I'm Elise Hugh. You're listening to TED Talks Daily. The prolonged pandemic has taken a toll on all of us in so many ways.

Today, we're featuring a conversation between leadership expert Simon Sinek and head of Ted Chris Anderson,

which helps us to better make sense of this moment and take stock.

How do we better take care of ourselves and connect or reconnect with one another?

I found this talk to be a balm during what's still such a disorienting time.

This is a shortened version of their full conversation, which was recorded at a TED membership event in 2021.

If you want to listen to the full hour, head over to our other podcast, The Ted Interview.

So, I mean, I'll start us off by saying, I mean, here we are.

Look, after a year of the pandemic, probably one of the most extraordinary experiences any of us have had.

What do you think the unexpected psychological carryovers might be?

I mean, do you think we've kind of, part of me thinks that people have got more fragile,

that it's almost like there's a sort of learned timidity.

Have you seen any evidence of that, or how would you characterize it? I think we've definitely all become much

more aware of mental health and that it's a real thing and that mental health affects

strong and healthy people. We all suffered trauma during COVID. Some of us dealt with it earlier.

Some of us dealt with it later. Some of us are still dealing with it. But nobody escapes it.

When COVID first started, many of us had to pivot our organizations, had to pivot our businesses

very quickly. And so I, like many others, we went into mission mode. And I called a friend of

mine who was active duty military. And I asked him a very simple question, how do I compartmentalize

my emotions so that I can stay focused on the mission? And he gave me a very stern warning. He said,

you can't. He said, we can compartmentalize our emotions for only a short period of time,

but no one, no one, escapes the trauma of combat.

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