Redefining self compassion & mental illness: Dylan Stirewalt at TEDxTerryTalks 2013

When Dylan turned 3, her mother gave her custody to her father and started a long journey that would see her struggle with homelessness and mental illness. Yet, her love and compassion has given Dylan the wonderful gift of acceptance and inspiration throughout her life. Dylan speaks about the struggles that many people face in accepting themselves and draws from her own personal struggle with mental illness.

Dylan Stirewalt, a 3rd year Film Production student, seeks to explore the concept of self-compassion and how people's perception of failure leads to them see themselves as victims of circumstance, and not the creator of their own experience. She hopes to inspire others to see compassion as not just an outward practice, but also something that they should show to themselves in the face of failure and adversity.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)