The Surprising Power of Mindfulness: How Meditation Calms Conflict and Boosts Your Empathy

The Sunday Best Round Up #16

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“Meditation Gives You Some Yummy-Licious Side Effects when Applied to Daily Life!”
(JFT Beach)

Yep I know you’re probably raising your eyebrows right now.

“That JFT Beach is starting his newsletter with a quote from himself, and it even includes a largely made up word. What’s up with him, is he some kind of EGO-MANIAC now?!”

Well I’ve clearly got giddy on the heady fumes of Substack success.

140 readers… and counting.

So you know world domination pretty close 😂😂😂

Maybe.

Anyway, enough shillyin’ and a shallyin’, sillyin’ and a sallyin’.

Welcome to the first bit of my weekly round up which is pretty much me chit chatting about a mindful thing I’ve done this week.

Today it’s about a little unexpected bonus of all this mindful stuff.

So ladies and gentlemen, let me transport you back in time to…

Last Saturday.

I was adorned in blue ‘n’ pink Bermuda shorts, Big Fat Blue Dry Robe coat and Goofy Looking White Woolly Hat.

Yep a fashionista I was indeed born to be.

I was cycling to the beach for a nice early morning swim with me mates.

As I looked across the road a man had just got out of the passenger side of a nearby car, and he crossed over in front of me.

As I glanced over I saw the driver in the car too.

He was idling in the car and just looking a bit ‘off’.

Don’t know why but his look and demeanour made me a tad uncomfortable.

So I must have looked over slightly too long.

“What are you looking at you wanker?” came the less than pleasant question from said gentleman’s lips.

Now "wanker” may not be a universal term. But if you’ve seen Ted Lasso it’s the less than endearing word the fans in the show chant at him when he becomes the new manager of Richmond AFC.

(Not seen Ted Lasso? Well this one’s a tad awkward to explain. Fundamentally it refers to… erm generally… a man who likes to… err spend time alone having fun with erm… well with himself… erm… in fact a specific part of himself!)

I am going no further with my explanation as this is indeed a family show, and I am off course a hugely repressed English person.

So back to the (in) action.

Normally when feeling slightly threatened by another bloke I would go into fight or flight mode.

Normally flight; moving away fairly quickly.

Occasionally fight (generally whilst riled up playing football or after the gym or something, when my brain is an oddly amped up state). Even then it’s not actual fight, just pathetic (and instantly regretted) shouting/name calling.

This time neither.

What I actually felt was EMPATHY.

Photo by Jon Tyson on Unsplash

WTF?

Where did that come from?

My brain asked-eth me this:

“I wonder why that guy is in such a state where he needs to swear aggressively at someone he’s never met at 0730 am on a Saturday morning? I hope he’s OK”.

I then deliberated for 20 seconds whether to approach and ask him if he was OK.

Thought better of it and so didn’t.

(It could well have escalated the situation, had he taken my well meaning open hearted approach the wrong way).

And off I cycled with ne-er another glance or word.

But to be so calm, forgiving, and almost loving towards someone who’d just abused me… well it was a new one on me.

Odd. But yummy.

A phenomena that I can only put down to the regular meditation doing some nice positive Jedi mind tricks.

Yet another compelling reason to be all about the calm mind methinks.

So mindfulness and meditation for the win (again!)

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Article I Wrote on Substack This Week:

Revitalize Your Health and Wellness: 25 Substack Super-Tips You Need- 25 Tips, Tricks and Techniques from a variety of cool folks here on Substack for feeling happier and healthier.

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A Note I Shared on Substack This Week:

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Article I’m Writing for Next Week’s Substack:

My new piece comes out September 18th and it’s the 3rd (in a series of 4) sharing 25 more things I’ve learned on Substack so far in the realms of health, wellness, writing and publishing.

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5 Health and Wellness Articles I Enjoyed on Substack This Week:

1. Who the hell am I to preach mindfulness? A raw warts ‘n’ all journey with one woman on a path to feel calmer and happier through mindfulness. Thanks

   Sonaakshi Sinha Jamwal

2. Book Recommendation Bonanza So

   Nur Nadar
   has combined probably the 2 favourite things for most Substackers… books and lists! It’s a humongous (I always think of hummus when I write that word yummmmm! 😋) list of cool books in all kinds of genres; fiction and non fiction. I am deeply and unreservedly ashamed beyond all fathomable degree proud to say I’ve read about 2 of them! “Winnie the Pooh” by AA Milne and “The Comfort Crisis” by
   Michael Easter
   Loved both - one had more honey in than the other, if that’s not too much of a spoiler.

3. The truth about the Higher Self A short ‘n’ sweet little number by

   Rothi
   on his view of a higher self and how to connect with it.

4. A Serious Case of Drift

   Cathy Jacob
   talks us through a 6 week holiday (vacation) which left her more anxious than relaxed and how we can all avoid this trap. Nice analogies and lovely use of language in this piece.

5. The Only Thing Getting Lit This Weekend Is Your Aura & Chakras

   Teri Leigh 💜
   and
   Sonaakshi Sinha Jamwal
   school us on the world of chakras. I loved it as it helped me look at chakras in a physical non woo woo way.

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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

Jessica Tefenkgi Ruelle

John Puttick

Gabi's Gab

Marianna Pease

Chandni Challa

Luke Miller

Dion Garcia

Tom Gentry