Support for the human who makes all that beautiful music
Seasonal shifts can be a wonderful time to take a deep breath and ground ourselves before the next activity at hand. So maybe you are:
Finishing up the school year or orchestra season and are heading out to a summer festival?
Or your holiday break is wrapping up and you are looking forward to productive winter months?
Or you have finished a run of auditions and need to reset with loving-kindness?
This series of articles is designed to support and nourish the human who makes the music.
As musicians, let’s be honest, we tend to be hard on ourselves. We have an exceedingly high standard, have a core identity that is tied to our work, and operate in an environment that literally expects perfection. We are always looking at our deficiencies, the ways we need to improve, and anxiously comparing ourselves to others.
When a new season comes, culture tells us to drill down. Get micro. Put ourselves under a magnifying glass, determine the imperfections, and resolve to change them. Oftentimes, we cast judgment upon ourselves and resolve to be better, to be different than who we are.
Let’s try something different, shall we?
Instead of thinking of all the ways we’d like to change and be different, let’s choose to foster a deep knowing.
Knowing how we’re made, knowing what our bodies and hearts and creativity need to thrive, knowing what a life that creates and holds space for our humanity feels like, knowing what inspires us, and releasing expectations that burden us nurtures us and the music we make.
Let’s choose to celebrate ourselves and see ourselves with love and light and compassion. Let's choose to honor our uniqueness and hold space for the foundational elements of our personhood.
We will see that we are, and always have been, enough.
Over the next few weeks, we'll work through simple ways that you can start to nourish your humanity. Whether it's by taking a self-assessment, creating meaningful rest, or developing self-compassion, you DESERVE nourishment and care.
Just as we can not create from physically depleted bodies, we also can't make our best art from spirits that have been atrophied from self-criticism and self-doubt.
Caring for the human who makes the music is an integral piece of the puzzle that musicians are often missing. These articles will help.
Next Steps and Additional Resources
Here at The Musician's Mindset, we have some incredible resources for developing and implementing mindset practices that will transform how you perform on stage.
First, check out our Personalized Mindset Tools Quiz to discover the mindset strategies perfect for YOU!
Join the waiting list for my FREE mini-course, How to Stimulate Your Vagus Nerve and Calm the Heck Down.
Katie Frisco
Founder of The Musician's Mindset
Katie is dedicated to helping musicians overcome stage fright and believe in their own unique artistic voice. She believes live classical music is a powerful antidote for the division, pain, and loneliness pervasive in the culture and strives to support all artists to confidently share their work with the world. She lives in Cincinnati with her husband, three kiddos, a dog, a snake, and a goldfish named Orca.