The past two days, I have been working on my recording for May's song. I have been pretty excited about the song, it is fun to play and it is freshly created just a couple weeks ago. Seeing it progress has been really cool, and I am glad I have the footage of its growth to look back on some day. Once it got to the final days of recording, I ran into numerous issues. This has been common, so far, even though I have been trying to find ways to embrace/learn from/reduce the issues... The technical issues can be really frustrating, but I know that I am learning and it is part of figuring out what my equipment is capable of in an at-home setting. Day one actually went pretty well. I actually thought I could release the song a day early! However, upon review, the sound was clipping. I was puzzled, as GarageBand let's you know if it is clipping, and I was sure to adjust my settings to be well within a healthy range. After discussing the issue with a friend, I had a few things to try out in the morning. I woke up early, hoping it would give me plenty of time before the neighborhood started getting a bit noisier with people moving around. It did not take terribly long to fix the clipping issue - the first option and attempt worked! Hypothetically this should be a slam dunk. However, a series of events took place involving outside people/factors - most of which were completely outside of the house. Now, all of these people are just going about their day. I realize they aren't trying to ruin my project, or my life. During these few hours, the amount of factors outside of my control were becoming overwhelming. I struggled to come up with creative solutions. The best I could do was try to pound out as many attempts, working around all the external noises, and hope that some of the noises were swallowed up by the electric guitar. After playing a song for a few hours, fatigue sets in, and pains act up - of the fingers, the wrists, the shoulder, feet, the whole body...and mind. Things started to unravel quickly, including time. Once my fingers hurt too much to consistently be able to press the guitar strings down (a fairly important piece of making notes ;) ), I had to call it quits and hope that I had gotten something useable.
While I would have loved to have just jumped into listening and editing what I had recorded for the past half of a day, I realized this may be a good opportunity to utilize somethings I have been working on to help with patience and peace. I could feel I was tense and stressed, to continue carrying that through out the day wasn't going to make life any easier. So I took a breather. I made a healthy delicious meal, and laid in the hammock outside with a book: Heal Your Life by Louise Hay. I am already in the process of a few books, but they involve some extra work and I just wanted to read a bit (only to find out this book also comes with some extra work/exercises ;) ). It was such a perfect book to help regain some inner balance and perspective. And that brief period of time was much needed in terms of self-care.
It lead me to ponder: Can I be dedicated and passionate, but still practice good self-care? Or reduce unnecessary compromises? Can I be a hard worker, yet not at the expense of mental/emotional/physical health? I am working on this balance. The trick it to remember these things in the moment, when the work and pressure is weighing on your shoulders... and even though I may love what I do, I must remember to love myself as well.
Affiliate disclaimer: NFG (artist) is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites. What this essentially means is that if you use the links to the book in this blog to purchase the books for yourself, I would earn a small commission at no additional cost to you. That being said, I would suggest these books regardless of how you choose to purchase and read/purchased them well before signing up for the affiliate program. :)
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