Like with everyone else, the musician’s experience ripples into multiple aspects of their lives: physical, mental, emotional, and/or spiritual. 🎻

Many professional musicians experience chronic physical discomfort from misuse or overuse of their muscles during long hours of making repetitive movements while playing.

Others suffer from emotional problems such as anxiety or depression, hypersensitivity and reactivity, frustration, or even burnout in respect to their professional environment.

And in my coaching experience, physical problems including injury are usually intertwined with mental disorganization and emotional discomfort. After all, it’s hard to think clearly and feel joyous and free when you’re hurting!

It’s also common for artists to have difficulty balancing the work they’re passionate about with other areas of life. For instance, it can be hard to maintain healthy, loving relationships while on tour or having a packed rehearsal and performance schedule for weeks at a time without any time off. In addition, many musicians work multiple jobs to make ends meet.

On top of their regular duties, music educators can easily become consumed by caring for their students, trying to accommodate parents or an unsympathetic administration, arranging extra recitals and other events, and doing a thousand tasks that add up to being great at their job—at the price of being a stressed-out person who doesn’t have time to relax or “have a life.” 📚

It can end up taking a real toll on their body as well as their mental outlook.

If you can relate to this, you might ask yourself how your current lifestyle measures up to what you were expecting when you first embarked on your career.

Are you living the dream you set out to create when you were younger? ✨ Or are you feeling disappointed or frustrated by your lack of success or slow progress?

Maybe you’d always expected to be in a more creative or electrifying work environment… or you’d hoped to get greater recognition.

Do you feel well compensated for all the time and energy you expend in your work—including practice, preparation, and travel time, and the many investments in instruments, equipment, and education over the years? Or would you say you’re underpaid, undervalued, and perhaps even resentful toward society and your employers?

Even if you’ve been fortunate enough to achieve a high level of professional success—with no complaints about your work environment—the stress of being a professional performer or educator can still be truly intense, and your demanding schedule may feel at times relentless. This pressure can wreak havoc on your sense of well-being.

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The above is an excerpt from my book, Make Great Music with Ease! The Secret to Smarter Practice, Confident Performance, and Living a Happier Life.

If you'd like to learn more about living your purpose and feeling REALLY good about your music while enjoying a beautiful life balance, just leave a comment to find out more about my online programs for musicians. I'd love to hear from you! 🌱

Love & Light,
Jennifer ❤️