Thought Of The Week: Positives and Negatives

Being mindful of our mental health is one of the most important aspects of being a musician.

In the realm of performing arts, it is imperative to pay close attention to how you are processing positives and negatives. In the practice room one can easily spiral into a personal blame game of frustration and perhaps even imposter syndrome. As you practice this week I would like to offer you a way to be kind to yourself. Remove the “I can’t” from your lexicon and replace it with “I currently struggle with”.

This is a small change that is incredibly powerful. When we are presented with a problem many of us tend to want to give up for one reason or another. We allow ourselves to paint a negative portrait of ourselves that is 100% not rooted in reality. By changing the language to a more positive and goal oriented perspective it helps see the end result we are looking for.

For example, lets say you are performing and you sound absolutely incredible, like you usually do, and then you have a memory slip or a missed note. What do you remember? The incredibly gorgeous playing or the perception of a “mistake”? Well, we all know the answer, we tend to focus on the negative and completely ignore all of the wonderful positives that surround it. So be kind to yourself. Even the greatest musicians of all time struggled with progress.