🎵 Hive Open Mic 162 - Three Little Birds (Cover of a Song by Bob Marley)

This week's theme really struck a chord with me as my partner has been experiencing severe anxiety which I've been trying to help her through with some meditation and breathing techniques I learned over many years battling anxiety.

"Be Okay." This theme is chosen by our community's recent Spotlight Artist: @maryjacy.

_{to go straight to the music fast forward to 1.26 minute mark 🙂}

It seems to me that mental health problems are one of the great troubles of our age as there is still a stigma attached to these diseases, along with a lack of proper understanding (or often effective treatment) by doctors and psychiatrists.

With the greatest respect to the 'very new' field of medical treatment of psychiatry, I know someone who works in a mental health facility, and I have been at the receiving end of doctors throwing SSRI drugs at me, none of which worked. My friend said that all he sees in his place of work (the mental health unit he works at) are various therapists working out the right mixtures of pharmaceuticals to remove the problem behaviour around any given patient's mental health problem, there is little to no focus on finding the root cause of any given condition, largely because they are approaching something which needs a holistic approach through a very narrow lens of pharmacology. He told me he'd seen about 20% of people who come into his place leave better off than when they checked in. Often, they leave - in his words - "either a zombie or a bigger basket case than when they came in."

In regards to my experience with mental health problems, seriously, I have taken virtually every set of drugs for depression/anxiety disorder, and they all made the problems worse within a 6 month period, with the worst cases ending in suicidal ideation and other 'treatments' leaving me with visual and auditory hallucinations. When we add to this that you need to taper off these drugs over months of time, still experiencing these strange symptoms, quite honestly it is a crap shoot of drugs. Doctors are just firing one SRI after another at you until they find the one that works, but if none of them works... you are literally going to spend 10 years of your life suffering on an emotional rollercoaster for no good reason.

Yet, in my country, the UK, the NHS doesn't prescribe mindfulness or meditation as a first course of treatment for 'so-called' lesser mental health problems such as depression/anxiety disorder.

This is why I have suggested gently to my girlfriend that she try a certain breath technique focused on feeling the out-breath hit the top lip while taking three deep breaths before returning to normal breathing. I even suggested a mantra if her busy thoughts that fuel the anxiety aren't abating with her focusing on her breath.

The reason why I suggested this? The only thing that brought me to a place of peace and control over my depression/anxiety, to the point where it rarely affects me now, is a combination of exercise and meditation.

But I'm forgetting, Hive open mic is about music and good vibes. Well, sometimes some people are in a place where they're not feeling so great... and in this instance, I'd always play them Bob Marley's song 'Three Little Birds'.

Bob Marley is one of my favourite 'feel good' musicians anyway, but this song encapsulates another thing which helped me feel more in touch with the world consequently removing the power of my depression, which is to observe nature.

Tony Gilbert, a long-time friend of Marley, was present at the time he was writing the song and elaborated, "Bob got inspired by a lot of things around him, he observed life. I remember the three little birds. They were pretty birds, canaries, who would come by the windowsill at Hope Road."
_{Source: wikipedia}

I hope my rendition at least brings a smile to your face. I'm stepping out of my comfort-zone and playing/singing at the same time, I really hope I've not murdered this classic with my inability to play and sing well at the same time 😂

I also hope this song reminds everyone out there that it is OK to 'Be Okay'.

Love and peace to everyone out there.

Thanks for reading/listening 🙂🌿

I would like to give a big shout-out to @stickupcurator (and @stickupboys) for their amazing contribution to supporting music, art and all things creative on hive. If you haven't already, you should go check out their account for music, crypto podcasts and much much more 🙂👍

I have also added @hiveopenmic as a 2% beneficiary of this post, as although I don't have much money, I would like to give back to this community, as I think it is a fantastic community and challenge that survived even the hard fork of Hive from steem. Well done to all involved moderating/running HOM 😄

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