Today I would like to share a thought provoking Ted Talk by British Actress Thandie Newton entitled "Embracing otherness, embracing myself". Thandie speaks of living from your essence and suspending the projection of self. The projection of self is the illusion that the self is constant.

"The destruction of myself was so repetitive that I started to see a pattern. The self changed...but another one would evolve. The self was not constant."- Thandie Newton

Growing up, Thandie's projected self did not fit in among her peers and was constantly rejected. This lead to her self destructive thoughts and feelings (anxiety, confusion and shame) until she realized that the “self” was not constant, and not real.Her quote resonates with me because I have drastically changed multiple times over the past 5 years. Evolving, growing and learning. I have immersed myself in "heady" activities: reading, studying, thinking, pondering, questioning - but as the next quote points out this might not be the best thing to do.

“If we're all living in ourselves and mistaking it for life, then we're devaluing and desensitizing life.”- Thandie Newton

Thandie encourages us to suspend the self enough to recognize we are all connected. To engage, interact with, learn from and love each other.[ted id=1193]

When do you feel oneness? Thandie feels it while dancing (me too!) and acting. I have also felt it while hiking trails in the woods.
Do you think the self is a projection or that it remains constant?
Have you ever been so lost in yourself that you forget to care about others?