Mindfulness Imagination Pt 4

Shops are open. Theatres and cinemas are shut. The economy is what matters; the lives of  many do not.

As I have been in lockdown much of my time has been spent working on my one-man show detailing how to be mindful and how to open the power of your imagination. In that time I have learned to play a couple of tunes on the guitar, and written copious words on the importance of meditation to unlock your creativity and ease your anxiety. 

Arts, in my view, play a huge part in how we see our worlds. I mean, you look at one piece and you don't like it, another does and has a different view. Each and every work of art, be it a painting, a film, a book, a play, music, means something different to each and every one of us.

Shopping does not do that; or maybe it does. In my view queuing to join the mayhem which is Primark is not my idea of a fun day. It's my idea of a second wave of corona.

But we all have freedom to do what it is that we like. And this is actually true. I stumbled across a very good book by Sarah Bakewell called, At the Existential Cafe.

 

While reading it, I was reminded of my own discovery of Jean-Paul Sartre many years ago, where I read and understood how freedom was the burden that we all face. Yet, now reading it through eyes that are over ten years older, I saw how it linked in with everything that I am trying to do now, and how it added greater depth to the message I am delivering out. Because Mindfulness, Existentialism and Imagination are all linked.

Sartre wrote that EXISTENCE PRECEDES ESSENCE and in this he is meaning, for me, that we are born without knowledge, but we have the freedom to then choose the paths that we wish to take. This is entirely the idea behind using the power of your imagination in order to achieve the goals that you wish for; it adds more meaning to the idea that we can achieve our dreams. We are not born on to a set path that is created by those before us, we are on our own journey and can change whatever we wish. We have the freedom to choose.

He writes, you might think you have defined me by some label, but you are wrong, for I am always a work in progress. 

This is later explored in his book Being and Nothingness, where he writes about the philosophical idea that we are never who we want to be because we always want for more, based on how we think others are perceiving us. I guess we never reach perfection, because there is no such thing as perfection.

I scribbled this into a sketch after the very same conversation with my dad last week - 

If you ever reach your idea of perfection, all you have done is moved the bar up a notch to give you another few rungs to climb.

I saw daylight when I read Sarah Bakwell's book yesterday, it started to fill in the gaps that I felt were missing in my workshops and writings. It adds credence to what I am trying to say and all of that has been in the background of my knowledge from when I first studied philosophy all those years ago and felt that Sartre was important to me, I just didn't get why.

Now I know. Or, at least, I think I know. I am always one step ahead of myself, making myself up as I go along.

Freedom is our burden as a species. An acorn can become nothing but an oak; a stone remains a stone whether it is a brick or not. We, humankind, can be more or less anything that we want to be. The only stumbling block is our fears and our misconceptions that we are taught; we are more or less taught our limitations rather than our talents. Our freedom is our responsibility, and in this time, right now, with everything going on, we need to expect and move for change.

We have the power in all of us; all you have to do is imagine it, focus on what it is you want to do, meditate on it being done; you then set yourself on a path that enables doors open to make it happen. If we each did that, collectively we can change this world for the better.

For a brief idea on mediation, check out one of my videos here-

Stay safe; peace and love to wash the world clean. 

Zac Thraves is a mindfulness practitioner; writer and performer