Mozart as Medicine: The Health Benefits of Music, on James Clear's Website

Music's power on the emotions is well-documented.  This article on life-coach James Clear's website comes with useful scholarly references.  Read the article HERE.

http://jamesclear.com/music-therapy

Clear worked with David Binanay and Sam Sager on this article.

Mental Health Awareness Week - free access to quality journal articles until 31 July 2014

Mental Health - Raising Awareness

Here at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, our e-journals extend far beyond just music, drama, dance, film and TV, but today's offer by publisher Routledge nonetheless provides a generous offer of quality articles that we might not otherwise be able to access.

So, here's the deal (quoting from the emailed circular that we received today):-

"To mark Mental Health Awareness Week, Routledge have compiled a free article collection on Anxiety."For one week each May, the Mental Health Foundation raises awareness of a specific theme for Mental Health Awareness Week. This year's theme is Anxiety, one of the leading causes of mental ill-health around the world.
Featuring over seventy leading articles from our Behavioral Science portfolio, this collection is hosted in one handy place and is completely free to access until July 31st 2014.
Click here to further your understanding of Anxiety."

 
Our RCS Counsellor shares some useful weblinks about mental health:-
 
The Mental Health Foundation is focusing on the theme of anxiety this week, as one of the leading causes of mental ill-health. Anxiety is defined as ‘an on-going sense of worry without a specific cause’.  Around 1 in 4 people in the UK experience a mental health problem such as anxiety each year and many of them will not seek help to get a diagnosis.

To help address this the Mental Health Foundation has produced a booklet which examines what anxiety is, the different types of anxiety, how it affects us and how to manage it if we feel that it is going beyond a healthy level and causing us distress.

 

• Anxiety Booklet

Other sources of help

 

• MIND website: http://www.mind.org.uk/ , which contains information and support both for helping yourself and helping someone else;
• Anxiety UK website: http://www.anxietyuk.org.uk/ also has information about dealing with anxiety and stress.

Royal Conservatoire of Scotland Lecturer joins Sponsored Improvisation Gig for Charity

For the third year, lecturer Colin Broom is going to be taking part in an Epic Sponsored Free Improvisation to raise money for Polyphony, a charity offering people in Glasgow with mental health problems access to musical activities. He joins a number of other musicians, (including some from the Conservatoire) playing for a total of 9 hours, this time on 5-string bass guitar.

If you'd like to sponsor him in this endeavour, it'd go a long way to helping Polyphony continue their work. The link is here: 

 https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/theimprovisingbroom 

There's also still time if you want to get in involved by playing. All instruments welcome. If you're interested, do contact Colin for more details. 

If you want to know more about Polyphony, here's a video that shows some of what they do.

The Healthy Artist

• Vitamins?
• Gym subscription?
• Meditation?

I asked readers of this blog if there were particular subjects they'd like me to focus on this month.

'The healthy artist', came the reply. 

By which, they mean, healthy performing artist.

So here it is - my call for helpful, healthy websites - with the added twist that they must be relevant to performing artists.  I'm not going to start blogging about FitDay (though it's great) or Weightwatchers!

Here's a start: our books on health, and conversely, on injuries.  Why suffer for your art?!

Madness and Theatre

We've just come across this Wordpress blog, which originated as an Edinburgh MSc thesis on mental health in Scottish theatre:-

The Madness and Theatre Blog

"How Theatre NEMO and Anthony Neilson use drama to challenge perceptions of mental ill health in Scotland 2003-2010.

MSc European Theatre

Graduate School of Languages, Literatures and Cultures

University of Edinburgh August 19th 2011"

The author, Chris Jones, is now studying for a PhD at the University of Kent.

Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival

Being promoted at the Scottish Storytelling Centre in Edinburgh: click here.

Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival

Special event 14 October 2011: RE:Mind : Sound Affects Workshop - might also be interesting to people working with community music or community therapies generally.

Friday 14 October 2011 @ 11:00am
FREE (ticketed)
Venue: CCA Clubroom, Glasgow
Ages: 16 and over

Part of the Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival

Call the CCA Box Office on 0141 352 4900