Building Connections: How to Be A Relationship Ninja | Rosan Auyeung-Chen | TEDxSFU

Summary

In her TEDx talk, Rosan Auyeung-Chen shares her personal journey of transforming from a socially awkward child to a "relationship ninja." Drawing from her father's influence and her own experiences, she emphasizes the importance of self-connection as a foundation for building relationships. Highlighting her work as a clinical counselor, she discusses overcoming personal insecurities, the art of genuine communication, and understanding others without judgment. Through humor and relatable anecdotes, Auyeung-Chen encourages making authentic connections to foster empathy, love, and community.

Highlights

• Rosan's childhood transformation story reminds us that appearances are not everything! 🤓
• Building connections starts with understanding and accepting oneself. 💞
• Sometimes it's not personal—it's their story, not yours. 🤔
• Bad vibes? Explore what's really bugging you about someone. 🕵️‍♀️
• Communication is about how you say it—gift-wrap your words! 🎁
• True connection brings out the best in humanity. 🌍
• Rosan practices connection daily, even with her newborn. 👶

Key Takeaways

• Self-acceptance is the key to creating strong connections with others. 💗
• Don't take things personally; often, it's more about the other person than you. 😌
• Effective communication is an art—it's about the delivery, not just the message. 📬
• Understanding your own reactions can uncover personal growth opportunities. 🌱
• Authentic connections foster empathy and community, combating loneliness. 🌐

Overview

Rosan Auyeung-Chen opens her talk with a heartfelt story about her childhood insecurities and how they shaped her understanding of personal connections. By embracing her quirks and accepting herself, she set the stage for meaningful relationships throughout her life. Her father's ability to connect with people, despite cultural and language barriers, played a pivotal role in her learning how family can be built rather than just born.

Moving into her professional life, Rosan discusses her work as a clinical counselor, where building connections is essential. She emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and self-acceptance, detailing how recognizing one's own strengths and weaknesses can lead to stronger ties with others. Rosan's humorous recounting of her own missteps paints a vivid picture of the learning process involved in becoming a 'relationship ninja.'

Rosan wraps up by encouraging the audience to become proactive in forming connections. She shares practical tips, like approaching interactions openly and without judgment, and using effective communication techniques to navigate social landscapes. By illustrating the impact of these connections on both personal well-being and broader social harmony, Rosan invites her audience to cultivate compassion and empathy in their everyday lives.

Chapters

• 00:00 - 01:00: Introduction and Childhood Story The chapter titled 'Introduction and Childhood Story' introduces the narrator as a child, describing her appearance and some of the challenges she faced growing up. She humorously outlines the large glasses that dominated her face and the metal braces along with a neck gear that wrapped around her neck, forming a visual image of her childhood. The narrative sets the stage for understanding her early life experiences and character development.
• 01:00 - 02:00: Family History and Early Life Lessons The chapter titled 'Family History and Early Life Lessons' discusses the narrator's childhood experience of wearing their older brother's hand-me-downs and adding a bow to their ponytail each morning. Despite what others might assume, the narrator emphasizes that their childhood was not lonely.
• 02:00 - 03:00: Building Connections: Personal Experiences The chapter titled 'Building Connections: Personal Experiences' discusses the theme of connection through a personal family story. It begins with a reflection on never feeling lonely if you can connect with others. The narrator thanks their father for instilling this value, who himself experienced a significant life change due to family connections. At the young age of 10, the narrator's father was chosen by their great-uncle to leave China for a chance at a better life, highlighting the profound impacts of familial decisions and opportunities.
• 03:00 - 04:00: Challenges and Importance of Self-Connection The chapter details the narrator's experiences transitioning to a new country with their family, particularly emphasizing the importance of self-connection amidst unfamiliar surroundings. The narrator highlights their father's extraordinary skill in forming meaningful relationships, which helped them not feel lonely despite being in a new environment.
• 04:00 - 05:00: Accepting Weaknesses and Building Self-Confidence The chapter discusses the concept of family beyond blood relations, emphasizing that family can be created through meaningful connections. The narrator shares a personal realization that building connections became an essential part of their life, leading them to pursue a career as a clinical counselor. Working at the Vancouver General Hospital's Takai Department, the narrator highlights the importance of building connections in helping others.
• 05:00 - 06:00: Embracing Authenticity in Relationships This chapter delves into the difficulties and courage required to build authentic relationships, especially for those dealing with mental health issues such as depression, anxiety, PTSD, OCD, adjustment, and personality disorders. The speaker, an experienced group counselor, emphasizes that while they will share key 'ninja' secrets to fostering relationships, it's important to acknowledge the inherent challenges and commitment needed to cultivate genuine connections.
• 06:00 - 07:00: Teenagers and the Art of 'Not Taking Things Personally' The chapter emphasizes the importance of building strong connections with others by first establishing a strong connection with oneself. It highlights the necessity of self-awareness, including understanding one's likes, dislikes, strengths, and weaknesses. The concept is tied into not taking things personally by implying that self-knowledge acts as a foundation for interpersonal relationships.
• 07:00 - 08:00: Personal Story: Handling Criticism and Seeking Support The chapter emphasizes the importance of acknowledging and accepting one's weaknesses. By embracing weaknesses, individuals become more grounded and stronger. Ignoring weaknesses may lead to feeling easily offended and coming off as defensive to others.
• 08:00 - 09:00: Understanding 'Bad Vibes' and Self-Reflection The chapter discusses the author's experiences with being teased by other kids for facial differences. The author shares that their initial defensive and sarcastic responses were not effective for making friends. The chapter reflects on the journey towards self-acceptance and the understanding that appearance is an inherent part of oneself that shouldn't be a source of embarrassment.
• 09:00 - 10:00: The Stories We Tell Ourselves Initially, the narrator struggled with self-acceptance and loneliness due to their appearance. However, upon discovering the strength and power in their sense of humor, they began to form friendships. This shift in perspective allowed the question about their appearance, which once caused pain, to no longer feel hurtful, transforming it into just another aspect of their identity.
• 10:00 - 11:00: Counselors and Relationship Realities The chapter discusses the human tendency to showcase only our best sides when building connections, often aiming to leave a good impression and create lasting bonds. The narrative prompts readers to reflect on people they feel most connected with, suggesting these individuals have witnessed both their good and less favorable sides. This insight is used to explain how genuine connections are built on authenticity and acknowledging all aspects of oneself.
• 11:00 - 12:00: The Importance of Communication Delivery This chapter emphasizes the importance of self-acceptance in building strong connections. It suggests that only by embracing our true selves can we enable others to accept us, thus forming stronger bonds. The experience with teenagers over a decade illustrates this point, hinting that not taking things personally is a crucial aspect of communication.
• 12:00 - 13:00: Handling Sensitive Topics with Care In this chapter, the focus is on dealing with sensitive topics carefully. It shares insights on how to handle negative verbal feedback. The speaker discusses their personal learning experience; understanding that often, what people say might not be entirely about the recipient, but rather a reflection of the speaker’s own thought patterns and emotional state. This perspective helps in not taking words too personally and aids in maintaining emotional well-being.
• 13:00 - 14:00: The Impact of Connections This chapter explores the influence and consequences of human connections and interactions. It begins with an anecdote where the narrator recalls a colleague bursting into their office to share a 'juicy' secret. After revealing the secret, the colleague jokingly reminds the narrator not to tell anyone due to their reputation of having a 'big mouth.' This scenario sets the stage for discussing the underlying patterns and impacts of interpersonal relationships and the responsibilities that come with handling private information.
• 14:00 - 15:00: Conclusion and Personal Note on Building Connections In this chapter, the narrator recounts a moment of surprise and confusion when someone implied they had a big mouth. As a trained counselor, confidentiality is crucial, leaving them with two choices: seeking clarification from a colleague or taking an alternative approach. The chosen path was to avoid a potential confrontation and seek a different solution. The chapter highlights the balance between professional responsibilities and interpersonal misunderstandings.

Building Connections: How to Be A Relationship Ninja | Rosan Auyeung-Chen | TEDxSFU Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 if you met me as a child you would have seen a girl with glasses ever so big it took up half her face while the lower half was filled with a lot of metal I had metal braces and it came with a tasteful neck gear that was basically a piece of wire that went into one side my mouth out around my neck and in the other side now SSL wasn't enough I
• 00:30 - 01:00 decided to complete the look by wearing my older brother's hand-me-downs as where as clipping this huge bow on the top of my ponytail every single morning now every time I shared this story with my friends they would look at me and say oh man you must have had a lonely childhood I don't blame them I personally would have thought so myself except it wasn't I learned at a young
• 01:00 - 01:30 age you are never lonely if you can connect I guess I have my father to thank when he was a child my great-uncle approached my grandfather and told him that he was gonna leave China he wanted to build a better future for himself so he told my grandfather I can take one child claim it as my own and give that one child a better life my grandfather chose my father it was between him and his younger sister at a young age of 10 my father
• 01:30 - 02:00 left everything he knew followed his uncle to a land full of mostly strangers so growing up it was basically the four of us my brother me my mom and dad because eventually he came to Canada when he was in his early 20s but we were never lonely my dad had this amazing ability to connect with people and our lives and memories were always filled and surrounded by people that cared and
• 02:00 - 02:30 loved us and that's when I realized family didn't have to be about blood relations family was something we can create and from that point on building connections became a huge part of my life I even became a clinical counselor well building connections is a necessity for helping others as Natasha said I work at Vancouver General Hospital's Takai Department I provide individual and
• 02:30 - 03:00 group counseling to people struggling with depression anxiety post-traumatic stress disorder obsessive-compulsive disorder adjustment and personality disorder now before I share my secrets with you on to how to become a relationship ninja I have to highlight sometimes building connections can be kind of a tricky thing to do it can take time effort commitment courage I like
• 03:00 - 03:30 today's conference theme for us to take the lead one thing I learned as a child but in order to build strong connections with others you really have to be strongly connected with yourself you have to really know yourself by that I mean you got to know what you like what you don't like what works for you but doesn't work for you and of course what your strengths and weaknesses are as much as it important to focus and use
• 03:30 - 04:00 our strengths a lot of times we actually forget it's just as important to acknowledge and unconditionally accept our weaknesses only by embracing our weaknesses do we actually become more grounded a more stronger as a person otherwise you might find yourself feeling easily offended by people and you actually might end up coming off that's a little bit defensive as a child
• 04:00 - 04:30 I'll get asked by other kids occasionally hey what's on your face and because I was embarrassed about what I had to wear I would snarl back with nothing what's wrong with yours now I quickly learned apparently fellas not the quickest way to be making friends and honestly wasn't until I accepted that my looks were a part of me and something I couldn't change for a
• 04:30 - 05:00 while that I actually began to focus on one of my strengths my sense of humor went interacting with people and soon after that I started making many many friends and despite the fact that I still look the same I was a much happier kid and even though people still asked me that same question and no longer felt like for digging an open wound instead it was just another question a lot of
• 05:00 - 05:30 times where we're building connections we have a tendency to want to show people our good side and just our good side which makes sense we're trying to make a good impression hopefully build a long-lasting connection now take a moment I want you all to think about people that you feel closest to you people that you feel most connected to take a moment imagine their faces got it I guarantee they've seen your good side
• 05:30 - 06:00 and you're not so good side it isn't until we're able to us accept and embrace ourselves for who we really truly are that others can do so as well and that's how we build strong connections I worked the teenagers for 10 years and I have to say who they trained me well on this concept don't take it personally I talk about non
• 06:00 - 06:30 filtering verbalization if I was to take everything they said personally I wouldn't even be here today I'll be living in some remote island try to be void of any human contact one interesting thing I actually learned about this concept just a few years ago is that sometimes what people say as much as kind of hurts a little bit actually might not completely be about you instead it can be a reflection of their way of thinking their current emotional state
• 06:30 - 07:00 are there patterns of behavior one day I was at work and I had a colleague burst into my office because they had this juicy secret she just had to tell me so I could use a break I listened to the secret and after she was done on her way out I remembered she turned around she looked at me in the eye and said now remember don't tell anyone because you kind of have a big mouth sometimes my
• 07:00 - 07:30 head exploded I'm like did she just say I had a big mouth me a trained counselor where confidentiality it's like the number-one rule at that time I knew I had only two choices one I can consult my colleague ask for more clarification but I kind of felt like I might be walking in an open mind field so I just decided to the next best thing I went to
• 07:30 - 08:00 a colleague I trusted and I told her the story now of course I did not tell her the secret otherwise I just confirmed the accusation that was made of me I remember her be action she's like what no thank goodness if anything she just told you a juicy secret and everyone knows if you tell her something the whole departments gonna know by the end of the day now I actually didn't know that but it felt good to consult in
• 08:00 - 08:30 someone I trust so sometimes if you feel like someone said something that really hurt either ask for clarification or do what I did ask someone that you trust the next one is my favorite bad vibes how many you of you out there just met someone you just talk to them or you barely know them maybe had just a few words here and
• 08:30 - 09:00 there but for some reason the moment you saw them you just did it like them put up this you show hands that's right let's be honest okay put it down now for the sake of my presentation I'm not gonna ask how many of you had that feeling when you saw me come out on stage and I do sincerely apologize if your neighbor looked at you before putting up their
• 09:00 - 09:30 hat now bad vibes that's a really interesting thing we always say oh he gave me a bad vibe or she's giving me a bad vibe but in reality they actually didn't they didn't do anything all they did was come into your line of vision what happened was you saw them and then you decided I don't like that person and you labeled them with bad vibes I remember when I was 16 and I had my first day of volunteer work at a day
• 09:30 - 10:00 camp and I came home telling my father how oh there was just other volunteer that I just didn't like I remember my dad looking at me saying why you don't even know her I remember looking at my father in the eye and saying oh you know how it is you just sometimes meet people and you don't like them but you don't know them at all and I remember my father was like he's like thinking where did my 16 year old daughter go and how
• 10:00 - 10:30 does she get replaced with this old lady full of wisdom that just spoke one of the unsaid truths with human interaction so all you said was go finish your Chinese soup so the next time you have a bad vibe from someone take some time ask yourself what it is about that person that really bothered you it might not be a fun task by guarantee you actually learn more about yourself now human beings were all amazing storytellers
• 10:30 - 11:00 every single one of us we tell ourselves stories all the time someone offs are loud storytellers some of us are a bit more quiet storytellers but we tell ourselves over 50 stories a day about ourselves about our family about our friends and even strangers it's how we interact with the world now that's all fine and dandy until we forget that their stories and we start
• 11:00 - 11:30 telling ourselves that they are facts judgments and assumptions sometimes when I'm working with my clients I'll point out oh you just made a judgement or assumption and to because I didn't know I didn't and a lot of times it could be a hard thing to catch because at some point we tell ourselves stories so often it just became second nature so judgments usually would have some evaluative term maybe pretty ugly big small right or wrong and with
• 11:30 - 12:00 assumptions it usually would have the word should always and must now I don't know about you but I don't know anyone that can actually read minds but I do know a lot of people that don't appreciate being judged and don't appreciate having assumptions made about them before I came into this field and like you most of you as well you might have to think that counselors cycle a psychologist therapist they must be
• 12:00 - 12:30 these relationship ninjas DIMP us have these amazing relationships with family friends peers and I actually thought so too in fact if I heard a marriage counselor was getting a divorce I'll be thinking oh maybe that counselors not too good or which is funny because we don't judge a medical doctors ability to help people but how many times he or she gets sick but the one thing I realized when I came to the field was oh there
• 12:30 - 13:00 were two things that I learned one from the moment you received your training it's almost as if someone put these microscopic glasses on you and you suddenly see every single characteristic trait about everybody you see all the good and well they're not so attractive traits as well in fact sometimes I find that I often have to turn off my brain when I'm talking to people otherwise I will start over analyzing
• 13:00 - 13:30 their words and over analyzing the behavior that's when I realized hmm ignorant is bliss sometimes secondly even though clinical psychologists and counselors yes we are equipped with more skills to overcome social hurdles however it still takes to to build a connection and no matter how hard you try if the other person isn't putting any effort you wouldn't be able to build any connections next is about it's all in
• 13:30 - 14:00 the delivery now there we go a lot of times we kind of hate communication it feels like such a pesky thing to do unfortunately we're stuck with it and actually at a young age I realized it's actually not hard to be honest with people it's not what you say it's actually how you say it that ultimately affects the other person imagine this if you were to give someone
• 14:00 - 14:30 a present which would be better received one where you shove them a brown paper bag or one where it was very obvious you put time and effort into putting the president into a nicely gift-wrapped box I think we can all agree on the ladder I call this communication gift wrapping I always tell my clients where you're trying to tell someone something just actually take some time put some effort in think about what is it that you really want to say try to keep it simple
• 14:30 - 15:00 try not to talk too much around Milan otherwise people might feel a little confused and actually misinterpret what it is you're actually really trying to say now we all struggle sometimes but telling people news that might be bad what I always suggest is why don't you pulls it as a suggestion for exploration rather than something etched in stone and it never hurts to highlight why it is beneficial for this person to know
• 15:00 - 15:30 this new piece of information even if it hurts I was when he shopping with a friend of mine and a few years ago and she was trying on wedding dresses and after two I remember her looking at me going oh nothing fits well I feel so fat I look fat don't I I think we all can agree Oh dangerous position to be in I remember looking at her and saying well I just don't think those stress tiles suit your body type right now you
• 15:30 - 16:00 think I would have dodged a bullet there unfortunately she didn't let me off the hook and the closest exit was too far away from me so she's like you do think I'm fat don't I and I actually ended up sticking to the facts I asked her right back I'm like well have you been eating differently do your clothes feel different have you been exercising less and you know what I think you can all guess I didn't even have to answer the question she came to her own conclusion
• 16:00 - 16:30 and she didn't hate me afterwards either a lot of times people tell us that I don't care if I'm lonely but let's face it no one really wants to be lonely and it's true we often forget you were honestly never lonely when you connect it's only through connections that brings out care compassion love empathy
• 16:30 - 17:00 and humanity in all of us unfortunately it's when were disconnected that people do things that hurt themselves and others in the world like we see in the news today so I challenge you all here today over the next break next day next week next month next year make a connection you pursue prised at the impact that can have on you and the
• 17:00 - 17:30 other person for some of you in the audience you know that I just had my second child earlier this year I also have an older daughter named Rachel and it's been a challenging task trying to prepare for this talk and take care of a newborn son but I figured haha what's a better way to build a talk about building connections than to implement it on my son so I practice with him every single day and it
• 17:30 - 18:00 take me long to get a reaction out of him I even took a picture I still love him I didn't give up remember building connections takes time sometimes it can take a lot more effort so I kept going and I kept trying and I kept trying and finally I got a different reaction out of him remember don't take it personally
• 18:00 - 18:30 thank you [Applause]