For years, I have struggled with anxiety and depression and had never really taken the time to address it until about two years ago. The stress of building a business and bereavements within my family along with many other long-standing issues had begun to take their toll.
The ironic thing is, I spend most of my working life helping students to overcome mental barriers and to change the way in which they communicate with the drum kit. In turn, this helps their mindset and eventually their outlook on life. It’s often that I can read a students mental state and well being just on how they choose to sit at the drum kit and how they express themselves in a musical context. I suppose it’s always the way that people are often better at advising and helping others than helping themselves. Having tried and tested quite a few different techniques in managing this, I want to try and share these with all XYZ students. I also hope to involve the rest of the XYZ team to cover broader topics within this area.
I can only hope that the upcoming content in this blog will help our students and apply to their lives in some way or another.
Thank you for sharing Duncan, we can all relate to this and i find it very interesting how you have helped students overcome mental barriers through their communication with the drums, that’s brilliant. I too spend my working life helping people with their movement and mobility and yes stress can manifest in so many forms, especially in posture. Pilates too is so good for the body, but also the mindset too, i just wish i could get my son to do it!
So, I’m very pleased Lucas has a way to express himself through drums.
Thank you
Not sure if this is the right place to say this, but, …hey ho. This is an excellent idea Duncan and I look forward to reading the blog. Despite more big hitters like Fury and Harry speaking openly about their depression, it remains a bit of a taboo subject amongst ‘men’. All the kids love you guys. I think it is so important for role models and leaders to speak up, so that the next generation can see that mental health issues are no different from any other physical illness …and that everyone – even cool cats and people who were once beaten up by Tyson Fury – is susceptible. I’ve always been open about my own struggles, especially with my children. I firmly believe that openness is the key to changing their experience of ill health (both personal and in the people they will meet) …and a refreshing release for us, and I hope that you get as much from these blogs as your readers.