The measures that have been put into place , in all countries worldwide due to Covid, most certainly have taken a mental toll on us . Depression and anxiety has boomed globally and we are all feeling the mental effects of Covid. We are living in an age of a global pandemic where millions of people are dying , in some way we have all been affected by this . This in turn has caused us all great trauma , we have either lost someone close to us or have seen the results of someone infected with this deadly disease as well as depression and anxiety from the fact that we are unable to be on ‘contact’ with one another or live our lives ‘normally’ . Living day to day has been a struggle . Allot of us are also financially feeling the blow of Covid , businesses are losing sales or in some cases have been forced to shut or even worse have to close down their businesses entirely .
With all of this going on around us , I think its natural to feel depressed. Us as humans are not meant to be living isolated lives , whereby we are not allowed to touch , hug or kiss our friends/loved ones. We are emotional creatures who cannot function without human contact . We are social beings and our brains are meant to function socially . This is at least how I see things and how I have felt this past year . If any of you feel the same , know that you are not alone , I too have been ‘there’ and in my opinion I think majority of the world has too .
I recently have found a little ‘workaround’ depression and/or anxiety that has helped me to become more focused and happier during these tiring times. I have adapted my daily life and routine to keep me from going down that ‘dark hole’ and I’d thought I’d share with you all what I have done and also the results of what I have done to change my ‘normal’ routes of thinking and my day to day life to perhaps help you in your own struggle during these difficult times.
One thing I have learnt about being in lockdown is that I am a very sociable person and need human contact in my life . And seeing that we cant be social or go out anywhere , I decided to direct my frustration into something much more productive . My ideology is to be FOCUSED . In everything I do I always have this one single word in my head, FOCUS. This is what is driving me everyday . To elaborate more on this I have taken it into a sense of not being distracted and FOCUS on what is and should be more important to me . By being distracted I’m talking about not wasting valuable time on things that are either irrelevant or don’t bring any happiness in my life. Its very easy to get distracted in today’s world of social media .
With regards to social media what I have done is the following :
1) Instagram: I only follow pages that inspire me or that are focused on things I love and bring joy and inspiration into my life (eg. following other music producers who I admire)
2) Facebook: I have ‘unfollowed’ those people who all day only post complaints, or are so self absorbed that all they do is post selfies every 5 minutes . Instead what I have done is joined some really nice groups related to the music industry where we chat and ask questions and opinions with regards to the music industry . This has also helped me allot with some of my productions and problems that I have had .
Instead I am focused on my music career and my job .These 2 things for me are what make me happy . I make sure that the 2 don’t collide with one another but instead compliment one another . Having being focused on my music career I find I am not wasting time sitting on Facebook or Instagram all day looking at peoples profiles who mean absolutely nothing to me (in some cases really piss me off). But if I do find myself on social media , because I only have people/groups that I follow who make me happy or inspire me, what usually happens is I’ll see a post from a producer I admire and then will get motivated to start working on a track , or I might see someone who has a problem with a certain VST with whom I can help , and it goes on . Basically what I am trying to say is that when ever I’m on social media all I’ll see are things that don’t piss me off but instead make me happy or motivate me. And now that I am more focused I instead have now got into a steady stream of producing tracks on a daily basis , doing more regular live sets and more to enrich my career .This has made me a much happier and a harder working person . I am now more consistent and persistent in my career than I have ever been . With regards to my job I have applied the same work ideology and am now finding more success in that .
Because I am more focused now and not distracted, success has come . Now just to be clear I’m not gloating I’m purely trying to prove a point by illustrating that when we focus on something and when are not easily distracted we function better and have better chances of success . Upon writing this blog post we are now in the 7th week of 2021 , I have completed 4 tracks , 2 have now been signed to reputable labels and currently have 2 more tracks that I should finish end of the month . Last year in total I released between 5 and 7 tracks the entire year .This just shows what happens when we focus on what is important to us and work hard towards our goals.
My best advice to you all is do the same , find something that you love or that inspires you or something that adds substance to your life. Also cos we are not mentally stimulated as we were before covid (due to restrictions) try finding stimulation elsewhere with like minded people . Join a group or forum on topics that you interested in . Join in the chats , have meaningful debates or share a funny image and make other people laugh and have a laugh yourself .Unfollow pages or people from your social media who truly add nothing good to your life , instead follow those who inspire , who make you laugh and feel loved. All of this will help you take your mind off tedious things and instead your life will be clearer , simpler and happier . For example lets say you enjoy reading , why not join a book club or a ‘book club’ group on Facebook and chat with other like minded people who perhaps can tell you what book they loved and tell you which books you should be reading . Or checkout some really good online book stores and do research of the best places to buy from .
I’m sure at some point in our lives we have all been guilty , before Covid hit , of saying ‘I dont have time for so and so’ , now we do have the time and we can use this valuable time to do what we couldn’t before cos now is the time !
There’s so much we can do right now to enrich our lives and make us happier. That’s exactly what’s happened to me . Staying purely focused on what truly matters is the most important thing right now . No one truly knows when things will get back to normal , one thing is for certain (in my opinion) we will return to ‘normal’ one day and when that happens I think we all owe it to our selves to come out a better, stronger and more focused version of ourselves.
