Insights on endurance, pushing through fear and finding peace. An interview with former Royal Marine and Podcast host Chris Thrall by Ryan Stride With great pleasure I’d like to introduce this interview with former Royal Marines Commando, adventurer, ultra-marathon runner & philanthropist, Chris Thrall. A man with a good mission for humanity, who has spoken candidly about surviving adversity and turning dark times into positive action. An adventurer across seven continents, who has raised awareness and money for several good causes. As well as being a prolific YouTuber and Podcast host, Chris has a degree in youth and community work and a life-changing motivational speaker. He is also the author of 5 books. Chris' path to peace has at times been edgy and difficult but with true spirit he is keen to share his lessons with others who might be struggling and promote the power of peace. RS: Chris great to have you here on The Peace Dimension Blog. Only the other day I was thinking about how the wonderful guests we have had on here, were all invited based on a feeling- a sense that they have something helpful to share and that their energy was in harmony with our own message. When I heard about your journey, your humanitarian work and really your gift of just speaking from an authentic place, I somehow knew our paths might lead to this. Let's see what we can do today! To get things started where's home for you originally? CT: Home originally was South East London, a place called Bromley. RS: Right now, without beating about the bush, the world is in a new and very unpredictable place. Feels a bit like we are in one of those moments before a sports match where a coin has been flipped and we are waiting to see when that coin lands, if humanity wins or loses the toss! I do believe positive change is always possible as more people become awake. How do you feel the world can improve or what can be put into place to facilitate some good steps for our global tribe called humanity? CT: I don't know the answer to that question. Obviously, we are in a system that is controlled by a certain set of people so, whatever we do has to be outside of that system, because as we all know you can't change a system using a system that is- the one you want to change. So, off the top of my head... an alkaline diet is the most single important change anyone can make in their life. Learn your body's alkalinity...if you don't, you can't enter what's called the kundalini spirit, which raises you to a place in life where, rather than you becoming a struggler, you become a leader. Meditation obviously is another one. I think you talk more about this, Ryan. Detach yourself from the stresses and strains of society and realise that you are a part of the universe. Your molecules have always been a part of that universe and always will be, and that you can't actually go anywhere. What that does is it reduces the fear and it makes you appreciate what a beautiful creation this is. When I say you can't go anywhere, obviously, I mean you can't die. So, it's an alkaline diet, meditation, avoiding drinking and drugs; love yourself unconditionally and love all others- which might mean you have to practice forgiveness. Also, practice gratitude- gratitude for this one chance at life. The way I do that is- I smile at the morning sun every day without fail. I say 'thank you mother nature for this brilliant chance at life'. If you do that, you change from within and that is the only change, I think. RS: With the physically demanding Commando training that you underwent and your participation in ultra-marathons, you are someone who knows a lot about physical and mental endurance. Does your endurance training play a part in your relationship with peace? CT: Yes. Endurance, if you think about it, you only endure something if you're going to get something at the other side of it. If your enduring torture, it's because at the other side of it that's your life right! And you want to live. If you're enduring a Royal Marine's thirty miles across Dartmoor, that's because you want the Green Beret at the end of it. You don't want to be a failure, right.. So, you only endure stuff when you get something at the end of it, in my mind. Well for me life has been all about lifelong learning to find that elusive peace. So, by reading, by listening, by logicing and by experimenting I finally got to that place. Where does the endurance come in? Well it comes in because I could have given up at any stage along the way. I could have just gone back to watching soap operas and driving fast cars thinking 'ha'! But no, I stuck at it. It took, well it's hard to say, really, but let's just say thirty years to learn to live in paradise. All I can say to anyone is, well, if you're on the planet for eighty years ,thirty years is quite a small investment, relatively speaking, right. It means you get to live fifty years in paradise. RS: Chris around the globe now the feeling of fear, worries about what happens next and financial stress must be hitting a lot of homes. You are a man who knows what destruction stress can do and you know how fear can present rifts in society. You are also someone who can openly say he has faced fear in so many ways and got through it. So, what advice could you share right now about fear? CT: Fear is a very powerful tool that is used to maintain the status quo in life. So the sociopaths that believe they control the whole game, or at least want to control mankind, wield fear- you make people scared, then they demand of the very people, or their agents that are creating the fear, for the solution to the fear, right.... We have all heard problem, reaction, solution, so, don't be scared. What are you scared of? There's nothing to be scared of. You can't go anywhere. Death is an illusion. Your molecules have always been here and they will always be here. This is just a form. That's all it is. This is like water in a cup. You throw that water out... It's still water if it evaporates, it still molecules of H2O, right . Once you start thinking along these lines like you're a part of the universe then there's nothing to be afraid of. In addition, stop watching the news. It won't help you because it is not the truth. It's a manipulation of the truth and if it's a manipulation of the truth by definition it cannot be true, right. So, if someone is manipulating the truth well, they are doing it for their aim, there's absolutely no point clogging your head with something that's untrue. It's not going to help you and its definitely not going to help your children. So, stop watching the news; they just want you to be afraid. And if you have a fear- turn around and face it head on and charge through it. You will find that there was nothing to be scared about. The vast majority of fear we create in our own heads. I'm not talking about charging into an angry bear, that's a good idea of when to have fear! RS: That makes sense. Best keep away from those bears! I like the way Chris that in your YouTube interviews you speak from the heart. You have interviewed some really interesting people from singer Robbie Williams to ex-SBS soldiers Ollie Olerton and Duncan Falconer and former SAS member Louis Rudd MBE but regardless of who you speak to you always come across as your own authentic voice refreshingly free of plastic talk! It was cool that Robbie made the effort to do that interview and can see your guests also came across as open souls wanting to share something real. It was refreshing to see this. You have accomplished a lot in your life brother. But what’s next for Chris? CT: What's next for me? I'm just going to continue living in paradise. As I said, it took me thirty years to get here and once you are in paradise you can never leave, which is a nice thing. I am going to continue enjoying my work... meeting interesting people. I will continue writing books. I only ever had one goal. On top of all, my bucket list, as you probably know from my bio, I have achieved every single thing. Every single goal I have ever had I have just gone out and achieved it and most if it was... relatively easy. But, I had one goal which was to make enough money to pay my bills every month. And now obviously I have achieved that so... I don't really need anything more. I am not on a crusade. So yeah, keep writing the books, keep the YouTube channel, keep meeting interesting people, keep developing myself, keep doing the meditation, keep the alkaline diet, never watch the news, never vote in a phoney system of democracy...So yeah hope that makes sense. RS: I like the charitable cause you represent- looking after veterans and helping them cope and prevent tragedy. PTSD is a very real thing and you are trying to raise awareness about this right? I understand you are teaming up with Jason Fox who is former SBS (Special Boat Squadron) and has a very likeable media presence about him - to help address this problem. I can see you being a powerful team. Could you share more on this please Chris? CT: So, I ran the length of Britain. I ran an ultramarathon a day... sleeping on the side of the road. Took me 37 days to run the length of Britain. I did that to raise awareness of veteran suicide. I think it was about 18,000 pounds for the Baton charity. I did a quadruple iron man for my 50th birthday with only 8 weeks training. Again, to raise awareness of veteran's suicide and to raise funds for Rock2Recovery. which is Jason Fox's charity. He is one partners of it. Jamie Sanderson, another ex-Marine, is the other partner. Also, next year we plan to cycle the toughest mountain bike route in the world. So that's north to south across America down the continental divide. I have approached Jason about that. He agreed to come on board. Obviously, its early days. I will also be cycling that with a former police detective named Brad. RS: Interestingly a very special lady I interviewed recently Stephanie Spence is a yogini and author and she lives in Coronado in USA . That’s where the US Navy SEALS have a base right? So was thinking they could do with someone like that helping with relaxation and de stress techniques. I also cover a variety of meditations in my book The Peace Dimension to help people rediscover relaxation and build a positive outlook. As someone who has been part of an elite fighting force what are your thoughts on the use of old health practises like Yoga to help modern day soldiers cope with the pressure thrown at them? CT: Yeah you know the best way to support modern day soldiers is to obviously stop sending them to these bogus wars. But until people see the truth and somehow, I don't profess to know how, we can educate people as to what war really is, as opposed to what the media portray it as, we are going to keep sending our young people to slaughter other young people to make the sociopaths even richer, or even more powerful, I should say. I think anybody can learn by the ancient health practises like yoga; as with mindfulness; as with eating a healthy diet. Yeah, I think probably far more effective than other treatments out there...but I don't know a lot about it. RS: Chris seems you gather a lot of inspiration based on the lessons you have learnt along your path. I’m wondering if anyone motivates or influences your way of doing things. Could you name three people who inspire you right now? CT: I am not sure. Ryan that's a real tough one. I mean you ask me who my all-time hero is it's Tarzan. I think if you look at the way I live my life you'll see why. That's a real difficult one! I will say probably Joe Rogan inspired me to start a podcast and that was because I saw somebody living the dream, really. You know, getting to live a healthy, active lifestyle full of adventure and sport and paying for it; by chatting to wonderful people from all around the world; basically all your heroes. So that was inspiration behind the podcast. There are people that I admire but I'll be honest I think I inspire myself.... I just always inspired myself because I have been so different from everybody else. My life has been through such extremes... Ah Jesus! That's a good one isn't it. You know the story of Jesus inspires me to never be afraid and to have compassion. Yeah there you go. No, I am not Christian and I am not religious!! RS: Yes, I think get where you are coming from with that! You having also written some books and I know that in Eating Smoke you share about your descent and experiences in Hong Kong. Was it hard for you to write about these experiences or was it actually a liberating process? CT: No. It wasn't hard, but here's the thing. I am writing about trauma that was 15 years previous so, I should have been well into the healing process, where the mind blocks out traumatic memories right? But what am I doing? I am reliving that trauma every single day for the year and a half that it took me to write that book. I'm a tough guy so it's not like you're ever going hear me complain about any of my experiences in life, or any of my tough experiences .They are just experiences for me. There are experiences and there are 'experiences'. Again, it's the people who control you that want to label good or bad... Whereas if you look at my life it's kind of hard to see anything bad about it. I mean I've got a gorgeous family; I love myself unconditionally. I live in paradise. I get to do the things that I like to do... So yeah, writing the book was reliving the trauma every day, that I should have buried. It was ultimately liberating because had I not embarked on that process then I wouldn't have started to get involved in media, and then I wouldn't have started my YouTube channel, and then it wouldn't lead to where I am now. I hope that answers your question Ryan. Life is rarely simple or maybe it is- we don't see it, do we... RS: Yes, seems life is a simple but beautiful mystery also. I get the impression that you definitely wear the warrior t-shirt but you are also value peace immensely. In The Peace Dimension book - beyond the meditations I share in it, is this concept of a place beyond judgement- a place of power and deep stillness…outside of the illusions. Can I ask you, Chris- what does The Peace Dimension represent to you? CT: I am a warrior for peace I would say. I am a warrior for the truth. I am a warrior for love. I am a warrior for gratitude. This is what we should be fighting for. These are things worth fighting for. Land, oil, and opium, the central banking system are not things we should be chasing. So, what does The Peace Dimension represent for me? In a nutshell, it's the ability to close my eyes and realise that I live in paradise- to spend just that few moments tuning in with the eternal energy of the universe, aligning my every molecule with all the billions upon billions of other ones that go to make up this beautiful universe. That's peace. That's peace for me. And obviously as a result of that I'm feeling gratitude. RS: Chris, thank you for sharing. It's been really interesting to do this interview with you and I wish you peace, good health and continued success sharing your message. Stay safe and go onto more great things. CT: Thank you. Peace, love and smile at the morning sun. Chris's YouTube channel is: https://www.youtube.com/user/christhrallauthor Chris’ website is : www.christhrall.com The Peace Dimension by Ryan Stride is available on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk Copyright © Ryan Stride 2020 All rights reserved Comments are closed.
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AuthorBorn in London, England, Ryan wishes to share with people how the mystical can be found in the moment, allowing great things to happen. Ryan is also a writer and social commentator who is currently working on a script and several new book titles. ArchivesCategories |