Case Study:

How Musicians, Producers & DJ’s can shape a productive, satisfying and sustainable professional Lifestyle, overcoming constrictive anxiety, worry and exhaustion.

Can music
make me sick?

Well, the short answer is no, but the short answer is not the helpful one in this case, so do yourself a favour and keep reading. You’ll only gain, i promise.

Some questions to begin with:

• Why does it seem like some creative professionals struggle and some seem to go through life with ease ?

• How are success & growth connected to health, mindset and habits ?

•   What to i have to do with any of that ?

Music. In my opinion its true meaning, impact and potential is often understated in today’s materialistic societies, even though it actually brings together some of the most substantial staples of human life:

Community, Expression and Healing. 

For many of it’s creators the commitment to his beautiful and nurturing craft comes at a high price though.

Being successful within todays musical World can be very challenging as you can most likely tell by your own experience.

Talent, hard work and even fortunate coincidences are definitely helpful to build a creative carrier, but in the long term only those who manage to bring all aspects of themselves and their life in alignment, will sustain their success while actually thriving as a human being.

Did you recognize that i said coincidences are helpful? Would you say those constellations are merely random? I’ll get back to this topic further on.

So what are the obstacles to health, ease and success?

Stress is most likely the biggest threat to the health of creative professionals in our modern societies. I would even say to humans in general at this point. Potentially we face stress almost 24/7 in all sorts of shapes surging from within and outside ourselves, yet most of us never learned how to deal with it properly.

Stress has many faces & we can’t fully protect us from its impact. We also don’t need to do that – becoming aware of the stressors, supporting our mind & body in processing it as well as reducing its load is certainly enough.

How does the stress look in your life and what are red flags looking like?

I’m sure feeling frustrated, unproductive and exhausted is a familiar experience. Almost everybody knows days as such, but when these days become ongoing phases,  your body starts to show you its limits & you start to feel like you can’t find back into your groove – then it is time to properly care of yourself. What you are experiencing is an outcome of high stress exposure. Naturally you are not unproductive, uncreative or lazy. Nobody is – but when our organism is challenged our conditioning & belief system have the potential to make it appear like that. Furthermore the condition of your body is playing an important role in this context.

As you probably know by experience – the impact of stress does not only affect productivity and satisfaction. Everything else that’s present in your life is touched by it
– family, finances, career, mental and physical health.

All those intertwined aspects make a delicate system that needs to balanced and maintained while you find yourself in the center. If you feel the weight – I see you and i know you can (re)gain the strength to master this dance.

What can you do to master the dance of life?

The most important step is to find sustainable ways to compensate the impact of stress and regenerate efficiently, so you don’t end up in an even more complicated situation. A lot of professionals tend to compensate stress in ways that do not serve them in the longterm (Drugs, Alcohol etc.). Some manage to find their ways by trail and error, some manage to just keep the ship floating, but a big part really struggles.

Don’t be decieved by (Social-)Media and the spotless representations – Everybody has their own patterns, experiences and trauma to deal with. I point that out because once i used to feel depressed and alone with my struggles and throughout my own journey i came to realize that we are never alone with our problems and actually have everything we need within reach.

The most deceiving and limiting aspects of ourselves are rooted within our conditioning, but to be able to break open the foundation and rewire the system we need to understand it’s structure and prepare body and mind for the process.

Even what most would define as luck or fortunate coincidences is actually our subconscious that leads or misleads us into places and situations that either benefit our purpose or proof our hurt image of self & internalized limitations.

All that is underlining why i see, hear and experience the need and demand for holistic health guidance in the music scene. Health is one of the most important but also an often overlooked requirement for our profession. I understand why – It takes self-responsibility and effort to maintain it on one hand and it’s gain is not as palpable as the various short-term pleasures and distractions that are ubiquitous in our lives.

One thing is sure though – Your quality of life stands and falls with your mental and physical health.

So does your craft.

• anxiety • worry • panic-attacks • sadness •
• self-devaluating thoughts • anger •
• restlessness • sleep deprivation • chronic pain •
• lacking productivity & creativity •
• difficulties to relax and calm • monkey mind •
• feelings of helplessness / frustration / insufficiency •
• physical & emotional exhaustion & tension •

If you experience any of this regularly your body and mind are communicating very clearly  – Start to listen!