Evening all, I hope you’re all well,

Just a few house keeping bits and bobs to get through!

SO as well as blogging here from a personal point of view, i’ve now started to do a bit of freelance work for Roll Models BJJ! A Great comp which grows bigger and bigger each time and they also do a blog! My first post for them is now live and you can read it here: http://rollmodels.co.uk/blog/time-off/

Jiujitsu wise, I am now back on the mats drilling and rolling lights, as well as helping Paul teach Fundamentals on Monday whilst my hand gets back to 100%. From now im in prep for making up for lost time comp wise towards the second half of the year, with the big one of the Euro Nogi’s in October, i plan on competing early october at the UKBJJA international in Cardiff, as well as the Dublin Open in November (coinciding with a trip to Dublin to see Ghost!) so im pretty excited.

But today, i’ll be writing a blog about escapism, be it on the mats, at the table, behind a keyboard, mouse or controller, or deep into your favourite book, i’ll be addressing the escape from reality, regardless of how good reality is, i think its important for the human mind to escape from time to time.

So what is escapism, the Szymanski Dictionary defines escapism as escaping from the real world for a bit an immersing ones self into a setting where you can be someone else.

How do I do it? well, as 99.9% of all blog readers or people who know me, know that my escapism is Jiujitsu, D&D & heavy metal and now up until recently World of Warcraft (again, yep, im back into it in the wake of classic WoW coming back) and since being injured with my hand, running. I’ll give a breakdown of how and why that escapism works for me

Jiujitsu

So the big one for me, as an advocate for escapism is of course Jiujitsu. Its no lie that 24 months ago i was in a bad way physically and mentally and a doctor told me that I needed to go on medication* and potentially attend therapy to keep my demons at bay, never fully diagnosed but this was due to anxiety, triggered by myself. ANYWHO, it was around the same time I discovered Jiujitsu which then lead onto everything else that came with it. But it ultimately is escapism and therapy for me, once i step on the mats, its myself and my training partners, doing what we love, for upto 2 hours an evening, I leave anything that made be urking me off the mats and just have a fantastic time with some of my best friends, it may not look like that from the outside sometimes, but on the inside, I know a lot of people are in the same boat as me. Ive also started to have incredible amount of fun with my jiujitsu, since getting my blue belt, i think i put a bit too much unnecessary

*DISCLAIMER! This does NOT mean that the doctor was wrong, again, ive spoke about it before, this was a completely personal option for me, if you feel you need to get extra help in the form of medical or CBT please do, its okay not to be okay and i support any decision you make to better yourself!*

Dungeons & Dragons

Second one on the ‘ol list is D&D, as some of you know, I DM a few campaigns as well as play different characters in the fantasy world of dungeons and dragons. To essentially play as someone else, is ideal escapism, you throw yourself into a fantasy world with no judgement from your peers. Yes it gets stressful at times, as does real life, yes you can have fun, like in real life, but it isnt real life, you are someone else, a character, that you can put time and effort into and really immerse yourself in. For me, it was Belmont, idiot vampire hunter, for now (new character) its Kamura (Kammie for short) Lesbian, ripped, half elf Rogue, trying to get away from a life she doesnt want to live, by finding new friends and adventures, Escapism within escapism? Escapception?! This is applies to the creation of worlds, characters, painting, scenery making, map making and discussions I have with my players when putting my dungeon master hat on, i often dont have time to think about anything else when I’m knee deep in dropbox files and homebrew items.

World Of Warcraft

Much like D&D, another route of escapism for me, is the world of warcraft, it has been (probably a bit too much!) Since i was 13 from pretty much the day of release. Ive played multiple characters, across multiple accounts & servers, ive PVE (player versus environment, questing, dungeon etc ) PVP (player vs player, battlegrounds arenas etc) and RP (Roleplaying servers) across the years ive been a player, on and off, its always been escapism for me, 15 years, 7 expansions and a revisit to the vanilla game coming in the end of August, i dont see my time in Azeroth halting any time soon.

Heavy Metal

So as many of you know, my favourite genre of music is metal, thrash, groove, doom, goth, progressive, death, black and my all time favourite genre of metal, Power Metal.

For me, metal and especially live metal, has been a form of escapism because I can lose myself in the an hour of a half/two hours of live music, with so many like minded people, its amazing, its often euphoric, it doesn’t matter what creed, colour, back ground you come from, language you speak, you can escape the real world for a while with loads of very like minded people who quickly become friends, its why ive often made comparisons to the metal community & the Jiujitsu community, in the fact of the study of human nature between a common interest. A Good example of this is one of my favourite live sets, from one of my favourite live bands, at my favourite U.K Festival

On the subject, as I mentioned earlier, my favourite sub-genre of metal is Power Metal, metal very much based around the fantasy genre, taking lyrical and conceptional influence from fantasy literature, for me, live is amazing, but on record, to sit down and really listen to the lyrics and be whisked off to Middle-earth, with guitar solos, nothing better!

My favourite band of all time, Coheed & Cambria, span all across these genres and being a conceptional band also, its very easy to get lost in their music

Running, exercise & Strength And Conditioning

More so recently from a solo point of view, due to my hand being knackered, ive taken up running again, usually 5k, whacking on my headphones and not stopping until my watch tells me I reach the 5k mark is absolutely fantastic for escapism, Im very lucky to live in a fantastic city where the scenery around my house especially is stunning, which certainly makes escaping a lot easier, my soundtrack will often by heavy, as discussed earlier, but ive also been taking slower, longer walks with a playlist of some of my favourite game and film soundtracks, LOTR, Skyrim, Pillars of eternity, The Witcher, Warcraft and taking all this beautiful scenery in.

Another form of physical exercise in regards to escapism is the strength and conditioning side of things, obviously, the last few weeks have been solo sessions and I am super super excited to get back into my coached sessions now my hands almost there, but both have a good amount of escapism within them, again, whether sticking on your headphones and smashing out dead lifts, or its an assault bike challenge against the other people in your coached group, again, this is harping back to what i said about the metal community, people bonding over a similar goal or interest.

So, how do you guys escape? do you do similar things to me, or something completely different, comment here, message me on FB, instagram, twitter, send me a letter! talk to me in person, escape reality whenever you can but make sure theres a balance between the too!

Cheers for reading guys

Maks