At this month’s Mixer, special guest Sharlese Metcalf shared her talk entitled “Self Care and Activism: Ways of Living and Surviving in the Music Industry.” Whether it’s through her roles as Education Coordinator and DJ at KEXP, as a member of the TUF collective, or her work as a Music Commissioner, Sharlese has been a leading advocate in Seattle’s music scene for years. If you couldn’t make it to the Mixer, you can watch the full talk here, and we have also included Sharlese’s written script below.

During her talk, Sharlese shared her 26 ways of self care while working in the music industry:

1. Wake up and don’t look at your phone. Take a walk instead.
2. Don’t answer emails right away, they can wait.
3. Take walking meetings at work, if you can. Don’t sit in a room with walls.
4. Pack your lunch with healthy yummy things and eat your lunch away from your computer. They can wait.
5. Write fan mail. Write a short letter or text to someone that you love or that inspires you and tell them you appreciate their work.
6. Compliment someone. I have found that when I tell someone something nice, the impact is that it makes me feel good and them.
7. Journal thoughts of gratitude.
8. Meditate and breathe.
9. Exercise. Do yoga. I do and DJ yoga quite often. You should come!
10. Listen to your favorite songs and dance alone. Like DoNormaal’s ‘Ego Slave.’
11. Massage your creativity, like make a mix of your favorite songs.
12. Eat with intention. Cook your favorite meal. Plan ahead to do so.
13. Address positivity at your organization. It’s easy to frustrated at work by things that happen. Make sure to talk to your co-workers and find ways to be happy.
14. Find the good work of others happening in the world, especially in Seattle community and send them to people. It can inspire and motivate positivity.
15. Find ways to turn the upside down, right side up. Meaning if you found something that’s sad or bad, find a way to bring people together to amplify your voices.
16. Keep educating yourself. Take a class!
17. Learn to say no without explaining yourself.
18. Acknowledge yourself and your strengths and consider your value.
19. Know peace.
20. Respect, be kind and forgive yourself. You’re great!
21. Be intentional and always know where you’re trying to go.
22. Use your intuition to navigate better. Always trust your heart.
23. Support live music! Going to show can mean the world for an artists and that in return will make you feel good. To be more real, support the arts! There are so many great artists in the Northwest and if you need help finding cool things to do, Artist Trust has a great calendar of full of statewide events to support. You can also find out about grant applying workshops and more there as well.
24. Clean your space to your favorite album. It can be a trip to experience actually how an artist creates an album from start to finish.
25. Spend time with friends and family. These people are some of the most important people in your life and they provide epic support.  
26. Look up. Everyone looks down, but have you ever tried looking up? A teacher in college recommended that to me and it changes your perspective and you might learn something!

You can find Sharlese Metcalf on Twitter, Soundcloud, and read more about her on our blog. Read below for Sharlese’s scripted speech.  [Read more…]