Elsewhere 3

De-escalating emotional situations | Music I've had on repeat | Book on Eastern philosophy

I woke to a gloomy day in Brisbane.

A grey and wet Friday feels like a juxtaposition.

I’ve decided to look at it as a nice chance to stay inside, ponder and drink something warm and mixed with honey, rather than wishing it was sunny.

Thank you for clicking on my post and I really hope you enjoy what I’ve written.

Thoughts

When someone is directing heightened emotions at you, the last thing you want to do is reciprocate the heat.

The urge to match the energy is natural, but unproductive.

Look to balance the situation.

You want to extinguish a fire, not add to it.

You yell back -> escalation.

Pause, empathise, deliver logical response -> de-escalation.

If someone is being irrational toward me, I get the urge to retaliate.

But by being composed and kind, someone high quality enough to be in your life, will probably respect you for keeping your cool and come around.

-

My basketball teammates and I raised our voices at each other after the game the other day. I had to apologise the next day - I’d made a fool of myself, and for what?

I would’ve been better off saying the same words in a calm and collected tone - we could’ve had a logical discussion about the disagreement.

It’s always when we’re collected that we deliver the best logic anyway.

The only time I regret anything I say is when I say it in a moment of frustration - jumping into the stream without checking for the edge of the cliff.

Photo by Chad Madden on Unsplash

Sounds

1. True Blue (Remix/Edit) - Madonna, Shep Pettibone

   Shep Pettibone was a force in the 1980s with his own production and DJ works. He and Madonna (needs no introduction) worked together on a lot of projects, namely the club mixes and edits. I can’t help but sing along to this song, played it three times in a row yesterday.

2. The Great Southern Mix (The Time & Motion Mixes) - ICEHOUSE

   The Australian classic band formed in the late 1970s and produced some really iconic music - some of it sounds like it could’ve been released today.
   This particular song, a mix of the iconic Great Southern Land is from The Extended Mixes Vol.2 which was shown to me by my friend Luke.

3. Forcing - Jeff Bennett
   Jeff Bennett is a producer/DJ, born in Warsaw but moved to Sweden early in his life. This ‘tech-house’ track is from the Reflections EP, released on Jamayka Recordings. I actually found and bought this on vinyl at Monster Robot Party in Paddington and was super grateful I did. Great dance floor EP.

   The playlist with all previous weeks’ music is here:

   
   
   Plug

   This week’s recommendation is a book called What is Tao? by legendary author and philosopher Alan Watts.

   
   If you’ve never read an Alan Watts book, you’re missing out on one of the most interesting people to ever put pen to paper.
   
   The way he articulates things is so easy to understand, it’s remarkable actually.
   
   This book is about the Eastern concept of Tao, which is by definition, unexplainable - so I find humour in him writing a book about it.
   
   It talks through the teachings of Chinese figure Lao Tzu (Laozi) in his book the Tao Te Ching - these lessons are timeless and I think everyone would benefit from reading it.

   

Thank you so much for reading.

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See you next Friday.


Your friend,

Eren