June-July 2023

Winter Inspiration

Hey Joyfulminders,

What do you think most commonly inspires AWE? 

Is it nature? Spiritual practice? Listening to music? 

The winner is "moral beauty" (according to research conducted by the Greater Good Science Centre, Berkeley.)

People’s courage, kindness, strength, or over-comings. 

What's taken me so long to tune in to Mindful in May? The month-long online curated journey hosted by excellent host and Australian psychiatrist Elise Bialylew is inspirational. 👌👍 

Here's some awe-inspiring highlights:


👉 Judson Brewer Psychiatrist, neuroscientist

In his book The Craving Mind, Brewer explains how mindfulness intervenes with tenacious addictions. For example the Facebook scroll. It's no good telling yourself "stop it". Instead, pay bare attention to the actual feeling it gives you. Pleasant? Or not?

👉 Tania Singer Social neuroscientist

The difference between empathy and compassion (each occupy distinct brain circuits). An overdose of empathy leads to empathic distress and withdrawal. Compassionate intent or loving-kindness, on the other hand, results in helpful behaviours, without burnout.

👉 Kelly McGonigal  Health Psychologist and Stanford lecturer

Regular exercise jumpstarts the reward system, sensitising the brain to joy and pleasure, because during exercise, muscles secrete uplifting chemicals, like hope molecules, according to McGonigal in her book The Joy of Movement.

👉 Helen Hunt & Harville Hendrix   Relationship coaches

Relationship is two people and the space between them. The space of silence, of tension, of playfulness, of misunderstanding. People need to feel safe to connect. Tone of voice is a deal-breaker. The ‘zero negativity’ principle saved their own marriage.

As you well know, inspiration increases feelings of gratitude and appreciation. It lifts mood and generates a heightened sense of purpose.

Inspirational stories to revisit (compile your own!)

CAVE RESCUE  Dr Harry Harris recounts his role as anaesthetist with the boys trapped in the flooded cave, the incident in Thailand we all watched with bated breath in 2018. One Plus One 

THE VOICE: A DEBATE  Shireen Morris (Law School, Macquarie Uni) explains The Voice proposed legislation in great clarity in a conversation with unreceptive nay-sayer Greg Sheridan.  Between the Lines.

BETTER DATE THAN NEVER  Have you tuned-in? I binge-watched the series on iview, clutching at my heart. Oh, inspirational, utterly unpretentious, glorious humans. ABC iview

ASMA KHAN Love food? Asma moved to Cambridge from Calcutta in 1991.  The award-winning chef turned to cooking to escape loneliness and in turn brought comfort and joy to multitudes.  ABC News Indepth

Grrr so annoyed REDcycle went under!

Do you get the guilts, like I do, for tossing out milk bottle lids? Peeved to add used toothpaste tubes to the garbage? Wish for a better way to dispose of plastic razors and bread tags?

Take heart! Banish Recyling and Disposal (BRAD) to the rescue. Send them a package under 3kg of your hard-to-recycle items (see list below ... in the handwriting of my sister Jane, taped to her pantry door).

Your pre-purchased $15 postage for sending items for recycling is returned as a voucher of the same value to spend at their online eco-store. Win-win.

Who could have forseen our strange new reality, twenty years ago?

>> Unbox Therapy one of many popular youtube channels showing items being unwrapped. 18.2 million subscribers, 4.5 billion views.

>> Sandwiches of History: Barry Enderwick films himself making and eating sandwiches from the time bread began, watched by 300,000 TikTok followers.

>> Tinky Sonntag is a miniature installation artist on Instagram who installs tiny figurines with vintage objects, linked by a pun, in Melbourne alleyways. 8,662 followers.

>> Terrible Maps Twitter account shares intentionally misleading maps, unusual demographics, the world through other eyes: pizza in America; world map according to fish. 1.8M followers.

The phrase “turn the tables” originated with the playing of board games in the 17th century, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. It means “to reverse one's position relative to someone else,” especially “by turning a position of disadvantage into one of advantage; to cause a complete reversal of the state of affairs.”

Well, you too can turn the tables on the ingrained negativity bias, which makes you pay undue attention to the worrisome and unpleasant at the expense of the ordinary and good. Body, brain, mood and motivation suffer as a result. 

Join the waitlist here for my mid-August to September six week online Savouring course.

A long wait at wintery Hobart airport after visiting darling school friend Fiona and my Uncle Jimmy. It's packed; to relieve the boredom, arty Hobart kindly provides a violinist to serenade us. At one point, I notice eyes smiling in a certain direction. I crane my neck to see what they see: a couple, casual in jeans (and a little worse for wear) swirling in an impromptu professional dance routine. She twirls adroitly; he catches her gracefully, masterfully. Off they go again, tango-ing in the alley between suitcases and crowded rows. The violin sings, the Departure Hall rings with applause, time passes delightfully.

That's all folks.

Great to have your company, as always.

Rug up, keep warm. It's our coolest winter in a while.

Big hugs, Shakti

I love to hear back from my readers ... if you liked something here, please let me know. Or give me a nudge about what else you'd like to see in the Newsletter.

"Surefire Ways to Ditch Overthinking"

I workshopped Surefire Ways at an event in Nimbin recently (the 50 year anniversary of the 1973 Aquarius Festival.) No-one was naked, though the hippy brand shone through on many a lined face.

Here's what a reader said:

"Shakti, I found these beautifully formed small "lessons" amazingly comforting. You make the deepest and most important 'facts of life' so digestible, I felt full of relief and laughter applying them to a crazy incident today." - M.L.

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