What's that doing here?

We have a really sexy topic list over at the 52 Cues community. You can look through all sorts of discussions and articles in exciting topic groups like Weekly Feedback, Software, Samples, and Plugins, Composition, Gear and Equipment, and even Industry Insights.

Keep scrolling down that topic list and you'll run across "Mindfulness and Well-Being." Hmmm...what's that doing here?

The topic is sparsely populated so far. In fact, I've had writing this introductory post on my to-do list for a couple of weeks now. But you all know how it goes: things got busy, we launched a new production music community platform, life went crazy, I was unmotivated, or uninspired, or just more excited about something else. (I know you know what I mean. You should be working on track metadata but you're fiddling around with the new sample pack you just got. Yes, you there, behind the screen.)

And that's where we arrive at mindfulness and well-being.

We hear lots these days about practicing self-care, releasing tension, how to deal with anxiety, and so on. Break out the essential oils and yoga mats! (I'm kidding. Really. I love that stuff.) The whole world seems to be stressed out these days, so we're bound to find stress, anxiety, or tension in our lives, no matter how pure our intentions.

Add to that the fact that we work in a tough industry, and now we're talking about some serious mind games! Let's face it: all of us music folk thrive on praise and approval of our work. It's part of the "psychology of play" that makes us sit for hours in front of a computer screen making music that we hope might get picked up and heard. Yes, there is intrinsic value and reward in the act of making music. But there's also extrinsic motivation built in to what we do.

But rejection--or worse yet, silence from a library--is just part of our production music life.

Dave Kropf recently posted a 52 Cues Vlog here in "Mindfulness and Well-Being" on how to deal with being rejected by a publisher. Rejection is a regular part of life in the arts (we'll leave the "is it art?" discussion for another time), and the fact that we work crazy long hours when the rest of our household is asleep makes rejection sting all that much more.

The concept of "Mindfulness" is simply to become aware of what you are doing and consciously make intentions and decisions about your life, family, work, health...and composing. Remember a couple of paragraphs back when we were playing around with a new sample pack instead of tagging our tunes? A more mindful way to approach that might be to set the intention of getting the important stuff done and consciously making time for the fun stuff.

Well-Being is the experience of health, happiness, and prosperity--in whatever way works for you. The idea of wellbeing touches every area of our lives: physical health, mental health, emotional, spiritual, and relational health, and more. This is a deep well! We'll explore this more in the future (if I'm mindful enough to write about it..haha...ha?). For the moment, let's just say that we probably all need a little work in some area of well-being.

We're all human.

So...that's why this topic exists. We're human. Our feelings get hurt. We suffer loss. Sometimes stuff just doesn't work out how we expected. And our creative natures often feel these bumps and bruises in a different way from everyone around us--and that just feels lonely. In the end, knowing how to handle the rough spots makes the sweet spots even better.

My intention is that we talk about life, encourage ourselves and each other, and grow in mindfulness and well-being as we move forward together.