Welcome to the New You - MIE21

Is 2021 going to be any good? I think the census us 50-50, some say we're going to the dogs, some say this is a moment of great potential for change.

I say that it is up to you. 

Here in the UK, if it isn't Covid it's Brexit, and both are shit.  Any news channel you watch, BBC, Sky, ITV even Twitter, the daily briefs are gloom and crap and dark and even more crap. It makes you want to roll up in a duvet and disappear for the remaining years. But is it the reality? I mean, how many times have they said it's going to rain and it never comes to your door?

National events may trouble us in some form, but certainly not in the way depicted by the fear-mongers of national news. Last week we were warned of a food shortage and empty shelves because trucks were stuck at Dover, I went to my local supermarket and it was full, brimming with food and anything you should want to eat for Christmas. That's not to say that some shelves were not empty somewhere, it just wasn't on the scale that we were being informed about. It could have been one shop in the whole UK for all I know! 

So what I am driving to is, regardless of all the shit in the world, your world depends solely on you and what you make of it. You might catch Covid, you might not; you might lose customers due to Brexit, you might not. All you are going to hear about is the people that are affected, not the ones getting on with it. However, if you make something remarkable out of a desperate situation, then they'll tag you on as a nice story to end the evening with. 

It is all about you. So here we are on the cusp of the a new year for a new decade and while 2020 was not great, we got through it; we survived and lived to make a difference in 21. This is your moment to make a stand, shine bright, be bold, get large, shout out, bang on doors and challenge the status quo. Because one lesson we have learnt, and this is most likely in most countries, is that the old way of thinking no longer works. We need something new and something collective. Boris Johnson, Donald Trump, and others have failed in their weak and aged way of dealing with a national crisis, a world pandemic that should and could have united us all against one common cause. Instead they have ensured we are divided to suit their vision of the world. 

That world is dying, we all know that really, and they are in denial. 21 is going to make that different. Covid won't magically disappear in 21, neither will Brexit sort itself; new ways of thinking will do that. The USA, Europe and UK are wheezing old men fighting for relevance, too old and way too tired. Time for new blood.

And that's where you can step in. 

Whatever you are, wherever you are and whoever you are, by changing how you approach the world will begin to change your world. It takes many people and it takes momentum, but once it begins to happen it is impossible to stop. You can breathe new life into your goals, your ambitions and dreams. You can swipe away at the negative news that filters in and begin the day with a positive mindset. I stopped watching the news over Christmas, and guess what, when I returned, nothing had changed, so why should I watch that bullshit daily? It's fucking depressing!

New you = new mindset = new reality. It is quite simple. When you have bad days just ride it and let it float. Don't try to break it or fight it, put a project on hold and do something kind for yourself or for someone you love. Be kind and be true to what lies in your heart, even when the darkness sweeps in and envelops you with a cloud. It will drift away if you pay it little attention. Have some patience with yourself because you won't be firing every day. Understand that some days will be a bit bleugh! Let them go. 

New you. 2021 is time for us all to step forward. We are creative and beautiful and we have something to offer this world in whatever way we are meant to share it. Take the pressure off, success for a writer is a reader, success for a musician is a listener. Believe in yourself and be patient and kind with yourself.

Changing the world is about changing your world. Nothing else matters at all. 

This link takes you to my landing page which introduces you to my online Imagination Experience. For now you click and buy pdf courses, and this will expand into a show and more courses. Join me, all you need to do is sign up to the email and start to get email updates from me. I promise, no spam and no forwarding your details to other parties. I promote confidence, imagination and focus, join my MI Revolution.

The following are links to my books, these are affiliated and I will get a small financial benefit for a click. 

 

 My most recent book is The Self-Harming Pacifist, which details my struggle with depression, suicidal thoughts and, as the title suggests, self-harm. I struggled to fit in to this world, in to society. But I am still here because I realised it is not about me fitting in, it is about creating my own world. I am not super-happy, who is? But I am alive, and that is what matters. 

You Are A Hero - MIE - Join me

 I'm here to tell you: YOU ARE A HERO.

We all have heroes, factual, fictional, historical and perhaps even fragments of many pieced together within the mind. So why then do many of us go through life as if we were the victim, and not as the hero of our own story?

I guess you know someone, or many, in your family or friends of acquaintances, who always ask: 

'Why does this always happen to me?'

A phrase that goes along with 'No one thinks of me', or 'Why does no one ask me what I want'.

You know the sort. I'm sure you do. So here's the rub of it all:

THEY ARE VICTIMS IN THEIR LIVES and they really should be

HEROES!

The single most important thing that I can tell you in life is to always put your needs before anyone else. Well, adults that is, obviously babies are a different matter, but only for when they are babies as there will be a time when they are old enough to also put their needs before anyone else's. 

Oh man that is so selfish!                                                                            Is it?                      Really?

You know if you've been on a plane (remember air travel?) that you are told to put your mask on before you help anyone else. Right? You know why? 

Because you're no use to anyone of you are broken too!                

You're damaged - useless - unfit for purpose - unable to be of any help.

So why then choose to be that person in real daily life when actually you will make your family/friends/acquaintances happier if you placed yourself at the top of the table. They might find it weird at first, but hey, they have put their needs above yours for years so their ego will take a bruising.

So sad............forgive me for not being too upset. 

Energy Vampires are a real thing. Not just from The Lost Boys or Anne Rice, they exist and all they want is your positive energy. 

So, like a knight in armour, a hero, you must build defences and start to repel their forces. Take a shield and slam their shots away; lower your visor and prepare to be drained but your energy is greater so it can defend against it.

the reason they are after your energy is simple: IT IS STRONGER!

You see, you are a hero. Putting you 1st, First, as a champion of your own life, is not selfish; and if your family resist then explain to them that if they too put themselves first then there shouldn't be a problem; all that would be required of everyone is to compromise to what everyone's needs are. 

That's called negotiation and appreciation. Those are born from love and not battle, fear or hate. 

Putting yourself first is a sign of love, for yourself and for others. If you don't love yourself then how can expect anyone else too?

Hey, let's have an ad break. The following are affiliated links for which I receive a small sum.

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This is part of my course which is now available online for  just £8.99, amounting to roughly $12. In it I take you through how important it is to see yourself as the hero of your story, your life. We all follow heroes, and a hero's journey is similar to journey's through life. By pitching yourself in the centre as the hero you will find courage, you will find strength, and you will start to find solutions to problems. Why? because that is what heroes do and how they behave. It is all about your mindset. Click on the link to head to a page where you can sign up - 

Sign Up Here to Change your Mind about Your Mind

Change can happen. My course can help you with that and if you join my mailing list you will be part of a new group who want to change how we deal with emotions, and how we can get back to being humans instead of robots. 

Independence is admirable; and imagination indispensable. Quoted from Mary's Monster by Lita Judge. Current read. 

Build your power - enable your imagination - strive for independence. Freedom from the tropes of society, from the work 'til you die ideology. Your life is for living, and living is not sitting at a desk or at a counter for eight hours per day. If you choose to do that, then that's great, but in my experience, not many have chosen that life they fall into it and get stuck and then can't find a way out.

A hero always finds a way out of a situation = Be Your Hero.

Buy my book about my struggles and learnings  from depression: 

How to Survive the Game of Life - Join Me

It's November, here in the UK the nights are closing in dramatically and the wind bites with more vigour. 

 Unhappy? Trapped? Stuck in a Cycle...this isn’t Tron, this is life...join me Click Here for Your FREE Meditation Gift

My new and wonderful online course, The Mindful Imagination Online Experience, is gathering momentum. The process is very simple and all thanks to Mailchimp, which was daunting at first but you begin to understand the way it works. I would like to invite you to join my mailing list and receive an introduction to my online course. Once joined I will ask you to purchase the course, and that is indeed up to you; but here are the benefits:

Modern Meditation = anytime anywhere feel good moments that are quick and easy

Arts to understand your emotions and begin to open up and say hello to the real you inside

Make you the Hero of your story = you are the central focus, begin to love yourself and stay strong

Create your route map to achieving goals using movies, I know, it's true, I have a theory for you

Plus you get an introduction and farewell from me; that's 6 modules for £28.99 - which is about $34. 

👀SAY YES! And come inside the power of your imagination to boost confidence, boost your immune system and help problem solve. It's way cool and my main focus was to make this FUN. The wonderful thing about my style of mindfulness is that you can make it relevant to anything that you use in your life: ALL ART FORMS.

You like soaps and not galleries - cool; you like action movies and not indie cinema - cool. Your choice of art is perfect for your entry into the Mindful Imagination Experience

It's entirely about you and what it is to be you. I want to celebrate you and all your wonderfully crazy idiosyncrasies; I mean, we're all mad to someone.

“Find out who you are and start doing it on purpose.” 💭

Click here for a secret I wish to share with you and how I am achieving the success that I am.

The point is that this Mindful Experience that I created last year was supposed to be a show in 2020 for schools and businesses where I taught in person with music and games and laughter. Well, that didn't happen.

 The truth is right up there. It's all there, right in the above statement. Start living the life you want, and start to believe in it. I know that times are hard and Covid has been devastating for so many people. I understand that lives have been shattered and jobs have been lost. While it is important to acknowledge, it is also important to begin the process of moving forward. 

I have lost loved ones to illness, I know how difficult it is to grieve and shake the emotion off; but I have also learnt that those we have lost do not wish for us to be stuck in a trap. The traps are all about us: 

job

life

relationship

money

education

But there is a way to change things, in fact, if you are unhappy or stuck it is your duty to yourself to begin to chart your way to something different. It may seem daunting, if you are in a bad job or relationship, but all it takes is one step and then a new world begins to open up before you.

Life is precious, and it is also a game. We experience the world in our own unique ways. Take charge of your world, and if you see that it is not how you want to paint it then change the picture. One brush stroke at a time. 

Join me on socials and I will say hello. 

https://www.instagram.com/28zacthrav/

https://twitter.com/28Thraves

https://www.facebook.com/harysMIExperience

To finish for this post, I only want to wish you well. Please stay strong, focussed, and healthy. When things get shit think about the stuff you have that makes you happy. That could be a person, a meal, a film or piece of music. There may be an image that you have which makes you feel good. It is important to feel good, especially when the world may seem a scary and prohibited place. Change is coming, and in order to achieve that change you have to go through some bad stuff. 

The results may be beautiful, if we all stick together. 

The following ADS are for my books and some stuff that I like, they are affiliated and I will get a minor reward for each click. 

I Could Be Crazy and I Love It - Join Me

 This is about embracing your crazy.

I'm going to be honest with you, life is pretty shit at the moment. I mean from a professional level more than a personal level. The pandemic has reduced my income and debt is mounting up. The recent vaccine announcement offers a glimmer of hope but not until some time in 2021, that feels like another lifetime. 

So why do I keep on creating and imagining and, to all intents and purposes, act as if the world is great?

I guess because my problems are the same as everyone's and if I am going to make my life better I am the one who needs to do it; one thing depression has taught me is that problems are not solved under a duvet. You have to keep believing and dreaming and working out ways to break that barrier, smash down the wall and move on to the next level. 

Life is Mario, Donkey Kong and Bombjack. Life is Sonic and Outrun and Batman. You see, by continuing the dream you open the crazy, and then I ask myself...

why not embrace the crazy.

Doing the normal stuff has got me only so far; it was when I was crazy that I moved further. Let's take Batman for instance as he has just been mentioned. In the stories, Batman is actually one of the most boring ones; the real good ones are the crazies, the Joker, Riddler, Penguin, maybe even Egghead. They may break the law, but so does Batman. The difference is that they go against the flow of society, they don't follow the rules. That's why the Riddler wears green tights, he's not a denim person. 

Embrace your crazy.

Here's some ads, more to follow.

The following are affiliated links to which I will earn if you click at no extra cost to you.

During the lockdown I shifted the focus of my Imagination Show, which should have been doing the rounds in 2020, and created an online experience.

The aim of my MINDFUL IMAGINATION EXPERIENCE online course, created with the idea of mindfulness boosting your imagination, is to fully embrace the person that you really are inside. Through a series of coursebooks, you will understand your emotions, have a handle on what to do when things get too much, draw up a route towards overcoming obstacles and realise that you are the hero in your own adventure. 

For Your free meditation direct into your inbox, just click RIGHT HERE and join the revolution. I will change how we think about depression. 

You see we all look at the world differently; your bad is someone else's good and your good is, well you get the point. It is important to embrace our differences, instead we are in a cycle of society that sends the message that to be different is bad. To be different makes you trouble, an eccentric, mad, or crazy. 

Crazy=Different=Good.

There are lots of crazy people doing exciting things that have the chance to change the world. 

Tesla

Google

Zoom

are three of them and yet the majority of stories we hear about them are negative. Amazon are the same; does that mean that the companies are bad or that the people who they are affecting (the businesses who have sat on their backsides for decades and not progressed) are threatened and so need to whack these newbies around the ear. Sort of like the old teacher hitting a pupil for saying something progressive in class.

Being different is challenging, and I know you are reading this because you feel it too; you are different, eccentric, challenging...crazy. 

Take a look at punk marketing, which obviously takes its name from the punk movement of the late 20th Century; the movement challenges advertising norms and encourages you to push the envelope. There are examples that have fallen into mainstream. One idea is Dominos Pizza, in the US, filling in potholes with their logo. It is brilliant, and they are doing something good. Usually the best and most memorable ads are the ones that do not follow strict advertising tropes. We've been doing this for 25 years, and it hasn't broken before. Think John (yawn) Lewis Christmas ads. 

Read the Huff Article Here

Crazy is good; it's cool; it's growth and it is progress. The most important thing you can do in your life is to 

TRUST IN YOU

I can show you how to do that. I can give you the tools to trust in you and open your eyes to the power of your imagination, the power of your inner crazy. Do you want that? Are you ready for that?

All you need to do to change the world is to change your world. If we all changed our worlds with love we would all then create a world with love. The task is not so daunting. 

Click on the link for my free pdf above and you can join me in creating a new way of thinking and a way towards accepting the whole that is you. Being crazy is one way we are told that we are not the norm and those damaging words lead to anxiety, depression, loneliness and then, for some, harm or suicide. It is just one word that can cause so much damage from lots of words we have that cause so much damage. So we change that, word by word, bit by bit, and we say YES, I am crazy, and I love it! 

Welcome to My Mindfulness: Join Me

Welcome to the first phase of the MINDFUL IMAGINATION EXPERIENCE story. Let's have some fun.

Get your FREE PDF Introduction HERE!

Introducing my BRAND NEW online course available for you to buy. What's it all about? I hear you ask, well, you know, I didn't actually hear it but I did sort of hear something in my mind, perhaps it was you my dear reader; perhaps it was my imagination.

But that is exactly the point.

Sing:

Step One - a FREE pdf outline of me and what I offer, available to download by subscribing to my mail list.

Step Two - pay just $56 (roughly £43)) and you will get a whole course made up of 4 parts from 6 documents. You have an intro, then you have a meditation, then you have a hero, then you have a painting, then you have a framework and then you have a farewell. 

Step Three - tell your friends that you can put your life in order and step towards success by using mindfulness to access and build your imagination. 

Step Four - also tell them that inspiration is all around you, you see it at bus stops, on walls, on the television and in magazines. 

Step Five - believe in yourself and make your dreams come true.

2020 has been a bit shit, so I have spent a good few months re-designing my live show into an online course in order to kick off this idea that you have the power in your hands to change your life. 

The power is truly in your hands. We are told of our limitations in order to limit us; but we truly have an enormous amount of energy and imagination if we step back and believe in what we can do. The truth is, you already do a lot of it instinctively. 

My course is about Mindful Meditation, and I have made that modern and relevant to our techno-driven and busy lives. It is about giving yourself some time to just be YOU, and filter out all the distractions just for a small amount of time.

Many years ago I used to smoke cigarettes. During that time I would stop whatever I was doing and sit down, or find a place to stand quietly, and smoke. It took about five minutes to smoke a cigarette. I allowed myself that time to stop and smoke.

Yet, when I stopped smoking, rightly so I should say, I also stopped giving myself a break. 

It is important not to smoke, I am not advocating lighting up at all; but it is important to give yourself a window of time to stop and re-focus. Now I use music, and in my course I will show you how it can benefit you and how it works. You cancel out distractions and give yourself a little break when you need it. It is wonderful!

My mental health has seriously suffered over the years, in part due to my lack of understanding of it; mindfulness has given me a far deeper and more balanced understanding of who I am. In recent months, as Covid has driven the news and our lives, mental health has suffered again both personally and around the globe. I want to share what I have learned and how it has helped me, and I honestly believe that my health would be worse this year had it not been that I studied mindfulness prior to the lockdown experience. 

So I present to you: 

Here's what I would like you to do. Click on this link PDF FREEBIE IS HERE and then sign up to my mailing list. You are then part of this revolution. Welcome. 

Stay tuned. Here's some messages. The following are affiliated links and I will be paid should you click; it's just stuff that I like. 

The current political chaos in the Western world has really highlighted to me how out of control we are when it comes to making decisions in our lives. Yet I want to remind you all how it works:

If you don't agree with your voted leader, vote against them; rally against them; shout from the rooftops; enter into discussions and don't be afraid to make a stand for what you believe in. This world has enough hate in it, so don't add anymore. Hate is not destabilised by adding more hate but it is dissipated by adding love. Just as you would add a dash of fresh water to a dry cup of sand. Hate is dry, it is born of fear and a barren mind; by reminding them how barren their world is just adds further hate, it adds more heat and that makes it drier. Instead, add love, add some water and some freshness to the scenario. Add a balanced antidote to each cracked part and let the water sink in silently, allow it to flow through each crack and reach deep into the wound. Love is the answer just as water is the answer. 

Finally for this episode I would like to add a sprinkling of nonsense in  the form of a poem I have written. I am a member of the Mid Kent Stanza group, which is run in the UK by The Poetry Society. We regularly meet, currently online of course, and offer ideas and tips on each others work. It is because of this wonderful group of poets that I have been published in magazines and on websites. Check out some of mine at The Ekphrastic Review

I consider myself an okay poet and humbled to have been published. I also write shows and plays and books and the art of writing is what I love doing; I love writing these blogs as much as I love making my videos on Youtube. So I gift you a poem, followed by a link to me being weird on film. Call it a calling card, because my new course is not about being just mindful, it is about you being the true you that you are in your heart and if that person is a little weird, then aren't we all?

Enjoy; peace; love.

My voice is like a marked deer

A rabid hound my tongue

When i cry no-one notices

When i scream it is the shot of a gun

I am done

Twitter = @28thraves - - - - Instagram = @28zacthrav

Zac Thraves is a writer and performer from the UK.

Why Do We Misreport Our Emotions?

 Disclaimer - this blog contains affiliated links for which I will receive a small sum; call it supporting an artist who needs to fund his imagination

I will soon be sharing with you some very cool stuff, a brand new course designed to help you meditate and come to terms with your emotions in our noisy and modern world. 

The world is still noisy, it was even when we were in lockdown; we still had rolling news and updates and social media and negative reporting and it was, still is, too much.

My course will help you to deal with all of that and give you some great tips on using arts to meditate and to listen to your emotions. Listening to them helps you react to them which ultimately helps you to deal with them in a positive way, regardless of the emotion. 

What I don't do is lock them up; ignore them or wish to slay them. My emotions are not a monster or a dark serpent or anything like that. Yes, they are sometimes bad, but they are not criminal and I do not hide from that part of me anymore.

If you want to find out more please follow me on Twitter @28thraves or on Insta, @28zacthrav. I am keeping my course entirely personal and it will be for you. It will also be fun, and you will come away from it feeling ready to stand tall and recognise that you are unique, and you can boss your world. 

We are all heroes. 

So why do we misreport our emotions? It's a question I have pondered for some time now and one that I can't say I have a real handle on. I try to think of us as this:

• a collection of thoughts and feelings
• whizzing about our psyche at lightening speed
• some good and some bad
• some judgemental and some pure love
• clashing and bashing like atoms
• some may explode 
• and all this, our unique personal universe, encased in a body

And then once we filter all of this through our mind and sort it like the postal service sorts letters we place a selection of thoughts into an order, analyse them, and decide which ones to issue out of the body and which ones to leave, store or discard.

We are reporters of our minds.

It's actually quite weird when you break it down, but at the same time it makes sense. Our minds are a bit like that sentence, a sequence of words that sound odd but right. 

We become our own censors; like Trump's censorship code for the internet or back in old Hollywood when they tried to convict so-called Communists. In the UK we had censorship on TV and definitely no sex. You can't have sex that's disgusting!

The trouble with that is the ideas of the censorship distributes throughout our society and into our psyches and then it becomes something that we do to ourselves. We are actively censoring our thoughts and becoming our own thought-police. That is what leads us to misreport our emotions because we decide which of our emotions are right and which are wrong.

What if I told you that all of your thoughts are right, how would that make you feel?

Sex? What's wrong with sex, I mean we need to do for the human race to survive, why are we so prudish?

Suicide? What's wrong with thinking about suicide? 

Self-harm? What's wrong with thinking about self-harm?

Thinking about those are not an issue nor are they wrong; even the act of doing is not wrong. What is wrong is society's reaction to those acts and to people who have done it. We collectively make it wrong which then pushes them deeper into our minds where it can grow into a snarling monster; like Medusa in a lair or the Kraken from the deep. These monsters of myth are our monsters...our emotions, made large.

For example, when a thought comes to our minds about harming it is instantly pushed away and the language used to push it away is that we are bad, that we shouldn't think that, it's disgusting; all those people you would hurt, that's so ungrateful; guilt.

All those hateful words are actually worse than the thought of self-harm; and could lead to the act happening with more force, or worse, with fatal results.

Here's one that gets me (after the harming and suicide thoughts):

I want to make $3000 per month doing something I love.

Now, when I write that or say it to myself I feel bad, because then I think that's greedy; I'm not worth that; I don't have anything to offer; who would listen to me; you should be ashamed of yourself. Rich people are monsters, that is so selfish.

?

It is exactly the same thought process for me to want to succeed as it is to want to die. That is true for me anyway. You can argue that success is great, it gives drive, it's a target. Yet those monsters still appear for me when I think of making money. Because I have been conditioned to think like that in the same way I have been conditioned to thinking that self-harm, or just having depression in general, is a bad thing. 

The conditioning is there from childhood, through school and into working life. And the silly thing is that it is not the fault of parents or teachers, because they too have been conditioned to think like that. It's a problem in parts of society. 

Someone has to change the thinking of the greater society and that someone could be you and I. We can all start to take that step to thinking differently by changing our language, understanding that we are emotional and that we have powerful imaginations that change the world and give us enough to sustain a life. There's nothing wrong for me to want to survive and the only way to survive our current world is through earning money. I chose to survive, and my survival story is in my current book (ad above), and with that I want to survive having a life where I can reduce the stress and succeed by producing something that I feel passionate about. 

Is this not right?

You can do that too. Start to think outside the box, because the box is not of your design. There is only one person who can change your world, and that is you. By each of us doing this individually we can shape a new way of thinking. If you think about changing all of society you may go...WOAH, that's too big!

But actually, if we just focus on ourselves and change our thinking, and share and talk and open up, then gradually it can all change. All of it, forever. 

Just a thought.

I hope you enjoy my fortnightly blogs. Please do follow me on social media and keep a look out for my course which will be downloadable worldwide soon. I want to help us all take a step to a better world.

I recently finished reading this book by Dr Pippa Grange and found it incredibly helpful in giving tips on how to overcome fear. We can all be trapped by fear, mainly for me it is failure and self-worth. Her words and the stories she told of real people overcoming their fears were inspirational, and I do recommend a read of her book. The link is a UK one, I am sure it is also on Amazon.com. Search it out. 

Covid, Mindfulness and Depression; a Personal Story

The following stemmed from a recent conversation over Skype with my father. He lives in South Africa, and we were discussing the pandemic, you know, moaning about the state of his government and the UK government, and the differences between the two. We came to a conclusion that South Africa seem to be responding with more urgency and confidence than the bumbling lot who currently sit in Number 10, Downing Street. However, with all the fear and worry, we sort of fell on a notion:

Can Covid-19 be a friend?

It is a serious illness and sadly many people have died; yet my father and I sort of felt that this is something we are going to have to learn to adapt to and live with, like we do now with the Flu. So I made a list: 

Good things that have come out of the Covid-19 pandemic:

• natures re-set
• no more kissing and hugging everyone you meet
• less traffic
• people avoid you in the street
• internet has no borders
• we are all in this together
• I get to look like Zorro!

Of all those, the one I have not missed is the hugging and kissing everyone; why we had to do this in the first place has always been questionable. Personally it has always been awkward, and thankfully now not socially acceptable. If this ever comes back then I will consider becoming a recluse because I never know if it one on the cheek or two or three and, frankly, I don't care. I don't need to hug every old friend or family member, let's just say hello to each other and get on with it.

What do you think? Is there anything about the pandemic that you think has been good or am I just delusional?

By the way, I do not intend to offend anyone who has lost friends and family to this horrible illness, I send you my thoughts and wishes. By trying to find some positive in an awful situation, I think we can better honour the memory of those who have died. 

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our Light, not our Darkness, that most frightens us. Marianne Williamson

 The statement above is perfect for the message I am continuing to put out there. Our light is our fear, our darkness is what keeps us in fear. My book, The Self-Harming Pacifist, is my account of an episode in my life where I was going through serious depression and harm. Yet I concluded with myself that I was sick of feeling guilt and shame over having these emotions. Why should I feel guilt and shame as that only exacerbates the whole thing and makes it worse?

Society does not accept depression, anxiety or any other kind of behaviour that is not seen as normal. Is that right? I harmed myself on countless occasions and I was seen as weird, crazy, mad, at crisis level. I dd not hurt anyone else, only me, just me, I was not beating anyone up or aiming a gun at anyone. Yet I was the mad one. Apparently its fine to start a fight in a pub or fire a pistol at passers-by. 

I am convinced that we can change how we view depression by changing our culture and our reaction to those who have depression. The fact that cases of depression and anxiety are increasing is down to our culture, and not to a 'snow-flake' generation. We are all unique and emotional individuals who react in different ways to different scenarios...and that is exactly how it should be.

Being sad is not wrong; just as being happy is not wrong. The more serious sadness is not wrong, and the fact that we see it as wrong and have to diagnose people with drugs to get over it means that when you feel it, you also feel the guilt, the shame and the fear. Which makes it all worse.

We need to re-think this. I am not a doctor, or a psychologist, but I come from experience and the experience I had was not good; the drugs I had were not good; the mindfulness I learnt and became involved in has shown me a new way of thinking and finally given me an acceptance that I am good. Even when I feel depressed, I am good and that removes some of the depressions power. 

I have a course, coming online soon, that uses the arts to make you feel better about your emotions and anxieties. There is a really cool meditation technique and some ideas to get your life on track and make a positive step forward. It is called The Mindful Imagination Experience, and it will soon be available.

Watch this space. Be kind to yourself and to each other. We can change the world with love.

Making Friends with Your Darkness - Mindful Imagination Experience

Welcome to the Mindful Imagination Experience. 

It is in the darkness that you truly see yourself. The monster that I walked into that night was of my own creation. I am the monster and the light. I am the hero and darkness. We are one, two are the same and Jekyll and Hyde is real. It is your ego and your imagination. The darkness makes us stronger, it makes the light shine brighter. Know your darkness and learn to balance with it. That way you can create a golden light. 

We all need friends don't we? Start with yourself. 

The darkness I am talking about is my depression; the night I walked into was my fear. I had fear of the past, fear of the present and fear of the future. I feared that I did not have a future. It was one September night over 10 years ago that I walked into the pitch black and faced that fear. I am still here; the fear has subsided.

Fear is the enemy of an empath. What is the usual response to someone who feels the need to commit suicide? It is fear, where it should be compassion. This is fuelled by our modern society and the norms that we have been indoctrinated into. To personally feel suicidal is not a problem except to society, in fact it could be argued that it is a perfectly natural human response to an emotional reaction to the world. We all feel we want to give up at times. It is how we deal with it that creates the problem. By using fear to challenge suicide, we escalate the emotion and make it worse. It is akin to making drugs illegal and pushing them underground, they become something mythical. They become a bigger monster than they actually are. Our society and its need to control and make everyone the same, creates fear of human emotion. 

Being kind to your fears and worries, listening to them and allowing them a bit of space to breathe can help to give them less power. By burying them deep, you push them into some unknown internal space where darkness only grows. Keep those feelings out and they are washed with light, given more time to be shone upon and then the darkness fades. You cannot stop the bad emotions, but you can choose how to respond to them. 

Ultimately your life is in your hands. The myth about suicide or self-harm is that it is an 'in-the-moment' decision, it is not. In fact most are brought to that decision through a series of events and their cloud of negative darkness drives them to one conclusion. It happens over time and it doesn't have to happen. Being scared is not something to be scared of; if you can help and show empathy, or a hint of understanding, that is way more important and can rectify a situation far greater than someone who drags you to the doctor for pills, or who thinks you are mad.

   

Society created madness to control the people it couldn't control; the risk-takers; the questioners; the dreamers; the flyers. 

Just by showing love to a person, and what does that cost, you can change a life. Love is not sex or drama or lust; love is compassion for another person. You can love and not be in love, do not confuse the two; two men can love each other and it is not sexual. They are two men who are compassionate and caring of each other's needs. Empathy is an arm around the shoulder. 

We can change the world through love. All it takes is a little imagination, a lot of determination and plenty of belief. If we channeled the energy of the darkness that we see, you know all the hate and anti-this and that and all the isms that float around, that can be turned to light and given greater power for the greater good. 

You fight hate with love the same way you douse fire with water. Love is calm; love is quiet; love is listening and trying to understand. Hate is none of those things. 

Therefore I ask you that when you head out to work or to a friends house or to the shops, place yourself in a zone of love and see what happens. If you believe in it, and believe that you are surrounded by it, the universe will start to open doors for you that you never realised could be opened up. Do it.

I recently watched a beautiful film on Bluray that I wholly recommend, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood. Tom Hanks is superb as the late Mister Rogers, who entertained children for four decades in the US. Here was a man who was empathic, supportive, understanding, philosophical and mindful of anyone. He taught many children lessons on life and spoke about the things adults find difficult to approach. He is an inspiration, and I find it quite strange that I have seen this movie at this time in my life. 

Being a child of the United Kingdom I did not know of Mister Rogers or his impact. His television show is weirdly similar to my show on Mindful Imagination and his lessons echo the message I am trying to put out there. Watching this movie has inspired me to push my show and online experience further and how I can get it out there during this pandemic. 

A great film, I cannot recommend it enough.

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. 

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