Imagine if peoples diaries were required reading in our history classes. Yes facts are important but to read about important events in history from the people who were actually there in real time would be an amazing tool for us to have. We’d learn empathy early on and wouldn’t feel so alone.

I have over 10 diaries I write about being an immigrant, a single mom, my bipolar brain etc. And often wondered who would want to Read them when I’m gone…so happy I came across this Ted Talk.

self-contained grief is self-destructive. BAM. Hits right in the feels.

At the start of covid, I read journal entries from the Spanish flu and it was surprisingly relatable

Journaling sad moments is so important but I love the part about journaling about happy moments. It feels so amazing to write and celebrate the good in our life. Gratitude written is also so powerful.

I've been journaling for 25+ years. It truly is a blessing to have a documented account of my feelings and thoughts through the years.

The reminder of “go easy on yourself” when reading your old diaries, will stay with me.

I’ve been regularly keeping a diary since I was a little girl, almost 30 years. I go through 5-10 a year. It’s extremely cathartic and I use them to set goals for myself, and conquer them. I am my own cheerleader. 🦋

As an avid diary keeper, this was beautiful. Nothing beats the power of written word 💜

I been writing my journey in notebooks for 35 years. it helps me get clears on things, my dreams and hopes. It gives me the strength to move forward or see where I am holding back. Each time I move I carry them with me and know one day my children will read them and understand their father a little more and see how life is sometimes a struggle but, in the end, it's the love I have for them and the people in my life who gave me love when I needed it. Keep writing or start writing God Bless

Ever since I was a little girl I’ve had many diaries, from invisible ink pens to gel pens to glitter pens. It took me a few years to get back into writing. But when the pandemic had started almost 2 years ago I had started writing more frequently. I don’t know what made me so unmotivated to stop. But after watching this it made me wanna continue writing & learning

I lost my father to Covid-19. This talk has inspired me to start my own journaling practice. What an incredible talk!

Reading diaries if people going through the stages and feelings we all experience, would possibly gives us a perspective on the human condition, and help us traverse through our journey, like we had the wisdom of a 1000 aunts passing along their knowledge.

I bought a new diary 3 years ago in which there were wrote ones of the hardest experiences in my life, loss, love, nostalgia and disappointment were the 4 major topics in those 3 years. This summer i went on vacation and on my way back home they stole my suitcase, in which there was my diary. It didnt hurt the fact that I lost all my clothes and little presents, but the fact that I'll never be able to get it back devastates me. A good friend of mine tho, told me that maybe it was a sign to make a change in my life.

Just finished - this was outstanding! About a year ago I was wondering to people why it is we bury often meaningless “time capsules” and have head stones and wakes, and send golden discs out into the universe, but we don’t inter people with a permanent record of who they are. Just… bodies. We mostly don’t even write our own obit or eulogy - others do it. But others don’t KNOW you like you know you. I want anyone who finds me to also find my writings, images, ideas, accomplishments, feelings and perspectives. Instead there are just masses and masses of graves and we know virtually nothing about them except what *others* choose to say about them. I have many, if not all, of my late sisters diaries. She committed suicide in 2004. I haven’t gathered myself to read them yet.

This woman has such light and goodness about her. How inspiring!

My fave genre is autobiographies/biographies. True stories, true thoughts, not pretty musings sometimes.

Reading Anne Frank changed my life. My most popular video on KZfaq is about journaling and I tell my students everyday it's incredibly healing. This was so beautiful. I cannot wait to show this to my students! Thank you for this.

I keep a digital journal for my young grand-daughter. With my aging hands, it's too difficult for me to maintain a handwritten daily or almost daily journal. I write to her about her day and what she did - played with play-do, had fun at a local park playground, wouldn't eat broccoli at dinner, loved the giraffes at the zoo, snuggled up while I read her a bedtime story, etc. I also include inspirational and uplifting sayings and photos that I copy and paste from the internet. My husband, her Papa and I, her Granny have full custody of her as she has never met her bio dad and our daughter, her Mom, is unable to care for her. I want my grand-daughter to know about herself and to know that she is worthy and loved.

My mom was an au pair in France and her stories inspired me to study French and later study in France. Long after, she shared her diary from that year; a good Catholic girl who went to mass, learned to cook coq au vin…my journals were nowhere near as innocent! 😵‍💫😆🙃

Really enjoyed this. I loved the message about emotions transcending time. For whatever reason I think sometimes I picture people in the past somehow being better able to deal with death or difficulty, but I love this shows that we are all human, and we all feel similar emotions and can connect over that.

I kept a diary for 13 years. I started it when I was 14. When I was 27 I burnt them all, crying because I wanted to have a new start. I'm so regretful now. I could have had a new start without burning the past. All I needed to do was closing the chapter and starting a new one.

Absolutely captivating. I was blown away by her final anecdote about the two girls on the SS Normandie.

Beautiful talk! As a keeper of my father's 1940-s war diary I can whole-heartedly relate to your devotion and enthusiasm. Thank you.

I too write diary and when i gave my love of life to read it *the whole diary* i didn't have any idea what i have written in it because i didn't written it to be read by someone else , she just read it for 15-20 minutes i was not facing her because of fear and after that she just came to me with a smile and tears of happiness in her eyes and just hugged me 🤗 Ay that moment I felt like "yes , i can spend my rest of life with het "

2021 was the first year of my life that I started AND finished a journal. I was/am super proud of myself. Flow of expression is such an amazing practice to gift oneself.

My dad past away and listening at you it make me feel with hope, we all past through many hard things, and we all have power in our stories

Decided in 1976 to get Real. Commenced expressing my true thoughts and feelings via diaries. They are definitely my dearest and most loyal, supportive friends and have guided me through myriad challenges, heartaches, heartbreaks as well as cherishable adventures. They help me HEAL and EVOLVE. 🦋

I'm a 60s scoop baby... i left home at 16 and didn't return for 28 years. Then met my natural mom.. early 20s in Florida. We are on fb mostly now. I'm a Widow twice. Once accidental od and one a suicide jan 9th on his bday coming up 4 years now. Ouch......I want to share how I'm getting through it with the Medicine wheel. Also I I live with deficits from an occiptocal stroke. A healer guided me to do be here alone and well. Sooo... I get pain. I'm also 1st Nations Mi'kmaq and found my culture at 34 that has immensity helped heal me. I want to share this journey if anyone wants to hear.

Beautiful delivery. Sally knows how to keep an audience engaged; I didn't want her Talk to end! I found her podcast on Spotify: Diary Discoveries. Now I don't have to stop listening to these fascinating stories!

I always am amazed by what people find to do in life, and how it always seems to turn out when they follow a dream or a quest, like you have. That was an amazing story, thank you so very much. I have a million notebooks around the house, partially filled. I don’t think what I write is good enough. But for whom? These people whose diaries you have read can live again, thanks to you. Maybe I can have the courage to just write my life down, too, unabashed. Thank you.

Yeah I agree with you reading is only way for improving ourselves and make good relationship together

I’ve been journaling in the form of poetry for 2 decades now and I wonder whether my children (I have 4) or future grandchildren would care to read the likely thousands of poems I’ve whittled my thoughts and feelings into 🤷🏻‍♀️ it is my therapy

I have been keeping a personal diary for about 10 years now, I am so sorry for the people who will have to go through that after I passed XD. It´s such a mess of random thoughts, bits of arts, very little stories of what is happening currently in my life (or sometimes how do I feel about something without even specified what that thing is). Also bits of it is in codes, foreign languages and weird calligraphies, pretty undecipherable. It amused me to reread bits because I realize I´ve forgotten to announce that I have a new boyfriend after I already started writing about what did we do on the third date 🤣🤣🤣. But I agree with her a 10000000% about how self-contained grief is self-destructive. However messy it always helps me to get those messy and harmful thoughts out of my head, and having them worded or draw in front of my eyes makes them, not weaker exactly, but less fearful since I can comprehend them a bit better. It also helps me realize some subtle meanings behind my own feelings, something that I would NEVER think of it if I wasn't writing about it. So please, keep a diary. Or at least just try. It doesn't have to be perfectly written, nor daily. Anything is valid as long as you feel is right for you.

One of the most beautiful talks I've heard!

Alice and Barbaras story is a dream come true of journal reading excitement. What are the odds!!!

This is one of the most interesting TED talks from recent memory. I am fully inspired to begin keeping a diary again. Thank you for this. I so glad that people like Sally MacNamara are out there

SO good, Sally! Way to go! Touched my heart!

Thank you, Sally. You are a wonderful storyteller yourself. You are very uplifting, kind, and encouraging. God bless you and your family.

When someone writes about something, a thought, a dream, it becomes part of all that is, as real a river or a mountain, for its presence can affect the one who comes across it. Like a crossroad leading to places the hiker didn't know existed, to paths one never expected to walk. Words can build castles in our minds, light fires in our hearts, put wings on our imagination. Of all the things Humanity has made, the written word is perhaps the greatest because, apart from describing and help create the world we can all see, it can also give life to the Universe that would have otherwise existed only in the thoughts and dreams of a single man.

I honestly can’t wait to go home now and find my old diaries i wrote as a teenager. Feeling so nostalgic

Phenomenal. I’ve watched more than a fair share of TEDx talks through the years-this one trumps them ALL. It’s wonderful. Thank you.

Journaling is an important part of my life. I keep them not only to see where I can go, but also to have a record of where I have been. It’s something I also hope to pass on to show my future kids/younger generations that I’ve been where they’ve been and my wisdom may not be enough for them to comprehend as I’m decades removed. I read the Royal Diaries series, Sylvia Plath, and Anne Frank and they have taught me so much about our shared humanity. Anne Frank’s diary was a big comfort during the lockdown.

This was a beautiful, extraordinarily moving and inspiring talk. Thank you

Beautifully delivered! I keep journals, multiple types, I love it! If you’re reading this, it’s a sign that you should start your own journal ✨✨

That’s funny, the UpperRoom article of the day is called “you’re not alone”. What a great message, and about our stories being important.

So beautiful Sally! Thank you for sharing! 🙏❤️

Ohhh my goodness! Thank you so much for this conversation. You just made my life more meaningful. Thank you!

I live a JAMB Lifestyle. Journaling, Art, Music, and Bible. I have been journaling my life consistently since 2020….so that my children and grandchildren can know my thoughts throughout these years. This talk confirms to me that I doing the right thing.

This is my absolute favorite ted talk. Thank you for doing this and sharing your story, you were amazing!❤👏👏

I'm glad that I love writing my own story day after day. My goal is just I wanted to read it years later and go back to all of those times of grief and happiness feeling nostalgic for it but also maybe I'll be diagnosed with Alzheimer's I hope not so I can go back to my life easily as someone who instantly got recognized her family just by reading her diary to her. It's such a sweet entry of life. To know why you do this or that, it's because your life is as much as important as your breathe. So take a moment to thank the pages and the pen and ink you use to scribe piece by piece the letters that have power once it mended a word. Thanks for sharing us, I've been journaling for years and I enhanced my skills and inspiration because of the stories you've told us as you've read those. God bless you.

This ted talk takes your mind ona journey that has so many plot twists that it feels so great to watch that it becomes difficult to describe just how much you will end up learning

My first page of my journals all have a warning for any of my loved ones who may find and read them. 😂I believe they could be helpful, but I also know there are some things they may wish they’d never found out. I mostly write because it’s cathartic for me, but also because I want my children to have them-to know so much of what we think makes us abnormal or “a bad person” because no one really talks about it, is actually pretty common.

Fascinating and so incredibly moving ❤

I'm just here to say if you struggle to keep a written diary like me, try recording. I used to keep a diary when i was younger, but although I type fast, my brain is faster than my hands nowadays and my emotions are often complex, and I often felt like writing takes too much time and still don't convey me well. I've lost too many years of precious memories this way. Eversince I 'discovered' recordings, I have been able to preserve so many of my thoughts and feelings right when I had them, and exactly how I got them - there are so many things in my tones that my words would have failed. I know many can't stand to listen to themselves recorded, but after I practiced self-love exercises, I now find these audible past-selves nothing short of endearing & fascinating. Don't let this 2022 you slip into oblivion, give it a go!

Great testimony of passion. One of the best Ted Talks. Gina in lights.

Yes Sally!!So proud to know you!!greetz&respect from the Netherlands 👋🏼☺️👍🏼🌈

Those 2 journals gave me goosebumps! What an incredible synchronicity!

That gave me chills and some faith in humanity. Go Sally!

I love watching TEDx talks they’re very interesting. She speaks very well, keeps me in tuned with what she has to say.

KZfaq suggested me this video and I'm thankful and crying while loving you. I've always kept diaries since I can remember. Actually I write everywhere, I have tons of....written things. I'm a graphomaniac, and I suffer from several personality disorders and writing down my thoughts helped me and keeps on jelping me to get through the difficult stages of my life, because no-one-have-never-understood-the-struggling I was going through and never even care to (nice family, uh?). Diaries and music. And dissociation, unfortunately/luckily. I'm an introvert. I'm empathetic. I was able to guess people's feeling since I was really young aged and realized quickly how false people are. (again: nice family, uh?). Diaries have been the friends I've always wished for and never had. And never have, but now I'm okay with that. Your work has been amazing! Barbara and Alice, chose you ;)

Truly incredible & moving ❤

You're awesome Sally, thank you for sharing!

Wow!Very inspiring!I never had enough patience for keeping a diary, it always feels like my thoughts are racing a hundred times faster than I can write. It's like I can not catch my thoughts. Thank you for sharing your experiences with us!

Beautiful! I've always been fascinated about peoples' stories and the lives they lived. This Ted talk rekindled that passion in me. Thank you! I cried during the story of Alice and Barbara. I hope they lived a good life! ❤️

What an unusual, yet very interesting topic! I'm glad this was recommended to me

Excellent talk. She made me want to pick up my pen and start writing.

I have my late partners mom Alice writings too and her relatives from 1800s if you want them. Also I wanted to add as I wrote these diaries I write them knowing someone will read them, so I write them as as if I'm writing them to you personally. I even put insert psychological term here in my writing because I know someone will get it ...I thought there's something wrong with me. I just don't know what it was. So as I read them now I'm able to put things into perspective. There's so many of them I can even get through them. I know it's my path to publish them.. Tim wanted me to write then before he passed.. always yelled at me too. I'm so glad there's people there like you doing this. You get me!!!

So talented! I loved her!

That was a great talk. I also keep written and online entries. What she says is very true

that was really amazing. thank u for this ted talk

Real testimonial historical information! Thank you for sharing this!

Thank you, you gave me a new perspective regarding writing diaries. Maybe someday I would too write the story of my life.

This is pretty cool. I struggle with keeping a diary. I always have… more so now with the time demands of life. But this has inspired me to put forth the effort. Journal entries are gold and gems in a sense… one day they may be buried and rediscovered.

One day, maybe someone can read my diary.... I started mine 20+ years ago. I mostly vent. I guess I better start writing happy things in there too...

This is so beautiful!

That was beautiful ❣️Thank you👏🏻

Diary is important (even though I don't have it) because you will get to know in the future- what you felt exactly at that moment because as time passes on you forget the exact feeling and cannot accurately write it down or explain to someone, exactly.

I really resonated with this as my mom passed away and my dad moved without telling anyone and everyone moved on apart from me

pretty neat experience. thank you for sharing

One of my favorite videos ever 🎉

I went back and read my diaries. They were filled with grief, loneliness, and heartbreak. They chronicled the bullying of my precious son, foreshadowing some terrible days. More were to come. I destroyed them. Nothing good would come from their existence.

Im literally crying... I am not alone

It's 2022 and I think I'll be trying my hands on a dairy as a new year resolution. Wish me luck! Gotta dust the blank half written diaries that are lurking around my house, Phew!

Beautiful and I have kept a dairy for 35 years and I wonder if anybody will read it and now I know they will… thank you..

So inspiring ❤❤❤

Wela'lin for sharing your powerful words!

This reminded me slightly of the book 84 Charing Cross road, I read it when I was younger and found it extremely fascinating

This video has a big benefits for me because it showed me a lot of things was hide about reading , so i deepley believe in books and diaries this is gave me an age on my age .

Her job is the dream job I always wanted but never knew existed till now ‼️. Why is my life not full of these amazing peoples diaries 😭

Loved it.

This makes me proud to have a whole collection of diaries since 11

This ted talk has inspired me to go out and get a diary

“Your untold story is important”

"the woman was me" my jaw dropped for very long time

how lovely!

Thank you!

That was beautiful 🙏💘

I just realized this was just posted... wow. I have lots of video diaries too.. hammered too.. kinda cause I knew someone would relate and my stages of grief would help them navigate their own. I have spoke at events about the loss of culture and how it has saved me... and here we are in a pandemic. And I get it.. I'm so thrilled I'm here. I love all the comments... I'm so moved!!!!

"What is most personal is most universal." - Carl Rogers