Viva Brighton Issue #85 March 2020

BITS AND BOOKS
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BOOK REVIEW: IMAGINE EATING LEMONS
Imagine eating lemons.
Can you feel your face
scrunching up a little and
your mouth watering? It’s
an exercise Jason Rhodes
likes to use as an example of
how powerful our thoughts
can be. It’s also the motif
of his new picture book,
which introduces children
to the concept of mindfulness
via a character called Chester Chestnut.
Chester is a cheerful chap ‘but sometimes his
tummy hurts. A tiny thought will grow and grow
and make him feel much worse’. Situations that
make his tummy hurt include starting school,
having to perform in a talent show, and thinking
about losing his pet. He starts to learn ways to
deal with those feelings, from slowly taking a
deep breath in, to listening to the noises around
him, until the tummy ache goes away. “It’s not
about making kids sit and meditate but about
becoming aware of how thoughts can make us
feel,” says Brighton-based Rhodes. “It’s about
giving them some simple tools, really, to deal with
situations where we feel scared, or worried.”
The book seems to have come at just the right
time. Mindfulness – in which one purposefully
attempts to bring one’s focus to the present moment
– is already popular with adults as a means
of dealing with stress, anxiety and depression.
Now the government is trialling mindfulness
lessons in schools. “We tend to think of kids as
living in the moment – and that’s probably true in
a lot of cases – but when they start to get to about
seven or eight, and certainly when they reach the
teenage years, they often become more self-conscious
and that’s when
anxiety can start to arise.”
Rhodes was 14 when he
first experienced anxiety
(he’s 34 now). “I didn’t
know that’s what it was
called though. I just felt sick
and on edge. As I got older
it started to happen more
and more.” He was working
as an actor when it reached
a peak. “Performing especially made me feel incredibly
anxious and insecure. At my worst I was
physically sick with worry.” When he eventually
discovered mindfulness, it changed everything.
“Suddenly I had these tools to deal with feelings
that had seemed overwhelming.”
He thinks these are skills that should be taught
from childhood, when our brains are more malleable.
“If kids can learn when they’re young
that they are not their thoughts, if they can
learn ways to return to their bodies when their
brains are buzzing, they’ll have the ability to go
into adulthood more aware, more present, and
more content.”
Inspired? The practice of mindfulness doesn’t
need to be a full-time project, says Rhodes.
“Anything can be an opportunity to take a step
back – even washing your hands. You can focus
on the sensation of the water, listen to the sound
of it going down the plughole, think about the
way the towel feels on your hands. It’s about
introducing these moments of mindfulness and
connection throughout the day, so it becomes a
habit.” Nione Meakin
Imagine Eating Lemons, Happy Sapling Books:
facebook.com/happysaplingbooks
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