5 Ways to Create Order - a Mindful Imagination Experience

 

Welcome to the Mindful Imagination Experience...

Empaths trying to find order in their world. 

We all have heroes. Fact. Perhaps you think otherwise, but just for fun, why not attempt to discover who your heroes are. 

Sometimes you hear the question asked where you invite five people to dinner, who do you invite? Trying to think about people who you admire, trust, aspire to, or agree with is difficult; there are some who have achieved great things but who also have pretty sordid deeds done in the background. A popular choice, in the UK anyway, is Winston Churchill; yet here is a figure who while worshipped for his leadership during World War 2, also has some despicable acts to his name before that. Heroes have flaws and perhaps that is what draws us towards heroes. 

Let's take another hero and this time from comics, Batman. Now he may roam the streets at night clearing up the serious crime that takes place in a violent Gotham City, but he is hardly a figure of heroism. Here is a man in costume, much like his villains, and a man who is haunted by his past. He treads a thin line between being on the side of the law or being sent straight to Arkham Asylum himself.

Heroes have flaws; that's why we are drawn to them.

You are a hero yourself, you are the hero of your story and your flaws, which could be depression, anxiety, panic attacks, thoughts of suicide, self-harm...tick any boxes you like, they make you the hero that you are.

We are all in different worlds, our own universes. I see the world different to you and you see the world different to your partner, sister or best friend. We all see it in different shapes and colours and smells and we react in the way we need to; the best you can be is the hero for your world. Your anxiety, emotion, darkness, empathy, is your heroic strength. 

We are not taught that by anyone. So I challenge you to see those powers that you have in a positive way, no matter what it may be that you are thinking; it is you, it makes your hero a full-blooded, well-rounded and strong hero for your life. You are your hero in your story. In true hero style, you need to kick ass! This world does not hand out cards easily, but I strongly believe that the universe has ideas for us that we can grab; it is noticing and acting on those opportunities that single us all out. Trust in yourself, and act on the hero inside you. In short, take a risk to achieve the end result. 

I have a new book out, called The Self-Harming Pacifist. In it I try to make sense of my world, and how I have come around to being in a place where I am not ashamed to be feeling the emotions that I feel, but I try to tell myself that they are my strengths. I have been in the middle of a fog of anti-depressants and I hated it; I want to be in a kaleidoscope of the universe, and to do that I have to accept that some days will be darker than others. My strength is my knowledge that I can overcome that.

In a change to this blog and in my own small way to support BLM, I am always wanting to expand and change and move forward and learn; I recently re-discovered on a USB stick: Paul Simon's... 

Recorded in 1985 in Johannesburg at the height of Apartheid, Paul Simon was criticised for appearing to support the racist government where he was actually supporting the traditional music of Africa. It is a great album, with some wonderful tracks such as Gumboots, Diamonds on the Soul of Her Shoes and Homeless. Seek it out.

Paul Simon clearly has a love of African music and this helped to bring its magic and mystery to a Western audience. The album was a huge hit on both sides of the Atlantic and still stands as a beautiful experience. The music is powerful, most definitely when traditional African rhythms and tones are used, especially acapella. I also love the lyrics, the beautiful oddity from Gumboots and the story of You Can Call Me Al. It is a wonderful album from a time when listening to an album was a treat, start to finish; also from a time when the ills of the world were very much in the news and it felt as if we would all pull together to try and make change. I want to change how we view depression; I also want to be in a society where racism is not even mentioned, because it does not exist. We seem to be a long way from that, and further back than we were in the 80's. 

Borders are out of date. There are no borders in the web and there should be none now. We have regressed as a society and this has been driven by fear, by anger and by weak news outlets powered by right wing thinkers. If the West creates the problems in the Middle East, and then sells a lifestyle of freedom and reward, why the hell would those persecuted by a corrupt and violent government not want to come here? The West perpetuates the problem, sells a solution, and then uses those 'immigrants' to champion fear and hate back at home. Thus fuels racism, separatism, sexism, white supremacy, and extreme right paranoia. 

Is that democracy?

5 Ways to Create Order

No Borders.

No Fear.

No Competition, but a willingness to continue to develop and support each other.

No guilt. We feel what we feel, so the fuck what?!

No More Corruption. It's not the corporates who are the problem, it's not the tax dodgers and it's not the immigrants; it's the people in power, and most of them are men and most of them are white. What does that say? 

In my humble opinion. 

So what am I learning on my journey to an almost enlightened state on my emotions? First, that fear and hate have no place in a world; second, that we should not be made to feel bad if we feel bad, it is natural; third, that our world of fear, you know, the one with racism and the such, also fears people who have suicidal thoughts enough to lock them up or drug them...that's not right. Fear can be overcome, and history, myths and fables tell us that the one person who overcomes fear is a hero.

Go be you hero. 

Mindfulness Imagination Fayre 7: How We View Depression is Wrong

 

Welcome to Mindfulness Imagination Fayre 7, which has seen so far through this pandemic and I hope is offering glimpses of light in the darkness. 

I want to talk about darkness. 

When depression is discussed, either at home or in a surgery or on some talk show, it is seen as something that is wrong in our society and wrong in people who 'suffer' it. You go to the doctor and you are prescribed pills to remove the symptoms of depression. You talk to your partner and fear creeps in about what you could do, how low could you go. Expert psychologists and learned mental condition experts repeat the dangers of depression, the stresses and strains that it puts on the person and the immediate family; how it upsets work/life balance, puts your life on hold. 

Depression is wrong. We are frequently reminded.

I have a theory, purely based on my own experience with my depression and how I now use mindfulness to come to terms with it, that my depression is not wrong, it is a part of me that I don't want to lose.

I am beginning to think that the dark stuff and the emotions that the dark generates are just as important to me as a whole as the light. I may have to go through periods when I consider suicide or harm, where I struggle to find meaning and energy, but I am more aware now that those are periods of my life and not my whole life. They are windows of black just as night must come after each day. By recognising that this is but some brief episode, its power is not so strong. It does not pull me in like a suffocating black hole like it used to. 

In my own crass and pop culture way I liken it to the end of Return of the Jedi when Luke must face off with his father *SPOILER ALERT*. He has to channel his anger and make it good, in that he uses the power of the dark side to over come the demons and then return to the light. He used that energy for good, turning the dark into light. 

Is there not something in that for us? You know, me and you who have depression or perhaps we have something else. Perhaps we have a deep emotional connection to the world around us and it makes us feel sad and happy in the extreme. I believe that behaviour that does not suit our society is where many of these so-called mental disorders generate from. Some who have bi-polar have extreme behaviour, such as shopping sprees, and when it happens they are told it is the wrong way to behave and they must do something about it to never allow it to happen again. I think that is making the behaviour worse. 

When we are young behaviour is excused because we haven't matured. When we are old behaviour is excused because we are eccentric. When we are in the middle we must all behave exactly the same way or risk being classed as mentally ill. Is that right? Am I missing the point?

We are all rich and emotional human beings who react to different scenarios in different ways based on the unique way that we think. 

I cry at the end of E.T. I feel that emotion and when I hear the music I well -up. I acknowledge that I have acute emotions that mean I take offence easily, or get upset in an argument easily, and tend to feel guilt very easily. I don't want to take pills because I feel that anymore. I want to understand that it is ok for me to feel that and not be a burden on others. It is that guilt that sends us crashing, it is the reaction caused by judgement that de-presses us, that is the problem. Finely tuned emotional people are not.

So I ask if there is another way to how we view depression? Because the current mode is not working. Is it so wrong to feel something, however strong that feeling is?

Zac Thraves is a mindful practitioner, writer and performer.         Mindful Imagination Fayre is a show that is on hold and will soon be an online course. 

My book, The Self-Harming Pacifist, is coming soon. 

SPIKED IMAGINATION SERIES:

How to Focus instead of Anger - We are Heroes

We are all HEROES. 

I don't mean that we all have to wear boxer shorts over our tights, or that we have to flap around in colourful capes or carry special weapons like shields. But in essence we are all heroes. We are all on our own journey of discovery.

My name is Zac, and I am a mindful practitioner, writer and performer and I have depression. Sometimes it is very strong, sometimes it is mild, sometimes it would seem to not even be there at all. Yet it hums away in the background, perhaps recharging it's battery for the next round, until...

DING DING

...we fall into the next scrape between good and evil.

 

 The things that I have learnt over the years I have collated into a book, which I will soon publish online. In the meantime, my Mindful Imagination Fayre posts are designed to give a little hint, a pointer, hopefully shine a light of hope in the darkness for those of you who have to live with the illness that is depression; an umbrella term that holds many symptoms. 

If you are able to hold in there, and for me transcendental meditation has been key to my awakening from the darkness, then I would class you as a hero. But I want you to remember one thing, you have to do this, no-one can do it for you. There are no hero stories out there where the hero gets someone else to achieve their goals. Like Ben Kenobi said in The Empire Strikes Back, 'if you face him you must do it alone, I cannot be with you'. 

Face the fear, and defeat your demons. It takes bravery and it takes time, but you are worth it, aren't you? 

I want to go over anger, which is like a deep pea-souper that overwhelms the senses. Picture those old images of Victorian London awash with cloud hanging just above the cobbled streets. That is an image of anger. When you can't see clearly, you can't focus on what lies ahead. You walk blindly into situations with no control over your reaction or the reactions of others. Anger is blind and that is why I am always amazed at how angry drivers are. It would seem that every day on my commute to work I encounter at least 1 angry driver, who not only puts the life of the people around them at risk, but also their own. What is so important that they do that they need to terrorise the streets? 

I'm sure this happens everywhere, and while this may be a little off-topic rant (see my video linked below), I feel it worthy of inclusion as anger is a deep emotion that erupts from something inside that has not been dealt with. 

Mindfulness gives you space to see yourself in a non-judgemental way; by meditating you gift yourself a little time to allow that process to unfold. 

In my workshops and shows (soon to be online), I offer some modern meditations that cater for the busy lives and trends of our time. It is not about sitting in the locus position and humming, it is about channeling in to you and listening to your heart and soul. It sounds simple, and I wish it was. 

I also wish I was infallible and practiced what I preach, but I am human and humans fall into patterns of behaviour learnt way back. Humans make mistakes, and I make mistakes because I am human. You know what? That's called life and I refuse to allow it to manifest into a stick to beat myself with. Another thing I have learnt after years of self-harm. 

Angry drivers make mistakes and if any drivers are reading this who drive 2 feet away from the car in front or over take at any given opportunity I want to say this: unless you are a doctor or fire officer or police officer or brain surgeon or heart surgeon, what's the rush? Ditch the anger, put some music on and chill. You will feel better, the journey will take as long as it takes and traffic is not something you can control, so don't try to. Focus on what is important and use that energy from your anger to change your world, perhaps change the world, do something positive with it instead of putting fear and hate into others. 

No-one likes a tailgater.

My video here gives you an insight into my Fayre, my world, my ideas and where I  come from. After years of worrying that I am odd, eccentric, quirky or not quite ready for this world I have come to one conclusion: I am me, I am Zac Thraves and this is my world. 

My Books - 

Mindful Imagination Fayre 6 - Our Power of Imagination and Mindfulness

Over the last few years learning how to cope with my mental health, learning and appreciating Mindfulness, and then understanding how important my imagination is towards problem solving and dealing with the emotions that I feel, I have seen the important role that the arts play in our mental wellbeing and in coming to terms with the fears and barriers that we face.

I am a writer and performer, and part of my journey is to share to the world my show, entitled Mindful Imagination Fayre, where I sing and do silly stuff all in the name of promoting the benefits of mindful meditation and how it can unlock the power of your imagination.

You see, we are all SUPERHEROES.

We all have a power inside of us yet the majority of us do not know how to use it; have forgotten, or have had it taken from us. It's like having your opinion taken away, or discounted, or ridiculed; you lose some freedom and are placed in a nice little box. There you are kept and protected and forced into a false idea of what life is. It's all a mirage; a concept to keep control. 

It's time to fall down the rabbit hole and open your eyes...

So far I have mentioned three works of art in an explanation of mental wellbeing and imagination...

Alice in Wonderland - The Matrix - Superhero comics

...and we are surrounded by a variety of art works, from poetry to painting, that contain emotion, challenge, fear, unrest, beauty, love and joy. All the emotions that we feel on a daily basis. 

Being human is not easy, so why should we feel bad when we have those 'off' days? There is a false sense of happiness that floats around our minds, most likely fuelled by Facebook, Instagram and Tik-Tok, that is almost queasy and uneasy. I do not include Twitter in that concept, as Twitter is designed to be more opinionated and informative, albeit perhaps not quite so angry. However, Twitter is a platform for unleashing emotion, rather than just expressing how wonderful your life is, which seems to be the facade created by the other three social platforms. But, like all art, you don't have to view it or like it or take it further.

Picture yourself in a gallery with some of the finest works of art hanging on the wall; you saunter past and see something you like, great; then you see something you don't like and take a closer look at what that piece of crap is...oh, it's a Botticelli. Then you feel like an idiot because Botticelli is a renowned Renaissance painter and you should know better. 

Hang on there, while some may appreciate his work it does not mean that everyone has to. Some people like Eastenders, not everyone. In the great scheme of things, they are the same. What I'm trying to say to you is we have freedom to choose what we like and what we don't without judgement. You know you, you can't like everything and most certainly not because someone has told you too. For the record, I'm no fan of Eastenders but Venus and Mars, below, by Botticelli, is not bad; if you like that sort of thing. 

The power lies inside you. Our soul and energy and life are all played out in paintings and films and poems and stories. Every story handed down to us is a parable to how we can live a fulfilling life. Think of fairy stories, fables, (and I don't mean Disney versions where the princess finds her prince, I mean the proper fables). Every picture tells a story, and every story, within your mind, creates a picture; that is your power. If you believe in that then you have the power to believe in your imagination and picture the very thing it is that you wish to achieve. 

Picture it - Set the intention - allow it it come into fruition

There are a wide variety of art works that help us to understand our environment, as well as our emotions. We often feel sadness, anger and fear; and this is just as healthy as feeling happiness, love and confidence. Rather than feeling betrayed by our bad thoughts we can learn to live with them, and subsequently reduce the power they have. Mindful meditation is a very useful tool in learning to handle those powerful negative emotions that can charge us up and send us down pathways we wouldn't ordinarily take. 

TIP:

Just by listening to a favourite piece of music, you are, in essence, meditating. My go to is the theme to Moonraker. What's yours?

     

My role is to make meditation achievable to everyone. Western society tends to see meditation as the domain of the hippies or the weak. Time after time people who meditate are depicted as fools. Yet the real fools are the ones who work themselves into a grave. Meditation is beneficial not just to your mental health, but also to your physical health; it can also unlock a part of your brain that sends you to another way of thinking. I am still learning and trying to rid myself of destructive and constricting ways of thinking adapted by a self-serving society to which I am not seeing any real benefit. 

If something doesn't work, change it.

So here I am setting out my stall. Picture a fayre in a beautiful English village with the sun shining and music playing. Each stall offers an art form, each art form offers a way to meditate, to find yourself, to love yourself and to reach inside your heart and try to let you know what it is that you really, really want to do with your life. 

My Mindful Imagination Fayre is an interactive show, currently online with Youtube videos but soon to be live. There's some music, some fun, some stories and some realisation. You can also meditate and do it so easily you would wonder why you never did it before; but then again maybe you have without even knowing it. 

You have that power in you to achieve what you want. Start with belief, and let your imagination unlock.

Zac Thraves is a writer and performer. His series of short novels, under the banner Spiked Imagination, are available exclusively via Amazon for Kindle. 

To book Zac for his show or a talk please email and he will get back to you tout suit. 

Mindfulness Imagination 5; Phenomenology & Mindfulness

Phenomenology

Maurice Merleau-Ponty built on Heidegger's philosophy about the study of things. 

Yet while Satre used it as a jumping off point for Existentialism, Merleau-Ponty ran with the idea and created a treatise that tried to understand humans existence with things, our relationship with things. Unlike Heidegger and Satre, who considered all thought to stem from an adult brain, Merleau-Ponty went along the lines that this was created from childhood, from the womb onward. In effect we are born into an existence of feeling and interaction with the world around us.

This may seem like common sense to say, but think about your own interaction with your world. 

For instance, when your hand touches a pencil do you notice that your hand is touching a pencil? Note, that it is also true that the pencil touches your hand. Yet we do not try to notice the emotion of the pencil touching you. You could ask, what does it feel like for a pencil to be touched by human skin? 

Unlike Existentialism, which makes things real in your immediate reality, phenomenology notices that everything is around us waiting to interact with us; to have an experience with us. 

This is in tune with my ideas to the teachings of mindfulness and how it boosts the imagination in all of us. Because everything is there waiting for you to experience, you just need the belief and imagination to make it so.

Imagine sitting in a cafe and putting a cup of lovely sweet coffee to your lips and then thinking how it feels to be sipping that coffee, not only from your lips point of view, but from your mouth, throat, stomach; and then from the point of view of the cup, or the liquid which you pour into you. That coffee went from a growing bean to a grain of coffee pieced together with other grains to create a blended cup of beans in liquid form. It goes from one living thing to another.

 

Mindfulness

By using mindful meditation you can interpret and understand your own unique experience with the wider world. In essence, all of our worlds are different. We may see the same object but we interpret them differently; the same with news and events, notice on news reels that two different eye witnesses will record the same event with differences. We all have our own ways of seeing and interpreting, and there is nothing wrong with that.

By meditating, and using my technique on meditation by losing yourself in music, you can hear your inner self speaking to you and telling you your truths. You can access a higher plane, dimension if you like, and see why you interpret things in certain ways and where that ideology has come from. 

We are free, if we choose to be; free of our thoughts, our actions and our restrictions. Freedom can be scary which is why things are put into place to block that freedom. Such as self imposed time restrictions. I guess in choosing those then we accept that it is a choice we have made. By understanding yourself and why you see and think the way that you do is a step towards mental freedom. 

 

 My depression and anxiety is an outcome to the restrictions and fears that I have placed on myself by my interpretation of events, conversations and interactions that I have had through my life. I still find it hard to accept that at times, and maybe it is impossible to accept it fully as it goes way back in my life; but I can try and having a mindful approach to the world is my way of trying to make MY WORLD a better place.

I have been reading the excellent book by Sarah Bakewell - At the Existential Cafe, Freedom, Being & Apricot Cocktails.

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

Everything Matters

June 4th 2020

half of the world is in turmoil, and because of that I feel it inappropriate to share my mindfulness journey or tips on meditation. Instead I feel that I should remain silent, to a degree, to remain positive that an outcome will occur that satisfies those brave protesters and that change will happen soon.

We, and I am speaking as a UK citizen, are limited daily by a corrupt government who silence media and deal in lies; the USA, the land of the free, appears to have the same and it has led to violence not seen in years. This is a pivotal moment, and all in the middle of a pandemic that neither country has got a hold of. 

The disgusting behavior of the police in the US is rightly being reported globally. It is a disgrace, something that J R Ballard or Ray Bradbury would have written hoping it remained fiction. It is not fiction, it is a democracy fast becoming a dictatorship.

Britain be warned because we are dangerously close to a similar fight.

We must stay true; stay safe; stay strong and stay kind. Hate is only fuelled by hate. 

Limitations Encourage Imaginations

The weeks are disappearing like strawberry jelly in hot water; that's not to say it has been sweet, but it has been different. Cherry jelly perhaps.

Sabre Wulf, by Ultimate. Spectrum games were notoriously basic and programmers had to use their imaginations to make the visuals come to life. It definitely worked. 

We all have our limitations. There's a statement, but it is true if you look into the heart of you. Accepting that which we have and learning to do without leads us to a better place. The good thing about not knowing everything, which I know some people find hard to admit, is that you can use your imagination to fill in the blanks. 

The thing with doing what you have been taught to do is that you are doing the exact thing that someone else did; they probably learnt that from someone else and so on. All down the line a particular way of doing things has not evolved. I am terrible at reading instructions; they are boring, nonsensical, and written in such small writing or stupid pictures that my brain strains just to acknowledge the information. I understand that we need instructions sometimes, but that is usually because someone has made the thing so damn confusing in the first place!

Trial and error is a method that I find quite rewarding; it puts you in harmony with the universe. For instance, I am an interested but not very attentive gardener. I love planting things and letting nature take over and do it's job. I have killed many plants through doing the wrong thing and have learnt from that and moved on. I trust now that I have some idea of what I am doing and the bees that swarm to my lavenders and flowers are, for me, testament to that. The universe gives me the answer.

It is about getting up and going again. You fail at something, you get up and go again and you use your imagination to guide you through the part that you failed at. We are sadly in a society that does not accept failure of any kind, yet, without failure we would not have to advances we have had, and we would not appreciate the successes. If you are a football team who always scores goals, after a while, you won't find scoring a goal that exciting. Yet think of the fist-pumping excitement you see on the television when a sports team scores a goal or point and they are not used to it; the passion; the drive; the determination to repeat that. Wonderful.

You know, life could be like a video game. Here you are in life and sometimes you get multiple chances to achieve something. You lose, so you restart and go again; you lose again but get a little further, you go back to the start and go again. You repeat this until you reach a point where you can save your progress and go from that point. It happens, everything you have done in your life has led to that point. You save, you rest, you pause, you praise, you give yourself a grin - and then you go again.

I think that it is important to acknowledge and accept the things you can do and the things you can't, know your limitations. It is never too late to learn, whatever it is you might wish to learn.
during this lockdown I have been picking up my guitar for the first time in years, after already being not so good at it and feeling disheartened, and I have a few songs under my belt. i have started to tinkle at the piano, and it is fun. Learning is fun; being true to yourself is fun, understanding what you are capable of is also fun. You may surprise yourself and be capable of more things than you thought.

Lose the fear and feed your imagination. 

May the Force of Mindfulness Be With You

My Business Cards

Your imagination is a very powerful tool. Have a think about the biggest thing that you can think of that you really want to do....when you have that image in your head try to put it down on paper, draw it, sketch it, write it, paint it, make a doodle out of it. Then set an intention in your head to reach it, make it real, give it purpose, make it so number one.

Our imaginations are very powerful tools. Without an imagination you would not be reading this blog on the device you that you hold and it would not contain any electrical components in it. Nor would you be wearing those glasses to make you see; or feeling the cloth of your shirt on your arm. You would not be seeing the images from Star Wars cards at the beginning of this blog and this blog would not exist because Google wouldn't have been created  to create it. Never mind the furniture that you are sitting or laying on. 

Without imaginations our world would be, well, it would be as Earth was created. We have shaped it with our imaginations. Consider the idea that whatever idea you had in your head, and I would guess you probably think it unobtainable, is the same feeling the person who invented the the chair had when they wanted to explain this idea of parking your backside onto something in order to rest your feet. 

"What do you call it?"

"An arse supporting leg-rester." 

"Nah!"

Here's a little tale you may know.

There once lived a young farm boy who dreamed of a wider world than his small desert space. He looked up at the stars and would wonder what went on there, who was out there. 

One afternoon he met a crazy old wizard who explained that he could see what was there if he trusted himself, he could be great, if he listened to himself. and that this old man could teach him tricks.

The boy was excited and tempted; until he remembered that he had jobs to do and commitments to the farm.

Then one day, fate played it's hand. That young boy lost his connection to the farm under tragic circumstances and he had a choice to make, stay and rebuild, or chase his dreams.

he chose the old man and went for his dreams. 

The old man taught the boy about the magic in the air, and how he was connected not only to those that he loved, but to all living things, to the ground and nature and to the universe. He told the young farm boy to believe in his instinct, in his imagination, to listen to what was going on inside of him. Do not trust what your eyes tell you.

The young boy trusted, he learnt and....

....you know the rest.

Of course that is the story of Luke Skywalker. It is also the story of many myths and legends and our wonderful storytellers tell us these stories because as well as being entertaining, there is an element of truth in them. That's why they have lasted for centuries.

We must begin to trust our instincts and imaginations; our subconscious brains. Our logical side is all well and good, but it only warns you about what you already know, it houses your fears and your learned beliefs. The saying goes that if you tell yourself you can't do something then you are absolutely right. 

Try telling yourself that you can do something, and each step of the way you learn more and take another leap to that goal fizzing about in your mind. You enjoy the road trip to that goal, you learn new skills and meet new people and open your world. You can't just step out of your house and be an astronaut; but you can be an astronaut.

Any goal you can dream is obtainable. It lies in the belief within you and the desire you have to get there. We are used to being told the following: 

NO

TOO HARD

WHY

YOU CAN'T

NOT ENOUGH TIME/MONEY/EDUCATION

Try telling yourself yes, and scare the hell out of your family and friends by also telling them yes. You will be classed as an eccentric, a misfit, a rebel, an outcast, a maverick and any other label those who are stuck in their worlds would like to put on those who choose to break the wall. 

Break the wall.

I haven't played the piano for 30 years. During this lockdown I have decided to start to learn. In the following video, I start by playing the piano, please do consider that I got this far in a week.

Stay safe everyone. 

Zac Thraves is a writer, performer and mindfulness practitioner. Once out of lockdown you can book me for shows, stories and games. For schools and places of work. 

Mindfulness Imagination Pt 3

The trouble with being alone all of the time, is that you forget what it is like to be with other people.

That's not a quote, at least I don't think, I made it up; but it does feel true. In another part of my life I am an actor and a ceremony celebrant. Yet for the most part I am far happier sitting alone and not interacting with the world. I think they call that an introverted extrovert or something.

With the world in lockdown I thought this would be a perfect time for me to have time for myself, work at my own pace and do those things I've wanted to do. The answer to that is yes, it has been a perfect time and it has been embraced. Yet now I need to see other people. The introversion has become overwhelming, like a blanket wrapped around you and you can't find the end to glimpse some light.

To keep the demons away I have been interrupting my work schedule with a little creativity. It's not much, and it is not enough to distract you completely, and it is almost going back to a time of school and doodling on a pad while the teacher mumbles on about something geographical, which I hated.

Try this, if you have in a draw or box somewhere a small palette of child's water colours, then open it up, grab a glass of water and a paint brush and some paper that you don't need. Then just stroke that brush about the page and see what your imagination can conjure up. It doesn't have to be anything, it doesn't have to look like anything, but it is releasing that pent up frustration or depression in your mind and re-focussing your brain onto something else. Who knows. you could be on your way to being Picasso.

Another thing you could try to take your mind off things is listen to music. You know, now you're not stuck in an office of people who may comment on your choice of tunes you can listen to anything you damn well please. I've taken to dusting off the vinyl, and then mixing it with a dose of Spotify or some old CD's that have almost disappeared from memory.

I also listen to movie soundtracks, and there are some, such as Star Wars or Raiders of the Lost Ark, where you can more or less visualize the movie as you listen.

The wonderful thing about that is you can have a scene playing in your head while your eyes are scanning the next email to deal with. It is called multi-tasking, and is very good for your brain as well as for your imagination.

Our imaginations are an important component for maintaining our emotional and mental health. Art plays a huge role in our wellbeing and is usually the first thing to be sacrificed when things turn sour in the world. Yet, when we are faced with dire situations we turn to music, we turn to television box-sets; we turn to movies and to grabbing hold of that feelgood moment.

My message to you is. that if you feel you are down, depressed, anxious, unable to focus or just wishing yourself away, then switch on that side of your brain that is creative. You are not expected to give anyone a masterpiece, you are just expected to make you smile.

If you like what you have done share it; if you don't, then you have achieved something wonderful. Something unique to you that no-one else will see.

Stay well and safe and see you on the other side.

Zac Thraves is a writer, performer and mindfulness practitioner

Mindfulness & Imagination Pt. 2

These are strange times, unique times, and there a many of us feeling the mental strain on lockdown.

To begin with I enjoyed it; I am what would be called an introverted extrovert, in that when I am placed in a situation I can revel in the attention, yet I do not seek it out. I am very happy taking a back seat and watching others control the room. A natural introvert seeks only the company of self, and I had lots of projects that I wanted to get off the ground; I wanted to start an online shop, which I have nearly completed and can be found here:

Empire Raiders of the Future Busters

I also wanted to further develop my project for presenting the benefits of mindfulness and the power of your imaginations. About 2 years ago I was encouraged to write a workshop, the performer in me made that into more of a show with songs and interaction and humour. Now I have developed what I call a fair. I want to take this around the country and open up about the power within us, and how using mindful techniques can help you realise your dreams, goals, ambitions; or to just accept the you that you want to be.

So I made a video, and when all this is over, I will be approaching schools and businesses to come to the fair.

Please enjoy and if you need any help, please get in touch.

Finally, I would like to share with you a song which I feel is about depression, anxiety and mental health. It is by Peter Gabriel, Sledgehammer. An imaginative video and a powerful message.

Please stay safe and well. We can be kind to each other if we choose to do that. This world can be a better place if we look at it from the perspective of love.

Zac Thraves is a writer, performer and mindfulness practitioner.