Right when you think you have it figured out, something knocks you off balance. “Thought I had it.” I mutter that to myself regularly.
There is an Impermanence to joy, and that’s fine. The wobbly times are the essential points of reference toward the joyous times.
Isn’t that what makes the highs so great? The lows. Wallowing thru the lurch. I kinda love the lurch. Not in a masochistic way, but I know it’s useful. It sucks in the moment but kicks ass when the clouds part.
If I was joyous 100% of the time, I wouldn’t be human. I also wouldn’t do anything. I’d just crush Doritos and sit in a lawn chair all day drinkin' cases of grape soda.
The good news is there is an impermanence to darkness too.
"Everything is temporary" sounds pessimistic, but it’s really very optimistic.
“Nevermind, not Nirvana” is a new song today about laughing while in the midst of the lows. Listen, save it, playlist it, or text it to a buddy.
Art by BOCHO
BOOK $20 - CD $14 - BOTH $30 - Comes with new stickers & magnets -
*Europeans Can Now Order here for cheap shipping!
Blending humor with mental health struggles, alternative songwriter/illustrator/podcaster Brett Newski makes fun of his own depression by offering mental health boosts in his first book " It's Hard to be a Person: defeating anxiety, surviving the world, and having more fun."
“I love how easy Newski makes it to plow through the dark stuff with some well placed humor and grit.” -Stelth Ulvang (of the Lumineers)
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BOOK SYNOPSIS:
Years ago, somewhere on the Internet, I posted a few dumb drawings making fun of my own anxiety and depression.
The response to them was warmer than anticipated, and people kept asking for more. Blending humor with pure depression seemed to strike a chord with a decent amount of people. So I kept going, and after about three years of drawing, I had enough dumb drawings for a book called It's Hard to be a Person: defeating anxiety, surviving the world, and having more fun.
*special thanks to Ramshackle Press, Anna Sacks and Nomad Union for helping get the book out.
How do you feel when someone starts playing on their phone while you’re talking to them? It’s a dark moment. It’s a seemingly small, yet significant moment when we realize we’ve got work to do as both individuals, and as a species.
BRETT NEWSKI’s fourth studio album Don’t Let the Bastards Get you Down is a call to arms against whatever destructive forces we may find ourselves battling, from our individual struggles with toxic relationships, low self esteem, loneliness, and apathy to the more global challenges facing us in 2020: The erosion of face-to-face human connection, the breakdown of the proverbial village, the destruction of the planet, and the myriad ways in which our social media addictions amplify these problems. Depression and anxiety are at all time highs, with many, if not most of us, struggling to preserve our optimism.
