How to rise above anything. Even the worst

inspiration

28 May

This is my dear friend Ingrid Poulson, doing TEDx last month. If you live in Australia, you might know Ingrid because of her story. It is a doozy. But Ingrid is so much more than just the well-known part of her story. I knew her before her story became a Story, when she was a shy and funny and deeply average teenager like the rest of us. We sang a cappella big-band tunes together with our friends. We told silly stories and wrote them down. Ingrid had a big brother with beautiful eyes and a big sister who was soooo glamorous. Ingrid had a chicken that lived on the shed roof and crowed like a rooster.

Today I am still honoured to have Ingrid as my friend, and to know the kind and funny and brave and loving woman that she is, well beyond any story.

She said on her website that when she was invited to talk at TEDx, "I wanted to tell the story just one more time and that was it. Have it filmed and out there for people to check out and then react in their own time and space."

The next 16 minutes are Ingrid's gift to you. They are her lessons, learned in the hardest possible of ways, on how to RISE (that's an acronym, you'll learn) through and above anything that life throws at you.

I remember reading in Ingrid's amazing book Rise, that she draws a big distinction between strength and resilience. When Ingrid lost everything, people would tell her "You're so strong. You're the strongest person I know." And for Ingrid that became a pressure: she felt she couldn't call on those people on the days she was truly at her lowest, because she would lose the title of Strong, and society places such value on strength. Instead, Ingrid teaches resilience. Resilience lets you hit the lowest of the lows, and that's OK, but you do survive and, in time, you overcome. I highly recommend Rise: it is positive and potentially life-changing.

In the meantime, watch this. Go on! You'll thank me (and Ingrid).