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Recently the music industry has started talking about mental health. After many tragedies losing incredibly talented people in the music industry due to mental health issues, artists and the music industry people are finally talking about very stigmatized issues. I feel like you can never talk too much about mental health, and very often those of us who work hard behind the scenes are often forgotten, and I believe that we also need to start talking about our general and mental health.
In an ideal world, we would always sleep eight hours per night, eat nourishing food five times a day and exercise four times a week, but unfortunately, the world is not always ideal.
Sleep, food, and exercise are three critical factors when it comes to our mental health. It is easy to neglect all of these three things when working long hours when you have a tight schedule or if you need to meet a deadline.
Some periods in life will be busier than others, but you will be handling stress a lot better if you prioritise at least one of the three things.
Setting new habits can take some time, but if you start with one thing at least, the rest will follow eventually.
‘I’m sorry, but I can’t make it, I’m working’ – You hear yourself saying this often?
Having unsocial work hours can take an extreme toll on your mental health. Although a lot of our work can be incredibly social and we meet loads of fantastic people, nothing beats spending time with your absolute best friends and family.
The guilt you might feel when you are unable to attend family gatherings, birthdays, baby showers or drinks at the local pub can weigh you down. Often we have to choose work before friends and family because we all need to pay rent and feed ourselves. But hopefully, we also love what we do!
But don’t neglect your loved ones either. Set aside a day or two a month to catch up with your people. Make a phone call or send a message, reach out! Especially if your mental health is not tip top or theirs for that matter — support one another.
Someone described me as ‘Olive is 24/7’ and when I first heard it, I felt pride. I thought that makes me dependable and that I can sort out any situation at any time of the day at anywhere in the world.
But I quickly realised that no one should have to be available 24 hours, seven days a week, 365 days a year. Not even Olive.
Setting boundaries are essential; if you’re not supposed to work, then don’t. Of course, there might be an emergency, and we have to step in, but how many times has an actual crisis occurred? I can count mine on one hand. Trust me; most things can wait.
Having some time off is crucial. Otherwise, it will lead you to be burned out. If you do not give yourself space, you won’t be able to evaluate what is going on in your life, and frankly, we all need to deal with what is going on, no matter how uncomfortable we are with it.
Alcohol is a big part of the live entertainment industry.
As a musician or a sound engineer, it is not uncommon to receive free drinks, in a lot of cases sometimes that is the only payment that you get.
Sometimes after you worked a 15-hour shift, you feel like you deserve a drink, especially as it might have been a challenging day and all of your patience has just run out. Or you’ve had a fantastic show or completed a full tour, and you’d like to celebrate with a couple of drinks, of course, you deserve that!
However, when consumed several days a week we need to step back and look at our consumption.
If you did not already know, alcohol is a depressant. So if consumed too often it will affect your mental and physical health.
These are only a few aspects of one’s life that can affect your mental and physical health, but more importantly, most of the above are things we can control ourselves. Change starts within yourself.
Care about yourself as much as you care about your work.
If you are not doing well, then take a step back and take a day off if you can. There is also plenty of help to get, both online and through counselling.
10 Mindfulness Practices from Powerful Women
British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy
National Suicide Prevention Lifeline
Top 25 Best Mental Health Apps: An Effective Alternative for When You Can’t Afford Therapy
Another great article by SoundGirls: The Importance of Reference Tracks
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The mission of SoundGirls.org is to inspire and empower the next generation of women in audio. Our mission is to create a supportive community for women in audio and music production, providing the tools, knowledge, and support to further their careers. SoundGirls.Org was formed in 2013 by veteran live sound engineers Karrie Keyes and Michelle Sabolchick Pettinato and operates under the Fiscal Sponsorship of The California Women’s Music Festival, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. In 2012, Karrie and Michelle participated in the “Women of Professional Concert Sound” panel at the AES Conference in San Francisco. The panel was hosted by the Women’s Audio Mission (WAM) and moderated by WAM founder Terri Winston. Terri brought together five women working in live and broadcast audio. The groundbreaking panel (which also included Jeri Palumbo, Claudia Engelhart and Deanne Franklin), provided young women and men a glimpse into life on the road, tips and advice, and a Q & A with the panelists. More importantly though, was how incredibly powerful the experience was for the panelists. We had all been in the business for 20 years or more, yet most of us had never met before that day and within minutes we bonded like long-lost sisters. We were struck by how similar our experiences, work ethics, and passions were and wondered why our paths had never crossed and how our careers would have been different had we been there to support each other through the years. Each of us are strong on our own, but together we were even stronger and a powerful force. We were empowered. Each of us had been asked hundreds of times in our careers: Are there other women doing sound? How did you get into sound? How would a young woman go about getting into sound? Through creating SoundGirls.Org, we hope to establish a place for women working in professional audio to come for support and advice, to share our success and failures, our joys and frustrations, and for empowerment and inspiration.
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