness Intervention

Think about what your life looks like several years in the future. Imagine yourself as reasonably successful. You’ve accomplished some of your big goals, and your life has improved.

If you enjoyed that happiness intervention, there’s no need to stop there. Try one of these techniques:

Write down three things that went well every day for one week. Be sure to note the reasons they went well too.

Determine your top five signature character strengths. Over the course of a week, try to use each strength in a new way every day. Record your results.

Write a thank-you letter. Take time to express gratitude to a friend or family member who helped you in the past.

The more often you complete a happiness intervention, the more effective it will be for you.

Need Help? Work with a Health Coach

If you’ve given these techniques a try to no avail or you’re fighting against years of negative habits, it may be time to work with a health coach.

Even if you’re facing serious negativity, a health coach trained in positive psychology can help reorient you toward a more success-focused conversation.

Now, I’d like to hear from you. Have you tried using positive psychology before? Do you plan on implementing any of these tips in your daily life? Leave a comment and let me know!

The post How to Use Positive Psychology to Improve Your Health appeared first on Chris Kresser.

How to Use Positive Psychology to Improve Your Health published first on https://chriskresser.com

0 notes

ramialkarmi · 7 years

Text

How the scrappy TED conference became a juggernaut worth millions — and where it wants to go next

TED, the media organization behind the popular ideas conference and video talks, is expanding.

The 33-year-old company has stayed out of politics for most of its existence, but as political tensions create a crisis of ideas, TED now has to figure out where it's going next.

The first stop, beginning this month, is a new TV show in India.

"So, uh, politics," Chris Anderson said as he paced across the stage in the Vancouver Convention Center. "Politics. Politics ... How do I say this?"

It was a Monday evening this past April, and Anderson was standing in front of a sea of attendees at the 2017 TED Conference, where nearly 2,000 executives, entrepreneurs, celebrities, artists, and scientists had descended for five days of thought-provoking talks. Anderson, TED's director, was doing his best to address the elephant in the room.

In the three months since Donald Trump had been sworn in as president of the United States, nearly every news story and water-cooler chat had been tinged with political rhetoric. TED, an organization that says it's set on remaining apolitical, was now thrust into the mix.

Anderson said he was sick of politics, to which he received raucous cheers. Then he said what could become a guiding philosophy for TED: "This week, we're not going to escape it entirely," he said. "But we are going to do our best to put it in its rightful place."

A company on the rise faces a new reality

TED started 33 years ago as a low-budget, in-person series of 18-minute talks. In the past decade, it's grown into a $65 million juggernaut. All around the world, TED produces talks (available to watch online), podcasts, and books, offers fellowships and grants, and gives little-known speakers the chance to become industry leaders just by taking the TED stage.

This month it's launching its most ambitious project yet, "TED Talks India: Nayi Soch," an eight-part TV series that will be broadcast in Hindi. It's TED's first non-English TV program, and it's expected to reach millions of people.

TED has hit an inflection point. The company was founded on the premise that fresh, innovative ideas can shape the future. But as social-media bubbles have made it easier to ignore ideas that don't appeal to us, an increasing number of people seem uninterested in stepping out of their comfort zone. Whether it's Trump's election win or the UK's Brexit, the world has shown signs of turning inward. TED's success hinges on that not happening.

Politics and TED can still be compatible

In the wake of October's Las Vegas Mandalay Bay massacre — the deadliest mass shooting in modern US history — political debates about gun control reopened and closed in a matter of weeks. But Anderson, seated in a quiet space at TED's New York City headquarters a few weeks later, maintained that no topic, not even gun control, was too sensitive for the politically neutral TED stage.

He recalled a recent trip to Vermont during which someone informed him that the state had one of the lowest murder rates in the US despite a high rate of gun ownership.

"Maybe having the argument [on the TED stage] given by someone who loves guns, has hunted, and gets the pleasure and the appeal of them" would work better, Anderson said, "rather than the nanny wagging their finger at you and saying 'No, you mustn't.'"

TED relies on a three-pronged test to determine if a talk is worth including in a conference lineup.

The first is whether the talk gives people a fresh way of seeing the world. Anderson's quintessential example is Barry Schwartz's 2005 talk, "The Paradox of Choice," in which Schwartz, a psychologist, suggested that people can be paralyzed by how much choice they have, not liberated by it.

The second is whether the talk offers the audience a clever solution to a given problem, or the promise of a better future.

The third is inspiration. The talk should express an idea in a way that compels people to act.

The test has come to be even more crucial over the past few years. In a press call ahead of this year's TED Conference, Anderson said that "ideas have never mattered more."

"We have this tool for bridging that allows any two humans to see the world a bit differently. Call the tool what you want: reason, discussion, sharing of ideas. It's actually an amazing thing that it can happen at all," Anderson told Business Insider. "The single most terrifying thing about the current moment is that we are throwing away that superpower and descending into more animal-like behavior."

A dinner party goes viral

When designer and architect Richard Saul Wurman launched TED in 1984, he called it the dinner party he always wanted to have but couldn't. Wurman united technology, entertainment, and design into one multiday event. He called it "TED." (Wurman is a fan of cheeky acronyms. Recently, the 82-year-old hosted a dinner party called EAT, wherein conversation had to center on envy, admiration, and terror.)

Wurman and his assistant organized the first TED conference for 300 of Wurman's closest friends and colleagues. If someone flubbed a line or lost their way entirely, Wurman, who sat onstage for every talk, would sometimes leave his chair and stand directly behind the speaker. It was his quiet way of saying, "Time to wrap things up."

Despite TED's unveiling of the world's first compact disc — quite the feat at the time — it wasn't until 1990 that Wurman held his second conference. Gradually, the event began to attract bigger names and bigger audiences.

"Steve [Jobs] would call me up at home and say, 'What stuff do you want at the conference this year as far as equipment?'" Wurman recalled.

Wurman sold the enterprise, in 2000, to Future PLC, a publishing company that Anderson had built into a media giant in the 1990s. Through his personal nonprofit, the Sapling Foundation, Anderson bought TED from Future PLC in 2001 for $6 million. The company has stayed under Anderson's watch since.

Under Anderson's stewardship, TED has grown into a bona-fide kingmaker.

"It's not an exaggeration to say my life very much divides itself into pre-TED and post-TED," Sarah Kay, a spoken-word poet, told Business Insider. Kay's 2011 talk, "If I Should Have a Daughter," has amassed 10.5 million views since it hit the TED site. "I'm very much aware that my career would not be what it is had that video not gone online."

Leadership expert and author Simon Sinek said TED has given a similar golden touch for his career. When Sinek's 2009 TEDx talk, "How Great Leaders Inspire Action," was uploaded to the TED site, it coincided with his first book, "Start With Why," which has gone on to sell nearly a million copies and has seen rising sales every year since the talk was uploaded. At 34 million views, "How Great Leaders Inspire Action" is the third-most-viewed TED talk of all time.

"All of our careers have been catalyzed thanks to TED," Sinek told Business Insider, referring to the site's top-viewed speakers. "When you hang out backstage at TED now, the anxiety is palpable. People truly believe it's this make-or-break thing for their careers."

Even people who are already famous when they hit the TED stage feel this pressure. Author and journalist Malcolm Gladwell gave his first TED talk in 2004. He chose as his topic the mystery of creating the perfect spaghetti sauce.

"I was very nervous, and in fact I never liked that talk because I lose my way halfway through," Gladwell told Business Insider. "It's kind of obvious if you watch it. To me, it's painfully obvious."

TED-driven fame doesn't always lead to positive outcomes.

In 2012, Harvard psychologist Amy Cuddy gave a talk called "Your Body Language Shapes Who You Are." It hinged on a 2010 study in which she found standing like Wonder Woman boosted testosterone and lowered stress.

Almost overnight, "power posing" became a life hack for millions. But as Susan Dominus recently reported for The New York Times Magazine, a movement among psychologists looking to highlight flaws in research has since discredited Cuddy's 2010 study.

The prominence Cuddy gained from TED made her an easy scapegoat, Dominus wrote. In the spring Cuddy left her tenure-track job at Harvard.

Getting bigger has brought new challenges

Anderson saw the TED acquisition as his big second chance to deliver these kinds of inventive ideas to millions, if not billions, of people. By 2006, he had broadened its scope so that religious leaders, artists, life coaches, poets, and other bright minds could join original stars like Jane Goodall and Stewart Brand on the TED stage. The son of two missionaries, Anderson also bestowed upon TED a subtitle: "ideas worth spreading."

TED is now a household name in educated, urban pockets of the US and beyond. At TED's home office, a counter projected on to the server-room door shows a live feed of the day's video views. Shortly after lunch on a recent October visit, the counter had already reached 1.3 million. The most popular talk — Sir Ken Robinson's "Do Schools Kill Creativity?" — has been viewed more than 61 million times.

But as it's gotten bigger TED has seemed to at times struggle to maintain oversight at its conferences and offices. Several attendees of the 2017 TED Conference said they'd been sexually harassed or groped, according to The Washington Post.

Casting a broader net has also invited critics who take issue with what TED has become. In 2013, Benjamin H. Bratton, an associate professor of visual arts at the University of California at San Diego, gave a TEDx talk in which he argued that TED doesn't actually inspire people to think or behave differently.

He called the platform "middlebrow megachurch infotainment" and suggested TED is complicit in "dumbing down the future." In a 2014 New York Times profile of Anderson, David Hochman called TED "the Starbucks of intellectual conglomerates."

Sinek defended TED's emphasis on simplifying complex topics as one of the reasons TED exists in the first place.

"That's the idea," he said. "If ideas are so complex that nobody can ever hear them, then what's the value to the general population? But if we can learn to communicate our ideas in ways that people can understand them, isn't that a good thing? Many academics hate TED because they're the ones who didn't get TED famous."

Giving videos away for free isn't cheap

The company's main TED Conference is held every year in Vancouver and remains its flagship moneymaker. Capped at 1,800 attendees — or "TEDsters" if they are regulars — the event features five days of nonstop activity.

Many academics hate TED because they're the ones who didn't get TED famous.

Titans of the tech, science, art, design, and entertainment world attend TED for the chance to adjourn, however briefly, to a brighter future. Access to this future isn't cheap. Tickets cost $8,500 and up, and the high price has rankled some who say TED is hypocritical for spreading ideas only to those wealthy enough to hear them. At the 2017 event, branded partner BMW let people test-drive new high-end models. Lululemon provided an indoor pod for meditation and yoga.

Anderson said he's trying to structure the 2018 conference so that more of a general audience can attend, perhaps through a lottery system. And he defended the cost of admission as a way to bring TED talks to a broad audience. "They're the people who are actually paying for us to spend literally tens of millions of dollars every year on a website that distributes these talks to the world," he said.

An evolving company figures out what’s next

Anderson's goal is to allow the 3 to 5 billion people expected to come online by 2020 to draw inspiration from TED. He called this digital migration "the most extraordinary social experiment we've seen in history."

"There just hasn't been a time when a girl in a remote village or a boy in a slum who is unemployed and angry and trying to figure out what to do with his life, can actually have, 18 inches from their eyeballs and plugged into their ears, some of the most inspiring speakers and mentors," he said.

Attracting that new audience comes with a new set of quandaries. It means thinking about how to bring TED's ideas to people who don't speak English, can't access technology, or may want to hear certain ideas at critical moments.

"There were a number of talks we shared in the wake of the events in Charlottesville," said Colin Helms, TED's head of media, referring to the August riots that took place in Virginia between white-supremacist groups and counterprotesters. "We're always sensitive to not taking a political stance, but we also have an obligation to share ideas that we think will empower and help people, particularly in times of need or the world is in a sense of disarray, wherever that may be."

Expanding TED also means considering future speakers even more carefully.

There will always be the marquee stars Anderson wants to get, like astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson (who has yet to accept an invite). But for the young person living in a slum, Anderson said, "How do we find the person who will speak to them and will give them what they need?"

The clearest sign TED is making good on its global mission is the December launch of "TED Talks India: Nayi Soch," its first foreign TV series. Broadcast in Hindi with Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan as its host, the series will air on India's largest TV network, Star Plus. The network reaches 650 million people.

Juliet Blake, the executive producer of the series, said the program would consist of eight one-hour shows, each with a different theme. The talks were developed with the TED team in English and then translated to Hindi for the stage.

Khan, one of India's icons, said the global crisis of ideas has reached India.

"This kind of show, at this time in the world, is an encouragement to people," Khan told Business Insider. "If you've got a simple idea, let's exchange it. Let's not get chained to the thoughts that are pervading or being talked about around us."

According to Blake, TED wanted to make a focused effort to emphasize equality in the Indian series, so the company appointed women to roughly half the lineup spots. Many of the talks become quite intense, Blake said.

During a talk on violence against women, "I looked at the audience, and so many of the women in the audience were crying," Blake said. When the woman finished her talk, Blake said, she rushed out of the control room and down four flights of stairs to meet her as she got offstage. The audience was on its feet. Khan was in tears.

"It started off as a brilliant talk," Blake said. "But it became something more than a TED talk. I think it will be life-changing for many women in India."

Future unknown, but exciting

As TED has grown into a public-facing behemoth over the past three decades, it's been forced to reevaluate what kinds of responsibilities it has to the people who catch wind of its ideas.

TED's role as global ideas curator comes with an open-ended future, and it's a matter of ongoing discussion inside the company, Helms said.

Even though the world is engulfed in a crisis of ideas, Anderson said people still crave rational, lucid insight into issues related to their basic livelihoods and ongoing challenges. He brought up the rise of artificial intelligence and wealth inequality as two examples.

"When you can have 2 billion customers two years after starting up a business, that's a recipe for a few people getting extraordinarily wealthy — and then what?" Anderson said. "What happens next? We don't have answers to that yet, so I'm definitely interested in that."

SEE ALSO: 32-year-old investor with ties to Elon Musk wants to upend America with a crazy utopian plan for the future

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