Eight pieces of life advice from wise women
From left to right: Meshel Laurie, Mary Portas, Kelechi Okafor, Emma Thompson, Dr Edith Eger, Lily Collins, Jo Brand
“I see myself like climbing a mountain, and I slip and I climb, and you know what, I will never stop climbing.”
The words of Auschwitz survivor Dr Edith Eger who was just one of the inspirational guests on Woman’s Hour earlier this year.
Want to know what other life advice gems were dished out by our interviewees in 2018?
Here are eight tips to help you feel inspired and motivated from Emma Thompson, Jo Brand, Mary Portas, Lily Collins, Meshel Laurie, Kelechi Okafor and Dr Edith Eger.
1. You have to put yourself first
“Until you learn about proper self-care, that is to say, in order to live in any kind of balanced way, emotionally, you have to put yourself first.
Then you have to look at the people closest to you, and say, ‘ok what’s going on there?’ and then you do everything else.
But it’s very difficult to do that all the time.” - Emma Thompson, actress
2. Never stop climbing
Edith Eger was sent to Auschwitz with her parents and sister at the age of 16. Both her parents were executed. She survived, but endured beatings and starvation while in the camp.
After Auschwitz was liberated, Edith moved to the US and trained as a psychologist to try and understand her unimaginable experiences.
“I see myself like climbing a mountain, and I slip and I climb, and you know what, I will never stop climbing.
They could torture me, they could beat me, but they could never ever murder my spirit.” - Dr Edith Eger, Auschwitz survivor and psychologist.
3. Don't care what anyone thinks
“I don’t care what anyone thinks of me. I quite like my face, but it seems like not a lot of other people do.
I’ve learnt to believe that actually how I look is not really important to me and the people that are my friends or people who care about me, and anyone else can take a running jump quite honestly.” - Jo Brand, comedian and author.
4. Decide whether you've been buried or planted
"I have a firm belief that you have to decide in your life whether you've been buried or you've been planted.
Both things you go in the dirt for, but you have to decide what's happening there, and so if you decide you've been buried, well, alright rest in peace, you're going to stay there.
But if you decide you've been planted, that's your moment to almost start germinating in terms of who you are and growing from there.
There's been so many moments in my life where I've felt like I was buried, but in retrospect, those were my moments to grow." - Kelechi Okafor, actor.
5. Surround yourself with radiators
“At my agency, we employ radiators, not drains, you know those people that are 'can do', and try their best, and it doesn’t matter if it’s leaking a bit, that old radiator, they keep pumping out the energy. The drain just suctions it away.
Don’t hang with those people, don’t let them pull you down, make sure you’ve got radiators around you.” - Mary Portas, retail guru.
6. The best power is brain power
"My mum told me in the cattle cart, we don’t know where we’re going, we don’t know what will happen, just remember, no one can take away from you what you put here in your own mind.
I came to America penniless, I didn’t speak a word of English and I managed to graduate with honors from the University of Texas. The best power I tell people is brain power." - Dr Edith Eger, Auschwitz survivor and psychologist.
7. 'No' can mean more of a comma than a full stop
“Something I used to tell myself, and I tell myself more this now, but I probably should have told myself even more back then, was don’t take ‘no, this isn’t for you, take, not right now’.
‘No’ can mean more of a comma than a period [full stop] because if I had been told ‘no’ this many times and not continue to do what I love to do, I wouldn’t be here today." - Lily Collins, actress.
8. Give yourself a break
“We are in a place culturally where we are told that we need to be achieving all the time, that we need to be productive all the time.
But guess what, we also need time to rest and we need down time, and we need to fill ourselves up.
Whether that’s five minutes at the end of the day when you’re in bed, instead of watching the telly, or scrolling through the phone, where you just give yourself a break.” - Meshel Laurie, author and comedian.
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