I was interested to see what is currently being thrown about in popular culture about self-confidence and mental health in general and I decided to look at the charts (at the time of writing this at the end of May 2019). I was surprised that I had actually heard of 7 of the current top 10 in the UK!

The song that stood out to me most was I Don’t Care by Ed Sheeran and Justin Bieber. In particular the lines:-

“I’m at a party I don’t wanna be at
Don’t think I fit in at this party
Everyone’s got so much to say, yeah
I always feel like I’m nobody, mm
Who wants to fit in anyway?

With all these people all around
I’m crippled with anxiety
But I’m told it’s where I’m supposed to be

Don’t think we fit in at this party
Everyone’s got so much to say, oh yeah, yeah”

What stood out was a theme that I have discussed previously of social pressures and expectations to enjoy certain things and to fit in to ‘the herd’. I have often struggled with this idea as I would not say that I am a ‘big night out’ kind of person when a lot of other people my age seem to be but as someone close to me once said that there is nothing wrong with having different interests (or words to that effect!).

There was also some common themes of not seeing yourself as worthy

“I wish that I was good enough” (repeated) – Hold Me While You Wait

“She looks good in the morning
And she don’t even know it”         Summer Days

Other lines from the top 10 that stood out to me was anxiety which was making Stormzy and Avici lose sleep!

 “Mummy sayin’ that I need to get some sleep……And all this stress has got me wrackin’ at my brain (ay ay)” Vossi Bop

“I get robbed of all my sleep
As my thoughts begin to bleed”  SOS

Although, I am not the best advocate for this but I am currently working on this, sharing with others can be very freeing and looking after yourself is important. I had a night within the last week when I struggled to get to sleep because of anxiety-provoking thoughts. Luckily, I was fortunate to have people around me who were willing to talk to me and my stress was lifted for me to eventually get to sleep.

Some of these artists do have some words of encouragement for us to be those people who keep an eye out for those who are struggling and reach out to them. Ed says “Then you take my hand…..You make it better like that” Avici says “Can you hear me? S.o.s…….Help me put my mind at rest” and “I can feel your love pullin’ me up from the underground.” This is something that I will expand on in later instalments.

Thank you for taking the time to read this and I hope you found it interesting/useful. As always, feel free to get in touch with any questions/feedback, I always love to it. Stay tuned for the next instalment.

Until next time

Kathryn