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The book

In landscape - Off Black soft cotton/linen cover

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Part memoir, part science/medical, part spiritual, part nature, part philosophy, policy and politics, part call to action using various concepts, linked to digital online website or platform where they can see videos of me in performance, talking, meditation and also leave and upload their own experiences - total immersion, accessible (to those with ability, location and financial constraints getting to an exhibition) and sustainable. Could be sold in various versions eg large coffee table book (more refined content), smart limited edition, everyday and total immersion with links to website access etc.

 

  • Contents page (each chapter/section will be either numbered or titled, the order of topics of each chapter will be interspersed rather than be linear eg first chapter may be diary excerpts just after meningitis, second chapter may be post -it notes visuals, next might be neuroscience facts, next diary excerpts of days leading up to meningitis, next one a meditation and so on... this will represent how fractured the world seems to someone with a brain injury): 

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  • Chapters/sections:

    • Diary leading up to and after meningitis

    • Chapters will focus on recovery, grief, silence, suicide, aloneness and isolation, perception, love, self acceptance, physical pain, loss of memory, the loss of fear (and how that was freeing as well as terrifying and also caused me to carry out some illegal acts with awareness but the inability to stop myself carrying them out), loss of smell and taste and being unable to walk and remember, tools I intuitively created to heal/overcome/manage, herbal medicine and diet, meditation, breath work and nature therapy (plus ecotherapy), policy and services/falling through the gaps (going from middle class to poverty, home owner to ), power of the mind and imagination, the science to back this up, death and dying, dating, neuroscience, biological and gut science & facts to explain what was happening and so on

    • Poetry

    • Photo stories

    • Fold out of: brain exercises I did: maths, words, shapes, QR code to ones they can do themselves (perhaps there will be a website/social page where they can upload their results)

    • Exercise of car memory game (incl. QR code to video version)

    • Seeds to plant as a gift attached, to represent deep connection to nature/how nature helps us heal (eco-therapy) facts etc, 

    • Facts and scientific data on: nature healing/affecting health, neuroscience,  breath, food/gut, meditation (NSDR), power of visualisation and so on

    • A non sleep deep relaxation (NSDR-yoga nidra) meditation in text and QR code to a recording

    • Various participatory exercises for example:

      • walk with a mirror (perhaps have one of the pages have a reflective mirror effect) facing the sky, walk on the sky;

      • wake yourself up when the moon faces your bedroom window and tell it a secret, give it a wink, what does it say?;

      • explore the wall next to you - how it feels, smells, tastes, against your skin, in your body, listen to its stories, tell it yours; the chair you sit on, get up turn to face it and really look at it - the atoms that vibrate to make it what it is, what it took for it to become a chair in the room you’re in: the sun, the wind, the rain, the seed, the farmer, the axer, the many hands and the many lives those hands touch each day, their hopes and dreams, their tears and sorrows, the technology and minds that have created the ways to chop, design, the lorry, the trains, the planes that needed to be invented all those years ago to get this to you today, the packaging, the sales person, the you - the all that makes the chair 'a chair' in existence to experience itself…how we are all connected, over thousands of years, over thousands of lives

      • In hospital exercises:

        • you can dance, create a group of musicians and performers like i did: using a blink of an eye, the tap of a finger, the voice or two,

        • take your neighbour in their wheelchair and the others too, along for an amble along the ward, note what the smells, what you each see, where you each feel, each give a word in turn to make a story as you go…

      • Readers to share on our social media (and theirs!) their invisible made visible, I AM A WARRIOR/I AM NOT FRAGILE (insert what they are judged as) protest placards, post-its and so on. 

      • 'Confessions' mirror reveal -  (as if an abstract confessional booth) readers 'pull back a curtain' (slide a page revealer) to reveal a mirror and their own image = they confess to themselves..representing each person's own self opinion and self honesty matters, releasing the invisible by making it visible (and making our own sense of ownership, empowerment etc visible to the individual too). 

    • Appendix: further info on invisible disabilities/chronic illness in UK and world, relevant charities, further call to action ie partner with us, raise awareness in your local community by making something invisible visible, make your own Protest /FRAGILE placards via social media, recipe to greek coffee, meditation script/s, brain foods and tools/exercises for brain health.

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Potential future projects:

  • Children/YA/Adult book series:
    I aim to follow my memoir with a children’s (with adult appeal) illustrative book about the brain’s function with the ultimate goal to encourage positive actions that improve brain (and overall) health.  Called Brian and His Orchestra, it is a series of tales of Brian (anagram of brain) the conductor and his orchestra (as a whole the orchestra is a metaphor for the body and every orchestra player/instrument is a body part / organ, relevant cell etc that communicates with the brain). The main premise is to educate readers on the general relationship between different parts of the body and the role each have with the brain and vice versa, and how outside influences can affect each one and thus the overall orchestra eg lack of sleep affecting memory and mood, or asking the brain and body to do too much can fatigue the brain and affect hormones etc, as well as the good stuff too such as how playing outdoors helps hormones of calmness, the importance of getting enough sleep and hugging and laughing increasing serotonin and so on.

    It will also look to explain brain injuries, mental health and other illnesses so prevalent in society and with so little understanding, such as dementia and Alzheimer’s in a more innocent childlike way to give children and adults a better understanding of such conditions as it is increasingly likely they themselves may face directly or indirectly with their peers, parents and grandparents.

    Giving human characteristics and personalities to body parts so that readers can relate with fun tales and end each tale with a piece of music they create together. There is a series idea that can be used here with potential for animation too – using different issues whether it be about actions we take or don’t, environment such as noise and how these affect our brain and body.

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