I knew within just two minutes of the seventeen minute TedXPT talk given by Amber Naslund (posted below) that everything I thought I knew about the world I live in was about to change forever.

It was incredible to see how Amber was able to stand up and talk in front of a large audience with heaps of passion but also appear vulnerable at the same time.

Frankly I don’t often see presentations or talks where I am truly empathising with the person on an emotional level. Amber did that for the entire duration of her talk.

So I just want to take a moment to share with you three lessons I have discovered in Amber’s talk. Each reflects my personal feelings right now about the power of the topic Amber chose.

1 – People Have Incredible Resilience

Before I watched this presentation I had known of Amber from Twitter. I never for a moment suspected she suffered from a general anxiety disorder.

Throughout this talk Amber showcased the power of strength and resilience despite being in an adverse position. I sat watching her talk and felt deeply inspired and moved by that strength. It inspires me to want to do more and be a better person.

2 – People Are Ignorant

The topic of Amber’s talk was about mental illness is framed as a stigma or largely ignored by most of society. Amber talks about how we need to reduce the belief that mental illness is somehow the fault of the individual. I couldn’t agree more.

The one thing we should take pride in is that people like Amber are getting out there and educating others. Without people like her we will be morally bankrupt and unable to process how to be around people with a mental condition. It’s not right and it’s not fair that people with a mental illness should suffer in silence.

3 – “You Are Courageous and We Need You To Keep Fighting”

Easily the most inspiring words of Amber Naslund’s entire talk. To me, it symbolises a pivotal moment when we start to build a community and a movement of like-minded people who can share stories and ideas in a welcoming environment.

We need Amber and others to create an “It Gets Better” social movement for mental illness. Once it starts to develop the same level of national and political attention that “It Gets Better” did, we can then help it grow through our blogs, social networks and by telling our friends and family about these incredible people who are fighting every day to build a better future for people with a mental illness.

The one resource I can’t wait to launched is Amber’s new blog called The Mind:Share Project. I will update this blog post and on my Twitter when it is launched.

So those are just three lessons I have learnt. I am going to be rewatching this video and updating this blog post with any new ideas and lessons learnt. As I have said, I have been deeply impacted by the message in this talk.

Please do take a moment to thank Amber Naslund on Twitter for her incredible talk and follow her blog “Brass Tack Thinking”.