the shed as thought

In this fast, demanding world our five senses are like five thieves - they rob us of inner experiences such as peace, meditation and tranquillity every day. The shed can be a secure place of refuge from the strident demands of commerce, finance, and social pressures.  A place where the busy mind, stretched like a rubber-band to breaking point, can let go.

It has been said that many of the problems of the world arise due to the inability of most people to sit quietly in a room on their own. The shed can provide a sanctuary where the individual can sit alone and allow the mind to become still.

Quiet times such as this are a tremendous opportunity for allowing creative and healing mind-patterns to develop. Such times are not wasted, fruitless nor unimportant. Rather, they provide fertile ground for the imagination to roam, a setting for connections to be made, a time away from the insistent demands of rampant materialism.

The shed has a role here as healer of the spirit as well as the mind and body. Utilized to its full potential, the shed can enable us to find our way back through the confusing labryinth, back to the light, back to the ground and experience of our true inner being.

The shed can offer us the opportunity of sitting loose to life, with the iPhone and other intrusions left at the door, whilst those mental faculties such as intuition and imagination, which may have been pushed aside, are allowed to creep from their hiding places to nurture and inspire us to greater things than the accumulation of yet more material possessions.

In this state of reviere “information flows more easily between your conscious, subconscious, and unconscious, increasing intuition, insight, and healing abilities...” bringing a sense of “equanimity, balance, self-possession,  self-assurance and presence of mind that brings calmness, peacefullness, and tranquillity.”

One of the most sacred texts of Eastern philosophy (the Dhammapadma, verse 1) succinctly points out: “All that we are is the result of what we have thought. We are compounded of our thoughts, made up of our thoughts.”

Remember:

the role of sheds

Here are a few ideas which came to me the other day while I was refurbishing an old wooden plane at the Men's Shed North Shore:

..........the shed as resource, the shed as meditation, the shed as potential, the shed as haven, the shed as peace, the shed as retreat, the shed as sanctuary, the shed as refuge, the shed as stillness, the shed as possibilities, the shed as creative space, the shed as nurturing, the shed as cave, the shed as castle, he shed as opportunity, the shed as workshop, the shed as studio, the shed as dream-space, the shed as healer, the shed as companion, the shed as friend, the shed as problem-solver, the shed as escape, the shed as inspiration, the shed as motivation, the shed as time-out-of-mind, the shed as succor, the shed as solace, the shed as respite, the shed as calming, the shed as happiness, the shed as mucking about, the shed as tinkering, the shed as repairing, the shed as  building, the shed as inventing, the shed as constructing, the shed as reflection, the shed as repository, the shed as musing, the shed as meaning, the shed as connection, the shed as experience, the shed as learning, the shed as discovering, he shed as grounding, the shed as the past, the shed as the present, the shed as the future, the shed as history, the shed as ancestor, the shed as grandfather, the shed as father, the shed as uncle, the shed as son, the shed as healing. the shed as company, the shed as stories, the shed as make-do, the shed as strength, the shed as bonding, the shed as magic, the shed as achieving the impossible, the shed as creation, the shed as day-dream, the shed as time-capsule, the shed as tranquillity, the shed as companion, the shed as stillness, the shed as portal, the shed as eternity.......

three new shed videos

Have a look at my shed youtube channel for three more videos from my 2013 North Island Shed tour: Wainuiomata, Naenae, and Eastbourne.

 www.youtube.com/user/menssheds2000