the music therapy Association of British
Columbia says that the emotional and
expressive nature of music can serve as
a bridge to self-awareness insight and
identification of feelings that group
music experiences do help to create a
sense of community and belonging among
their clients when I hear a lyric that
really relates to exactly how I’ve been
feeling I find I wind up listening to
that song over and over and over again
and why when I think about it I feel
like it’s because when I hear it I feel
that the artist gets it and gets me and
has been through what I’ve been through
maybe not the exact same situation but
emotionally we’ve been on the same ride
and so when I hear the song I feel good
hearing that artists express through
their music what I couldn’t say with
just my words alone makes me feel less
alone in my struggle I’m going to be
playing you two of my original songs
today and I hope that you all can feel
connected whether it’s to me as the
artist or to each other or to someone
you know who isn’t here by listening to
these songs and feeling your emotions
these two songs in particular were
written at a time when I was struggling
with my mental health in particular with
anxiety the first song is called ghost
what do we think of when we hear the
word ghost invisible
maybe scary haunting not everyone
believes in them they’re not real to a
lot of people so they are discredited
justified as other things like the wind
not everyone would want to believe they
would want they wouldn’t want to deal
with thinking that ghosts they’re real
right for one reason or another I’m
willing to bet that we all have felt a
little like a ghost at some point in our
lives maybe on purpose because we hide
rather than expose ourselves to the
judgments and the stigmas that are
attached to so many things and I’m gonna
be focusing on mental health because 20
minutes is not enough time to touch on
every subject that is still
misunderstood by some people in 2018 but
let’s take mental illness as an example
often people who struggle are afraid to
speak openly about ourselves on a daily
basis
for fear that we won’t be taken
seriously anyway that we will be
discredited like a ghost is just the
wind your depression is just a bad day
your anxiety is just a fear and we’ll be
told to get over it stop stressing it’s
all in your head you’re overthinking it
it’s not that hard just do this and you
won’t have this anymore it’s that simple
just be happy you have nothing to be
depressed about so many people have it
worse than you
etc etc so yeah we may try to hide the
severity of our emotions we may even be
afraid of the severity of our emotions
because we think that others are afraid
too we treat our mental illness like a
ghost that can’t be seen and that no one
wants to see anyway but why do we hide
why should we hide people will form
their own conclusions often based on
uneducated opinions rather than facts
and when that happens and ignorance is
directed at people it can be so harmful
I feel like if we talked more openly
about these kinds of things that are
misunderstood maybe we would all learn
to accept each other which would make it
easier to accept ourselves I feel like
it makes us lighter and happier when we
stop trying so hard to be invisible and
I just hope that we can reach a day
where nobody feels like it’s necessary
[Music]
good seats I didn’t wanna see
[Applause]
thank you my next song for you today is
called Arizona and it was written after
about a year of some extremely dark
thoughts our brains can convince us of
many terrible things they can convince
us that we are alone that our best
friends and our family don’t actually
care about us they can convince us that
we should panic over making a simple
phone call to someone we know and trust
because dialing that number and imposing
on someone will make them hate you if
they don’t secretly hate you already
because it makes sense to you that
someone could easily decide that they
hate you because you feel worthless our
brains can convince us that we should
doubt ourselves to the point where it
cripples our everyday lives doubt the
words that come out of our mouths our
interactions with people and how we’re
perceived our brains can convince us
that we are angry and raged over nothing
that we have an anger problem when in
fact it’s our body’s response to the
feeling of anxiety a fight-or-flight
reflex our brains can convince us that
we’re feeling physical pain symptoms
that aren’t there
a fanuc attack has taken me to Urgent
Care once I thought my throat was
closing in and I couldn’t breathe when
in fact nothing of the start was
physically happening to me and while
these thoughts consume you it can be
alarmingly easy to believe them and also
to believe that you may never make it
out of this place in your mind that it
somehow as it finds you it’s just how
things are now that you’re broken and
can’t be fixed it’s really important to
know that there are ways to make it out
talking with a support system seeking
help from doctors and licensed
therapists and psychiatrists sometimes
medication physical activity in my case
music all of these are strategies that
can be useful maybe there’s no magic
cure or one right answer for these kinds
of things but one way or another there
and these strategies will help you learn
about your mental health which is so
important because the more you learn the
better able you will be to cope with it
mental illness doesn’t have to be the
destination it’s just one place you’ve
Steve answer
[Music]
but you did me a favor
[Music]
[Music]
thank you very much I hope that these
songs could reach you in some way today
and if they did we know just as humans
sitting in a room together of all
different backgrounds and who else
struggle in our own way
how listening to music and talking about
song meanings may make us feel how it
may help us relate now I want to leave
you with how music can help us heal
specifically how music therapy is used
as an excellent tool in the treatment of
mental disorders such as anxiety
disorder personality disorder substance
abuse and more again the music therapy
Association of British Columbia says
that structured activities like group
singing and instrument playing can reach
in and make contact with even some of
the most severe cases of mental illness
can help people focus and express their
feelings and with higher functioning
mental disorders as I’ve already touched
on it can help bring our unconscious
emotions to the forefront and promote
self-esteem and health and well-being
just a few of the ways that music can be
utilized in these ways is through
singing meditation lyrical analysis and
discussion and songwriting and the
songwriting for me has been one of the
most therapeutic things in my life as
much as I write songs in the hopes that
other people are going to hear them and
feel understood
I also write to try and understand
myself and these songs in particular
today were actually written with other
people and in and of itself that was a
collaborative and supportive experience
for me especially talking about these
subjects here’s my final thought for you
I was recently reading an article from
the greater good science center at
Berkeley and in it they cited a study
where participants were hooked up to an
fMRI machine and they listened to a
piece of music some were told it was
composed by a human and others were told
it was composed by a computer when in
fact it was the exact same piece of
music for those who were listening to
music that they thought was composed by
a human there was an area of their brain
linked to empathy that lit up while it
did not light up for those who thought
they were listening to
music composed by a computer which
suggests that when we hear music we’re
not just processing the sounds but we’re
actually trying to understand the intent
of the musician as a fellow human being
and what they’re trying to communicate
so if music ignites our empathy even
more than just utilizing it in our own
personal healing and coping I want to
continue to use music even moreso than
it already has been and I want to
personally use mine to help create a
lasting dialogue about mental health or
anything that comes with a stigma
attached so that maybe the message can
reach more people help them learn and
understand and in the end hopefully have
some more empathy for all people in this
world thank you [Applause]
Columbia says that the emotional and
expressive nature of music can serve as
a bridge to self-awareness insight and
identification of feelings that group
music experiences do help to create a
sense of community and belonging among
their clients when I hear a lyric that
really relates to exactly how I’ve been
feeling I find I wind up listening to
that song over and over and over again
and why when I think about it I feel
like it’s because when I hear it I feel
that the artist gets it and gets me and
has been through what I’ve been through
maybe not the exact same situation but
emotionally we’ve been on the same ride
and so when I hear the song I feel good
hearing that artists express through
their music what I couldn’t say with
just my words alone makes me feel less
alone in my struggle I’m going to be
playing you two of my original songs
today and I hope that you all can feel
connected whether it’s to me as the
artist or to each other or to someone
you know who isn’t here by listening to
these songs and feeling your emotions
these two songs in particular were
written at a time when I was struggling
with my mental health in particular with
anxiety the first song is called ghost
what do we think of when we hear the
word ghost invisible
maybe scary haunting not everyone
believes in them they’re not real to a
lot of people so they are discredited
justified as other things like the wind
not everyone would want to believe they
would want they wouldn’t want to deal
with thinking that ghosts they’re real
right for one reason or another I’m
willing to bet that we all have felt a
little like a ghost at some point in our
lives maybe on purpose because we hide
rather than expose ourselves to the
judgments and the stigmas that are
attached to so many things and I’m gonna
be focusing on mental health because 20
minutes is not enough time to touch on
every subject that is still
misunderstood by some people in 2018 but
let’s take mental illness as an example
often people who struggle are afraid to
speak openly about ourselves on a daily
basis
for fear that we won’t be taken
seriously anyway that we will be
discredited like a ghost is just the
wind your depression is just a bad day
your anxiety is just a fear and we’ll be
told to get over it stop stressing it’s
all in your head you’re overthinking it
it’s not that hard just do this and you
won’t have this anymore it’s that simple
just be happy you have nothing to be
depressed about so many people have it
worse than you
etc etc so yeah we may try to hide the
severity of our emotions we may even be
afraid of the severity of our emotions
because we think that others are afraid
too we treat our mental illness like a
ghost that can’t be seen and that no one
wants to see anyway but why do we hide
why should we hide people will form
their own conclusions often based on
uneducated opinions rather than facts
and when that happens and ignorance is
directed at people it can be so harmful
I feel like if we talked more openly
about these kinds of things that are
misunderstood maybe we would all learn
to accept each other which would make it
easier to accept ourselves I feel like
it makes us lighter and happier when we
stop trying so hard to be invisible and
I just hope that we can reach a day
where nobody feels like it’s necessary
[Music]
good seats I didn’t wanna see
[Applause]
thank you my next song for you today is
called Arizona and it was written after
about a year of some extremely dark
thoughts our brains can convince us of
many terrible things they can convince
us that we are alone that our best
friends and our family don’t actually
care about us they can convince us that
we should panic over making a simple
phone call to someone we know and trust
because dialing that number and imposing
on someone will make them hate you if
they don’t secretly hate you already
because it makes sense to you that
someone could easily decide that they
hate you because you feel worthless our
brains can convince us that we should
doubt ourselves to the point where it
cripples our everyday lives doubt the
words that come out of our mouths our
interactions with people and how we’re
perceived our brains can convince us
that we are angry and raged over nothing
that we have an anger problem when in
fact it’s our body’s response to the
feeling of anxiety a fight-or-flight
reflex our brains can convince us that
we’re feeling physical pain symptoms
that aren’t there
a fanuc attack has taken me to Urgent
Care once I thought my throat was
closing in and I couldn’t breathe when
in fact nothing of the start was
physically happening to me and while
these thoughts consume you it can be
alarmingly easy to believe them and also
to believe that you may never make it
out of this place in your mind that it
somehow as it finds you it’s just how
things are now that you’re broken and
can’t be fixed it’s really important to
know that there are ways to make it out
talking with a support system seeking
help from doctors and licensed
therapists and psychiatrists sometimes
medication physical activity in my case
music all of these are strategies that
can be useful maybe there’s no magic
cure or one right answer for these kinds
of things but one way or another there
and these strategies will help you learn
about your mental health which is so
important because the more you learn the
better able you will be to cope with it
mental illness doesn’t have to be the
destination it’s just one place you’ve
Steve answer
[Music]
but you did me a favor
[Music]
[Music]
thank you very much I hope that these
songs could reach you in some way today
and if they did we know just as humans
sitting in a room together of all
different backgrounds and who else
struggle in our own way
how listening to music and talking about
song meanings may make us feel how it
may help us relate now I want to leave
you with how music can help us heal
specifically how music therapy is used
as an excellent tool in the treatment of
mental disorders such as anxiety
disorder personality disorder substance
abuse and more again the music therapy
Association of British Columbia says
that structured activities like group
singing and instrument playing can reach
in and make contact with even some of
the most severe cases of mental illness
can help people focus and express their
feelings and with higher functioning
mental disorders as I’ve already touched
on it can help bring our unconscious
emotions to the forefront and promote
self-esteem and health and well-being
just a few of the ways that music can be
utilized in these ways is through
singing meditation lyrical analysis and
discussion and songwriting and the
songwriting for me has been one of the
most therapeutic things in my life as
much as I write songs in the hopes that
other people are going to hear them and
feel understood
I also write to try and understand
myself and these songs in particular
today were actually written with other
people and in and of itself that was a
collaborative and supportive experience
for me especially talking about these
subjects here’s my final thought for you
I was recently reading an article from
the greater good science center at
Berkeley and in it they cited a study
where participants were hooked up to an
fMRI machine and they listened to a
piece of music some were told it was
composed by a human and others were told
it was composed by a computer when in
fact it was the exact same piece of
music for those who were listening to
music that they thought was composed by
a human there was an area of their brain
linked to empathy that lit up while it
did not light up for those who thought
they were listening to
music composed by a computer which
suggests that when we hear music we’re
not just processing the sounds but we’re
actually trying to understand the intent
of the musician as a fellow human being
and what they’re trying to communicate
so if music ignites our empathy even
more than just utilizing it in our own
personal healing and coping I want to
continue to use music even moreso than
it already has been and I want to
personally use mine to help create a
lasting dialogue about mental health or
anything that comes with a stigma
attached so that maybe the message can
reach more people help them learn and
understand and in the end hopefully have
some more empathy for all people in this
world thank you [Applause]
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