Calm Your Mind E-Book

Ravenous Butterflies

• Herausgeber: Batsford
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 70

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Calm Your Mind uses the power of art and ideas to quieten your racing mind and help you achieve a deep inner sense of stillness. This exquisite book, the second from the hugely popular online emotional wellbeing community Ravenous Butterflies, is the perfect companion for those times when you're feeling agitated, overstimulated and troubled by daily stresses and worries. It showcases a beautiful selection of 80 tranquil yet stirring landscapes, portraits and abstracts from artists and illustrators both famous and obscure, including Augustus John, Laura Knight, Emile Claus and Nikolay Nikanorovich Dubovskoy, paired with inspiring quotations from authors such as Haruki Murakami, Rabindranath Tagore, Maya Angelou and L.M. Montgomery. The contents page is artfully divided into 18 calming journeys that suggest routes in which to navigate the book to help you cope with different emotional situations. Feeling burnt out after a hard day at work? Struggling with sleeplessness? Unable to concentrate? There's an inspiring solution for all these issues and more within the pages of this wonderful book.

Leseprobe

Odilon Redon, Ophelia among the Flowers, 1905–1908

The journey finder

Travel through your emotional innerscape; explore places and feelings along the way using this useful ‘journey finder’. Simply match the emotion to the page number. You never know where you might land, or what you’ll discover along the way.

ACCEPTANCE

18–19, 132–133

GRATITUDE

12–13, 72–73, 90–91

LOVE

32–33, 38–39, 68–69, 104–105, 140–141, 148–149, 158–159, 162–163

AWE

22–23, 34–35, 48–49, 58–59

HOPE

44–45, 74–75, 96–97, 136–137

NATURE

22–23, 36–37, 64–65, 118–119, 168–169

BECOMING

24–25, 52–53, 76–77, 108–109, 122–123, 126–127

INSPIRATION

30–31, 34–35, 60–61, 100–101, 144–145, 166–167

OPTIMISM

28–29, 70–71, 86–87, 110–111

CALM

56–57, 112–115, 138–139, 164–165, 170–171

JOY

58–59, 80–81, 102–103, 142–143

SELF-LOVE

42–43, 82–83, 88–89, 98–99, 128–129, 160–161

COURAGE

26–27, 46–49, 106–107, 124–125

KINDNESS

16–17, 50–51, 120–121, 150–151, 154–155

WELLNESS

20–21, 114–115, 146–147, 156–157

FRIENDSHIP

62–63, 78–79, 134–135

LOSS

54–55, 66–67, 84–85, 116–117, 130–131, 152–153

WISDOM

40–41, 92–93

Welcome to Calm Your Mind by Ravenous Butterflies, an exploratory journey to encourage mindfulness through the transformative power of art. At times in my life, ‘keep calm and carry on’ was my daily mantra. It felt like there was always something or someone to fix, a dilemma to unravel and ominous feelings lurking – until now. I’m sure many of you can relate to this; I’m here to reassure you that life does move on, and one day, you’ll look back and see how far you or those around you have come. Thankfully, I’ve moved on, and my fears have shifted; I’ve found a place of inner peace and absolute calm.

A couple of decades ago, I was morbidly obese and put my life at risk and everything else on the back burner. I had to disconnect myself from myself to survive, and each day was a monumental struggle. It felt as though my head was tethered to my neck by a long string, like a balloon floating aimlessly over my vast body. I couldn’t walk without crutches and used a wheelchair; people would poke fun at me or turn away; I was enormously invisible. Life is unbearably hard when you’re that size; you don’t fit into clothes, chairs don’t fit around you and I felt I didn’t fit in. How and why did I get into that state? That’s a long story for another time, but I’m better than ever now. My children have their mother back, and thankfully, my head is firmly reattached to the rest of me!

Today, I’m grounded, centred and connected to what is important. I’m grateful to the therapy that helped rewire my thoughts and belief systems; it gave me a deluxe toolbox equipped with better skills. The tools I cherish most are love and self-worth; they are the root of confidence, courage and forgiveness. I’ve learned to own my decision-making and take full responsibility for it. The blame game is pointless; you can’t fix what you don’t face.

James Jebusa Shannon, The Purple Stocking, c.1894

These experiences have been a gift; I’m determined to pay it forward. When you face your mortality, it’s surprising how sharply things come into focus. Sure, I’ve faced many difficulties along the way, with divorce, bereavement and much more. But I’m a person whose cup is always half full, and these experiences have made me who I am and given me unique objectives and vigour to succeed, even at my age! I wish I could time travel and reassure my younger self (and my children) that everything works out how it is meant to in the end. The lessons I learned from those bleak years were extreme, but they have enabled me to cherish the good days and made them all the sweeter.

In the process of becoming me, I’ve shed half my body weight, along with countless tears, sweat and layers of skin. With each new skin, I have become a more whole, self-determining and defined woman.

Throughout all of this, the one thing that has shined on consistently in my life is my love of the arts. Art and books have been my refuge and healing balm in the darkest times. Whenever the world became too cruel for me, I’d take myself off to a gallery or curl up and read or write. Having graduated in art, painting is my happy place, and I’m delighted that my children have become wonderful artists and creatives, too. When they were young, I couldn’t play sports with them, so we’d sit around the kitchen table, and I’d draw whatever they wanted so they could colour in and get the glue and glitter out! Invariably, they asked for princesses, fairies and mermaids; they are adults now, and nothing much has changed! We would always make up a story to accompany the characters or play music, such warm memories.

Today, my children are adults, and all four of us access art to improve our mood and help our mental health. I get immense joy visiting galleries and museums with them; what better way to calm your mind and nurture love than to immerse yourself in the beauty of art with your children?

I’m confident this will continue for generations; it’s part of our DNA. John Keats defines this with such grace in his poem ‘Endymion’ (1818).

A thing of beauty is a joy for ever:

Its loveliness increases; it will never

Pass into nothingness; but still will keep

A bower quiet for us, and a sleep

Full of sweet dreams, and health, and quiet breathing.

Finding a sense of calm in the maelstrom of life is a necessary antidote. Escaping for a few moments each day and immersing myself in the beauty of art has saved my life. It has given me the ability to think and see more clearly and take time to enjoy simple pleasures. We don’t have to run around at a million miles an hour; we can make defined choices to improve our lives when we are calm. The benefit to our physical health is tangible, too.

I’m as fearless as I can be now, but not as fearless as I will become. There is so much to look forward to and much potential to achieve as I glide into my autumn years. Age is a remarkable thing; I’ve finally grown into the person I always knew I could be, which is wonderfully liberating!

You, too, can find inner calm through art and literature. So, take a deep breath, snuggle down and turn off to the outside world; this is your special space to enrich your life and Calm Your Mind.

Relax and breathe…This is for you,

Love always,Lisa Azarmi,founder of Ravenous Butterflies

‘Touch the earth, love the earth, honour the earth, her plains, her valleys, her hills, and her seas; rest your spirit in her solitary places. For the gifts of life are the earth’s and they are given to all, and they are the songs of birds at daybreak, Orion and the Bear, and dawn seen over ocean from the beach.’

Henry Beston, from The Outermost House (1928)

Frank Dicksee, On the Brittany Coast

‘When I got to the library I came to a standstill, – ah, the dear room, what happy times I have spent in it rummaging amongst the books, making plans for my garden, building castles in the air, writing, dreaming, doing nothing.’

Elizabeth von Arnim, from Elizabeth and Her German Garden (1898)

Félix Vallotton, The Library, 1921

‘Shall we make a new rule of life from tonight: always try to be a little kinder than is necessary?’

J.M. Barrie, from The Little White Bird (1902)

Edwin Harris, Sweet Dreams, 1892

‘I drank of the darkness, I was fed with the honey of fragrance,

I was glad of my life, the drawing of breath was sweet;

I heard your voice, you said, ‘Look down, see the glow-worm!’

It was there before me, a small star white at my feet.’

Sara Teasdale, ‘August Night’, from Dark of the Moon