How to Navigate Life's Ebbs and Flows: A Mindful Journey Through a Noisy GEN Z Student Crowd
The Sunday Best Round Up #17
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I want to rap to you a little today about the ebbs ‘n’ flows of life.
As you may have read in my recent newsletters I've been getting my mindfulness game on lately.
Definitely making me more aware in life…
My moods... thoughts… surroundings…
Because mindfulness makes you less of a frantic ‘doer’ of life, more of an observer.
Although this change is a pretty slow process for me, as I’ve done 50 years rushing through life with thick blindfolds on!
(Picture the snarling horses with eye blinkers, employed by the Central Park Rangers in the film Elf. That’s me. Except maybe I'm a bit less snarly…and probably a bit less… like… horsey too).
Anywho moving on in this tale of the mindful-esque…
I recently enjoyed a lunch hour pilates class, with those funny little plastic spiky balls.
You basically do all kinds of stretches and flexes with these pumped up little spiky massage balls digging into various bits of your anatomy (official name: Trigger Point Pilates).
It's “proper goofy” as my teenaged daughter would likely say.
Every 2 minutes the female instructor tells the 99.9% female class (yep me and 1 other bloke repping the man-nergy) to shift our balls. Ashamedly that's often a cue for my inner 10 year old boy to snigger internally about the double entendre of the word balls. Especially when she directs the instruction direct at me, as I am inevitably struggling to work out my hips from my glutes from my pelvis when it comes to where to press in those spiky little jabbers (biology was never my thang at school).
But it is a fun class and the best bit, is that you can do most of it with your eyes closed.
Tres relaxant (as the French might say).
So I stumbled out of the studio at the end in a lovely blissed out state.
All the brain's Alpha Waves sloshing and a sploshing around the brain, like some happy waves lapping at the shoreline.
My senses lightly awakened and a yummy feeling of stretched-ness ran right through my muscles.
Just amazing.
All relaxed and restored.
But wait…
I forgot…
This is planet earth and I'm a human being. So this beautiful state of joy was gonna last for… oh… all of like 30 seconds!
And so it proved-eth.
The class I go to is at the local university where it was Fresher’s week and so 1000’s of 18 year old new students had descended on the city.
A mixed bag of emotions, hormones, existential angst, and noise.
Lots of bloody noise.
In my chilled out state I walked directly into the gauntlet of the outdoors Freshers Street Fair.
Literally hundreds of young people milling around. All shouting loudly. Whooping and a hollering. Ticky Tocking on their Iphones. All that having fun business.
Grrrrrrrrrr!
(Jokes BTW.
I love the energy of young people and have such fond memories of being 18 and living away from home for the first time. Tinged with a little element of embarrassment about pretty much everything I wore, drank, and said during those formative years!
One day I'll maybe share a post on my 18 year old self university years.
Maybe…)
And swarming around these youngsters were various nightclub, fast food joint, and bar workers all handing out flyers and leaflets with discount codes. One local kebab shop was even handing out chicken drumsticks with their takeaway menus which did make me smile.
** Side note - You know you're old and not relevant when the bar and nightclub people refuse eye contact and don't give you a flyer entitling you to a £2 tequila shot! That was ME! Old and irrelevant at 50 (actually sounds like a cool name if I ever want to rebrand this little Substacky). **
So yep I waded through this riot of noise, sound and smells.
From blissed out…
To strung out…
in about 30 seconds.
To be fair though, I managed to pick my way through the crowds and keep maybe 40% of those good internal vibes with me for the afternoon.
But it just goes to show the ebbs and the flows of life.
One minute chill.
One minute not.
And that's life.
A series of experiences each and every day.
Rinse repeat.
Rinse repeat.
Until it stops.
Like permanently.
So enjoy it ALL while you can.
Each minute.
Each hour.
Each day.
Starting now…
Have a Great Sunday,
JFT Beach
Article I Wrote on Substack This Week:
From Mindful Breathing to Cold Water Therapy: 15 Powerful Health Lessons You Need it contains 15 things I’ve learned on Substack so far in the realms of health, wellness, writing and publishing.
A Note I Shared on Substack This Week
Article I’m Writing for Next Week’s Substack:
My new piece comes out October 2nd and it’s called “Mindful Coffee” and it explores a cool way to get mindful with your daily caffeine fix (contradiction much?! 😊)
5 Health and Wellness Articles I Enjoyed on Substack This Week:
The Buddha: The World's Founder Psychologist A short little history of Buddhism and it's journey into the Western world. Thanks
Panic Attacks and Powerlessness A short piece by
about panic attacks with the really important message that we are often powerless in what happens, and accepting this is key to mental health (recommended to me by )a slow living confession - I find it hard to relax This piece is a nice reminder from
to give ourselves permission to slow down and relax every so often (recommended to me by )Can I keep the Three Hollys happy? I found this a practically helpful, and slightly inspiring post, as
finds a way around burnout and overwhelm, whilst still focusing on the important things in her life.Oh Hi, This Is Uncomfortable For Me To Admit
in her inimitable sweary,cross-through, humorous style, talks about the importance of needing to change and pivot in life, but how hard it can be.
I hope you enjoyed today’s little compendium. If you did, please do me a favour and re-stack it, or add a comment below. I’d REALLY REALLY appreciate it.
To Lazy Sunday Afternoons,
JFT Beach
PS Thanks to the following for… well… following!
Yep this week the following lovely people have started following me on Substack thanks to all of you
PPS Sharing is caring
Please drop links to any new and interesting Substack articles you’ve read lately as I’m always looking for more to share on a Sunday.
Tbh I thought you were going to say that you remained a ball of bliss amongst the 18 year old chaos and I was feeling a tiny bit... FUCK WHY CAN'T I REMAIN CHILL ALL THE TIME TOO and then you said that wasn't the exact case and I feel so much better about myself! Truly. 🙏😂 I love this reminder! All about ebbs and flows. Also, "Old and irrelevant at 50" would be a hilarious Substack name! 🤣🤣 To be clear I do love your current brand vibe!! And, I am honored to be included in this round-up, thank you! 😊
Oooh I've never seen those balls used in a pilates class, intriguing. Hah, I feel young until I try going out with 30-something colleagues and then my body and brain are like, nope, you do not have the stamina for this anymore 🤣 Thanks so much for including me in your round-up, I really appreciate it!