Mental Health
Bloom Vol 19: Smile
I often received remarks on my seemingly perpetual state of happiness in elementary school – a smile that would never leave my face. One time, I happened to eat something most unagreeable with myself, resulting in me spending some time in the main office – my teacher, Ms. Gould, passed through and remarked, “Alex, see, even after throwing up, you’re still smiling – nothing will take that smile from you.” Eventually, time would lessen its presence. As partially defined last week, a significant component of emotional intelligence is our ability to understand, perceive, and control our emotional states. I had forgotten just how powerful a consistent smile could be and how it ties to my well-being. Growing in my understanding and means to observe the nuances within my behavio...
Bloom Vol 19: Smile
In this ongoing series, DJ and mental-health advocate Alex Wagner shares stories and inspiration to create awareness. I often received remarks on my seemingly perpetual state of happiness in elementary school – a smile that would never leave my face. One time, I happened to eat something most unagreeable with myself, resulting in me spending some time in the main office – my teacher, Ms. Gould, passed through and remarked, “Alex, see, even after throwing up, you’re still smiling – nothing will take that smile from you.” Eventually, time would lessen its presence. As partially defined last week, a significant component of emotional intelligence is our ability to understand, perceive, and control our emotional states. I had forgotten just how powerful a consistent smile could be and how it t...
Bloom Vol 19: Smile
In this ongoing series, DJ and mental-health advocate Alex Wagner shares stories and inspiration to create awareness. I often received remarks on my seemingly perpetual state of happiness in elementary school – a smile that would never leave my face. One time, I happened to eat something most unagreeable with myself, resulting in me spending some time in the main office – my teacher, Ms. Gould, passed through and remarked, “Alex, see, even after throwing up, you’re still smiling – nothing will take that smile from you.” Eventually, time would lessen its presence. As partially defined last week, a significant component of emotional intelligence is our ability to understand, perceive, and control our emotional states. I had forgotten just how powerful a consistent smile could be and how it t...
Bloom Vol 18: Emotional Intelligence
Music is a powerful key to pieces of our minds and hearts that might succumb to cobwebs and rotting wood otherwise. Music threads thought and understanding into the fabric of emotional comprehension, allowing us to feel magnified to limitless degrees, potentially, everything. It is wondrous to allow abstraction to help us articulate emotion, perceive it, and even evaluate it. We developed these forms of communication through music and the arts that can unpack the heaviest of loads. Pink Floyd’s “Time” plays in the background as I make my way through these lines. I hear the ringing clocks, the clops that fane a helicopter’s whirling blades, and timpanis that roll panned dramatically left and right, verberating in the distance. The guitar comes in low. I am a student of my library, re-readin...
The Used’s Bert McCracken Seeks Mental Health Treatment, Band Cancels Festival Gigs
The Used singer Bert McCracken has announced that he will seek professional treatment for mental health struggles. As a result, the band has canceled its scheduled gigs at the Slam Dunk festival slated for this coming weekend (June 3rd and 4th) in the UK. McCracken revealed his current “struggle with mental health” via the band’s social pages on Tuesday (May 31st), apologizing for skipping the high-profile festival performances while asserting that it’s the best decision for his personal well-being. The singer’s full statement reads as follows: “I have always been open about my struggle with mental health and have recently found myself facing new and overwhelming challenges. For this reason, I won’t be able to play the upcoming shows at Slam Dunk. I am so sorry but needed to make this deci...
Bloom Vol 17: Just a Thought
It was mid-50s out in the crisp Pacific Northwest air. Discolored hands carrying bags of groceries in the cold, a washed, dull look splashed onto my face. Between point A and point B, I felt alone. It’s challenging to fit into much of anything when you walk on a tightrope wearing neon blue and sequin, I murmured to myself. As Broadway crested its peak, I wondered if I had plateaued. I had a myriad of tiny conspirators passing through clamoring for the captain’s seat to my day. I sighed, hoping to myself that a deranged criminal would come to shoot me, making my desire to die not my fault, merely my beneficial coincidence. For all of the solutions in the world, for all that we are capable of, we are still human and can have thoughts like these. More passive, with no plan, no timeframe. A fe...
Celebrate World Meditation Day with Eric Sharp’s Exclusive EDM.com Playlist
Balance isn’t something you find; it’s something you create. In honor of World Meditation Day, we’re reflecting on different ways the electronic dance music scene can adopt healthier habits. While loads of fun, our industry generally isn’t the healthiest. Ask any touring artist and most will tell you that all of the late nights, extensive travel, sleep deprivation, and partying can do a number on one’s mental and physical wellbeing. From the outside looking in, it may seem as if the EDM world is run by revelers. This, however, is not always the case. There are a number of dance music artists who live very mindful and healthy lifestyles, even while on the road and in the thick of the nightlife. One such artist is the house maestro, Eric Sharp. Having channeled his sober, he...
Into The Void: Hot Water Music’s Enduring Punk Presence
Hot Water Music are many things to many people. For some of us, they’re a scrappy group of bearded punks we saw play at a VFW Hall in the midwest in the ‘90s as kids (outside unironically played Foursquare and passed out Why Vegan pamphlets). Others discovered them on the Vans Warped Tour in the wake of 2002’s breakthrough album, Caution. Still more people found the band after they reformed in 2008 and signed to Rise Records, who released Exister and Light It Up. Some people are just now discovering the band for the first time, on the heels of their ninth full-length album, Feel the Void. Feel the Void is also the first collection of music in their nearly 30-year history with a lineup shift, which comes in the addition of The Flatliners’ guitarist/vocalist Chris Cresswell. While Hot Water ...
Killer Mike Teams Up With Black Barbers For Mental Health Awareness
HipHopWired Featured Video Source: The Confess Project / The Confess Project Killer Mike is all about helping the community, and the latest example of that has him teaming up with a non-profit that trains Black barbers to be mental health advocates for a new initiative. Source: The Confess Project / The Confess Project The Confess Project announced on Wednesday, May 12 that they are hosting a Mental Health Awareness Day and that they’re partnering with The Swag Shop, a barbershop run by veteran MC and one half of Run The Jewels, Killer Mike, to host the event. Founded in 2016 in Arkansas, The Confess Project is a movement dedicated to training Black barbers about mental health awareness so that they can help foster a strong culture of good mental health among Black men and boys in a safe s...
Bloom Vol 16: The Power of Sensitivity
Alanis Morissette and the notion of sensitivity hadn’t ever been paired together before for me. Years back, we used a website called the random Alanis Morissette song generator which would, after the input of a few choice words, spit back to you a song full of resentment and malice for your enjoyment. Her grunge-infused success never stirred me as coming from a sensitive soul either. Jagged Little Pill sold a fascinating haul of over 30 million records, propelling her to stardom and a permanent place in the history of American music. It also catapulted her into a world that she would have to prepare herself for deeply, and compensate within; at moments, one she’d have to survive. “They wanted the outcome and the fruit of my trait,” Alanis said in an interview with the legendary Elaine Aaro...
Naomi Judd Died from Self-Inflicted Gunshot Wound, Says Daughter Ashley
The exact cause of Naomi Judd’s death has been revealed, as her daughter, Ashley Judd, told Good Morning America that her mother died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. “She used a weapon…a firearm,” Ashley told GMA on Thursday. “So that’s the piece of information we’re very uncomfortable sharing, but understand that we’re in a position, that if we don’t say it, someone else is going to.” Ashley said that she was the one who discovered her mother’s body, and added that “I have both grief and trauma from discovering her.” Ashley said she chose to disclose the cause of her mother’s death so that the family could control the flow of information before her autopsy was released. Advertisement Related Video In a joint statement announcing Naomi’s passing on April 30th, Ashley and sister Wynonna ...
Ashley Judd Reveals Mother Naomi Judd’s Cause of Death
Ashley Judd appeared on Good Morning America on Thursday morning (May 12) to discuss her mother country icon Naomi Judd‘s recent death by suicide. Speaking to Diane Sawyer from her home in Nashville, Ashley opened by thanking the everyone who has reached out with condolences and explaining why she’d been “deputized” by the family to share information about Naomi’s cause of death. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “She used a weapon… mother used a firearm,” Judd told Sawyer. “So that’s the piece of information that we are very uncomfortable sharing.” Judd said she did the interview because the family wanted to reveal the information on their own so they could control the news about their beloved matriarch’s death before autopsy results were releas...
