[MUSIC]
It was a beautiful summer morning.
I opened my eyes in the warm sunshine.
And then, I walked to the restroom, washed my face,
and looked at myself in the mirror, and smiled.
Then, I realized something was wrong.
The person that meet her tried to smile, but the smile was broken and cold.
This was the day when I realized half of my face was paralyzed.
I lost the ability to move the right side of my face.
I could not blink, or close my right eye, so
I always need to wear an eye patch, during the day.
And put tape, on my eye, to fall asleep at night.
And there was always spit dripping from my mouth.
I visited a major hospitals in South Korea, but there was no doctor
who could clearly tell me why I had this illness and how to treat it.
I was a 19 year old girl who loved to put on makeup and dress up, but
the only thing I could do was lie in the hospital bed and cry.
I blamed my doctors in this illness, and I blamed even myself.
I was really devastated.
And one day my mom asked me, do you remember Urosoft anymore?
You know that fluffy seal?
Whenever you hugged it, it made you feel better.
Yeah, how can I forget my stuffed seal?
>> [LAUGH] >> My parents gave it to me as a present
when I was three, and I really loved it.
It was the most unique stuffed animal in Korea at the time.
>> [LAUGH] >> And I still remember that it was
a kind of difficult to unwrap this gift box by myself.
Because that fluffy seal was as tall as I was at three years old.
And I also still remember how excited I was when I finally
took off my seal from the box.
At that moment, this thought came to my mind.
Maybe this illness is also one of the gifts I received from my life,
a gift, kind of ugly and crappy outside- >> [LAUGH]
>> But may have something
beautiful inside.
And it is painful and
difficult to unwrap this gift because I'm getting a really giant one.
So from this moment I try to stop complaining about this illness and
try to feel good about it.
And as you can imagine it was not easy.
I couldn’t stop thinking the, so let’s say this is the gift, why am I the only
one getting these crappy gifts when my friends are enjoying theirs on vacation?
>> [LAUGH] >> And I also asked myself questions like,
what if there's nothing inside of this gift box?
What is the point of my suffering?
And the scariest part was, what if my face stays paralyzed forever?
I struggled a lot, many of the times were in vain.
But the one thing I didn't give up was thinking that there might be my stuff seal
inside of this painful gift.
So I began thinking positive sides of this illness.
And to my surprise, there were at least a few.
So my illness gave me, not only a chance to rest, but
also an excuse to avoid my mom's nagging.
>> [LAUGH] >> My mom couldn't say a word whenever
I overslept and read a comic books in my bed.
Also, I began varying things I took for granted.
My smile, my health, my friends and family who care so much about me.
After weeks of this practice,
my emotions were this illness, evolved into gratefulness.
It may sound really weird, but I felt grateful for
having this facial paralysis as I did for my stuff seal.
In the meantime, my face which ended up being healed by western medicine or
Chinese acupuncture, begun showing in prevalence.
And in the end, the right side on my face came back to its original condition
without any side effects.
I am looking at my gift box.
My gift box named facial paralysis.
>> [LAUGH] >> And when I opened it up,
one of the gifts inside was this new lens, and when I looked through that lens,
I could see not just blessings as a blessings, but also burdens as blessings.
There are people being grateful for
difficulties or hardships, long after that event has passed.
What I believe that seeing burdens as a blessings, in the midst of those burdens,
help need a lot to recover.
But being grateful for burdens, that's a lot of work.
It took me weeks and a month to feel generously grateful for this burden.
So why should we bother?
It turns out there has been a lot of research showing the positive effects of
gratitude.
And being an ex business consultant here like any other great consultant,
I categorize those impacts into three focuses.
>> [LAUGH] >> My favorite number, body, brain,
and our emotions.
Gratitude is good for our body.
Many studies done by gratitude expert,
Dr. which show that it leads to 12% lower blood pressure.
10% less stress about illnesses, and more and
better sleep, all of which are critical for curing illnesses.
Also, it helps our brain, too.
When you feel grateful, your brain produces a surge of feel-good and
happy brain chemicals, like dopamine or serotonin.
Also, it is good for our emotion.
Grateful people feel 25% happier and less depressed.
And more importantly, it makes us emotionally resilient to hard times.
Giving us the power to heal, and bringing us hope.
So now that we know that gratitude is scientifically proven to be good for
us, so let's talk about how.
It is relatively easy to say thank you for blessings,
such as free coffee at the shop, nice weather at the a classmate's awesome talk.
>> [LAUGH] >> But
things are getting tougher when something bad things happen,
like catching a cold or fighting with their partner, getting a parking tickets.
How can you feel grateful, for getting a parking tickets?
>> [LAUGH] >> So
here are some steps I suggest you as a struggling to hone, the art of gratitude.
So step one is, facing it.
You got the damn parking tickets.
>> [LAUGH] >> Do not ignore your burden.
It's not about self deception.
And step two is breathing.
Instead of saying shit or fuck- >> [LAUGH]
>> I love to say those words too, but
try to stop and breathe to relieve your anger.
And next, the most important step is you need to make a choice.
What choice?
You need to choose to be grateful for this parking ticket.
I know it's not easy but, in fact, gratitude is all about choice.
And fourth, the most painful part is reflecting.
Think about how this parking ticket does something good for you.
Imagine yourself holding the gift box
wrapped with all parking tickets like this.
>> [LAUGH] >> What's inside of the box?
So for me, actually I don't have a car.
So I ought to feel really grateful for the fact that I had a car so
I could get the parking tickets.
>> [LAUGH] >> Also we could be thankful for
the warning sign that tells us do not park here again.
>> [LAUGH] >> And
prevents us from getting more expensive parking tickets in the future.
>> [LAUGH] >> So
we just made a very tough choice to be grateful for this parking ticket.
But this choice gets even more challenging when life throws really big
gift boxes at you.
Like illness, loss, the end of a relationship.
And honestly, I am still struggling here, too.
In my experience there is no quick fix.
It takes endless training to see burdens as blessings.
But I hope my talk today helps you see your own burdens as gifts.
So then you can take out your own stuffed animal, with joy, from those gift boxes.
Thank you.
>> [APPLAUSE]
[MUSIC]