The Secret To Feeling Less Alone
[Music]
there isn’t a human alive
who hasn’t felt alone
and i have a secret to share with you
today a sure-fire way
to feel less alone
something i learned while
circumnavigating the world
with no money i used to be a broker
in the city of london and on the outside
i had
everything you could ever want but on
the inside
i felt profoundly broken
depressed alone no sense of hope
probably drinking too much definitely
eating too much but no one knew
because i was wearing a mask and that
mask
told you oh everything’s fine
everything’s okay
but no everything was not okay
and i would go so far as to say that
everyone watching this speech today
has experienced that feeling of living
behind that mask not the covert 19 type
right
the psychological mask and when we live
behind that mask we feel
alone sometimes people say to me leon
what did you learn on your journeys
i learned many things but the most
beautiful thing i learnt
was that we are all the same
irrespective of religion irrespective of
how much money we may or may not have
irrespective of color at base
we just want to be seen
at base we just want to be
loved i remember i was in delhi
we spent two nights in some slums
on the outside if you’ve been there
you’ll see there’s a lot of poverty
on the inside a lot of love woke up in
the morning
saw this mother kissing her two kids
goodbye for school
i had an epiphany her love
for her kids is exactly the same
as your love for your kids
we are the same we
are the same as a kid
i was bullied mercilessly at school i
remember walking into class and
feeling like the end was nigh
but i had this one teacher she would
look at me every day
she would say i believe in you
i believe in you she ignited my humanity
we connected with our shared humanity
she made me feel less alone
look we live in a world that is really
set up to make us feel alone
okay so we think we have facebook
instagram twitter
clubhouse all of these things right
which we do
but the truest form of connection
is from one human being to another
so leon what is this secret way
please tell me i’m gonna tell you i’m
gonna tell you
that this secret way has a little bit of
a bad rap right so please don’t turn off
the speech
the secret way to feel
less alone guaranteed
is to be kind
because when you are kind you
open up your heart and when you
open up your heart to another human
being
everything changes when you show
compassion
when you show empathy
everything changes kindness
literally changes lives
and i can say that because i wouldn’t be
standing here today
if it wasn’t for that teacher all those
years ago
because really what she was doing to me
was being kind and kindness
is a win-win when i’m kind to you
i win and so do you
that is the secret to feeling
less alone i’m sure you all know what it
feels like when someone’s mean to you
when someone makes you feel unvalued
when someone makes you feel like you
don’t matter
and i hope that all of you know how it
feels like
when someone sees you
when someone is kind
to your very essence your very humanity
and sometimes people say to me oh leon
i can’t be kind if i’m kind
i’ll be squashed if i’m kind
people will think i’m weak if i’m kind
my vulnerability will be taken advantage
of
i get it but when they tell me that i
tell them the story
of the great muhammad ali
muhammad ali a man of love
a man of service a man of compassion
but a kind man
how many of you would mess with muhammad
ali
and that is my point kindness is in fact
your greatest strength it takes down
that mask
it takes down those walls
and when you take down those walls
and you take down that mask you are left
with your humanity and when you
share that with another human being
i promise you you will feel
less alone sometimes
they say leon you’re too pollyannish
don’t tell me that all i have to do is
be kind and everything will
resolve itself that’s not what i’m
saying bad things happen
covet wars
bad things happen but
it’s a big but good things happen too
and kindness and how we show up
is a choice on my journey around the
world
i met all these interesting people and
this is a fellow that i met in
pittsburgh
and i would go to people in the streets
and say hey can i stay in your house
tonight and they’d be like
no i went up to tony i said can i stay
in your house tonight and he looks at me
and he goes
i’m really sorry but i’m homeless
i feel a lot of shame about to walk off
and he says hold on hold on do you know
what
if you want you can stay with me tonight
i’ll feed you
i’ll protect you and i will give you
some clothes
that moment changed my life here was
someone
who had every reason to be unkind
who had every reason to choose
to share his pain and his his hate
but he chose to be kind and i ended up
staying on the streets with him
and i remember saying to him in the
morning i said tony
do you ever feel alone and he’s like
look leon i don’t want to be on the
streets
but the truth is i don’t feel alone
i have my friends i share with people
i show my kindness i receive kindness
i share my humanity
goosebumps even now goosebumps
i’m not saying that tony was better off
on the streets
clearly not but what i am saying
is that when we choose to be kind
it is a natural reaction
for us to feel less alone
and tony proved it he proved it
i’ll leave you with a little story i
gave a speech
a while back at a school
about kindness believe it or not and
[Music]
at the end of the speech this kid comes
up to me
and he hugs me for one minute
he wouldn’t let go why
it turns out that he’d suffered a
traumatic brain injury
and his teachers told me that ever since
he’d had that
catastrophic injury all
he wanted to do was love
all he wanted to do was make other
people
feel less alone
and the way that he did that
the kindness that he showed
was to hug me and to hug
others here was
living proof that how you show up in the
world
makes a massive difference
now my challenge for you today
is to go out and hug the world
is to go out and make people feel less
alone
is to go out and inspire
others by how you
show up so
go be human go be
kind and i promise you
guaranteed that you will feel less alone
you