Mindfulness Practices for Musicians

A musician’s life can be extremely fast-paced, which often leads to high levels of stress and anxiety. Whether you are an instrumentalist, singer, songwriter, producer, or anyone working in the industry, you might find yourself having to schedule and attend rehearsals, meetings, performances, tours, recording sessions, and other events that can make you feel overwhelmed. This is why every musician should have access to daily practices that can help ease stress and anxiety and lead to a healthier and happier life.  

For Jennifer Caraluzzi, author of the Wellness for Artists: Music, Movement, and Mindfulness course at Berklee Online, daily mindfulness practices and a balanced diet have completely changed her life; she wants to show you how it can change yours, too.

As an award-winning vocalist who has performed with the Boston Pops, Opera Theater of St. Louis, White Snake Projects, and Boston Opera Collaborative, Caraluzzi’s experience with stress and anxiety led her to pursue mindfulness practices that helped her move through her daily life as a musician with more ease. Now she is a 500-hour certified yoga teacher and an integrative nutrition health coach who educates musicians on the importance of mind-body awareness to help them achieve their fullest potential.

Yoga 

Yoga means “to unite,” reiterating the idea of unifying the mind, body, and spirit. This ancient Indian practice has many purposes: making you feel grounded, helping you find a sense of ease and inner peace, and raising your self-awareness. Additionally, it can have healing effects on your physical body, such as improved flexibility, mobility, and reduced muscle tension. Caraluzzi says these benefits can be crucial for musicians, since their job often involves actively engaging their muscles in some way. 

“I took an interest in yoga as an undergrad,” she says, “and it kind of came out of looking for something for my anxiety and stress management. I loved it. It just quieted my mind. I was able to tap into this place that really helped me feel more joyful about music.”

In Caraluzzi’s course, she explores yoga practices that target specific parts of the body and movements that help your articulations and musculature. The ultimate goal is to enable you to release tension and improve your technique while performing. 

“The course provides yoga, meditation, and breathwork, as well as a journal prompt for each week to go along with each topic,” says Caraluzzi about her course. “There’s yoga for digestion, yoga for certain movements for singers, specifically wrist and hand health for musicians who constantly use their hands and wrists.”

If you’re not already familiar with yoga, the first thing that may come to mind is difficult positions such as headstands, tree pose, or chair pose, all of which might require a great amount of strength and equilibrium. Caraluzzi reminds us that practicing yoga can be the simple act of focusing on your breathing and doing mild stretches. 

“Yoga can be lying on your back on the mat, just listening to your breath,” she says. “It can be bringing your knees into your chest, rocking from side to side. Yoga can look so different for everyone. That’s what we do in the lessons: we talk about how different yoga can look and make it more accessible by modifying.”  

Caraluzzi says the most important thing to consider while starting your yoga journey is to bring consistency into your practice, remembering that one yoga session can take as little as five minutes and extend for as long as you wish. 

Meditation 

Meditation is another mindfulness practice that can be incorporated into your daily routine to improve your mental health, stage presence, and self-awareness while performing. There are many forms of meditation, and all of them have the ultimate goal of quieting the mind, letting go of distractions, and focusing on the present moment. 

“I think there are two parts: there’s yoga and there’s mindfulness practices or movement like taking a walk in nature,” says Caraluzzi. “These things help us quiet what we would call the ‘monkey mind,’ those thoughts and distractions, things that come up, which are totally natural. But it gives your mind a break from that.” 

Caraluzzi emphasizes that meditation practices can help musicians feel more grounded and connected to their music. Many famous artists like to meditate before their shows to let go of stress, nervousness, and stiffness in their muscles, and help them connect with their purpose. In Caraluzzi’s case, the effects of her daily meditation practice went far beyond calming her nervous system; it improved her overall health, allowing her to have a better stage presence.  

“Meditation helped me so much with dealing with injuries, gut issues, and stress, which can really wreak havoc on your system,” she says. “Many dancers and musicians are drawn to these practices and modalities because they happen to decompress from a lot going on, especially as a freelancer, you’re constantly putting on different hats, so meditation really retrains your stress response.”  

Nutrition 

Often a musician’s diet is more reliant on practicality than what is actually healthy. Many times musicians are busy touring, going to rehearsals, attending meetings, and performing gigs, which might lead them to eat out and consume fast food because it is easier and faster. Having an unbalanced diet can negatively impact musicians, as their bodies are not getting the nutrients they need in order to perform well. 

Read: Healthy Eating and Lifestyle Tips for Touring Musicians

We all have heard that a healthy diet might consist of drinking water, eating fruits and vegetables, and avoiding sugar and fast food. However, nutrition goes far beyond that. Caraluzzi decided to become a certified nutrition coach in order to understand which foods make her feel her best. 

“It’s not only about drinking a ton of water and being cognizant of not eating dairy before you sing; it’s more about what makes our voice and body feel good,” she says. “People have allergies, food intolerances, things that they like, and things that are socially and culturally important to them. Food is so emotional, so it’s going to be different for everyone.”

Instrumentalists, dancers, and singers are constantly using and moving their bodies, which means they should have strong muscles and energy in order to deliver the best performance. For this reason, it is essential for musicians to sustain a balanced diet while still incorporating the foods that they like so they can feel energized and strong in their daily lives. 

Finding What Works 

Having a fast-paced lifestyle can cause a great amount of stress, which could lead to other health problems that manifest in different parts of the body. Throughout her course, Caraluzzi aims to secure musicians’ well-being and ameliorate any type of mental or physical discomfort. 

“If you know yourself, your body, and your mind, you can discern what is actually good for you, because what may be good for some might not be good for you,” she says. “This course looks at how you can better know yourself. By knowing yourself better, you can take care of your own needs.”

Take the Wellness for Artists: Music, Movement, and Mindfulness course!