Solbird Sessions is made possible through viewer contributions to the ETV Endowment of South Carolina.

Anxiety isn't always seen, but that doesn't mean it's not there.

It can impact the entire body from sleep to energy to immune function.

And for those living with chronic illnesses, the weight can feel even heavier.

What you feel is real, even when it's unseen.

I am TiffanyJ, your host for Solbird Sessions, where melody becomes remedy.

♪ I feel I need to take a deep breath.

The energy around is a mess.

Somehow, I need to free myself Starting with my mind, then I'll heal the rest.

I feel I need to take a deep breath.

The energy around is a mess.

Somehow, I need to free myself Starting with my mind, then I'll heal the rest.

I feel I need to take a deep breath.

♪ From South Carolina ETV Studios.

This is Solbird Sessions with TiffanyJ, Backed by Rod Foster and Company.

♪ A moment of transparency, Crown's heavy, need clarity.

Music can be your therapy.

Melody's (the remedy) you need.

Inhale, exhale, unveil, expel toxicity with symphony Inhale, exhale, your truth set sail Mentality, be healed, be free.

Breathe.

Release.

Breathe.

Be free.

Breathe.

Release.

Breathe.

Be free.

Breathe.

♪ When you look at me, you probably see a bold, beautiful, and proud black woman.

What you don't see is my mind turning cartwheels as I try to convince myself I'm good enough.

And like me, many of you are fighting battles people can't see.

Anxiety, I see you.

We fight so much internally that people become immune to the mask.

Here at the intersection of music and mental health, we face the war within.

The war between mind and body.

Joining us is an artist who first discovered the power of music therapy as a patient, which led her to discovering her calling as a musical truth teller.

I'm excited to introduce you to Buggy.

♪ What am I doing here?

Everything I tried to be ends tragically.

Something's wrong with me.

Everything I touch turns right into dust.

Or, am I wrong, baby?

I'm not wrong, baby.

No.

Stay far away.

Lord, have my soul to take.

But remember to write my name in your book just in case I leave too soon.

Really, what's the use?

I was never any good anyways Signed, Mrs.

Misplaced Signed, Mrs.

Misplaced No, I don't know what I'm doing here.

I tried the queen of my demise.

I, I, I, Cried at night, tears all in my eyes.

Baby Yeah.

I'm not wrong, baby.

I'm not wrong, baby.

Ah... Stay far away.

Lord have my soul to take.

But remember to write my name in your book just in case I leave too soon.

But really what's the use?

I was never any good.

Anyways.

Stay far away Lord have my soul to take.

But remember to write my name in your book just in case I leave too soon.

But really, what's the use?

I was never any good anyways, Signed, Mrs.

Misplaced Ah... Oh, tell me what I'm gonna do.

Ah... Signed, Mrs.

Misplaced Oh, Ah... Oh, Why, Oh, Why Ah... Oh, Ah... ♪ Buggy that was truly, truly, truly a heartfelt performance.

Did you all know that body percussion helps with anxiety?

The Remedy Room is about to show more.

So we all have different music that we gravitate toward, and often that's shaped by the area in which we grew up and the culture in which we were raised.

But there's common threads and all that, and rhythm is the biggest one.

So we have rhythm all around us.

We have the rhythm of our days, of our breath, the rhythm of our heartbeat.

So that steady beat is the foundation of music, and we can benefit from engaging in just listening to a steady beat, just the rhythm, or even using body percussion to have a steady beat to ground us.

So that steady beat has been shown to help reduce pain perception and help reduce anxiety just by simply having that steady beat going.

So I'm going to invite you to try a little body percussion with me.

So first let's start out by just tapping back and forth.

You don't have to worry about being on the beat or anything and clapping.

And we can also tap our arms.

Bilateral stimulation is a wonderful thing for common our mind and body too.

When we're going across the midline on the body.

And go ahead and bring that on down to your legs again.

And use your feet to make some noise.

We got our body good and warmed up.

We got our blood flowing.

That's another great benefit with body percussion.

And one pattern that I'm sure you're familiar with is this one.

I invite you to join in with me, you can either tap your legs or stomp your feet.

We got rhythm.

Yes we do.

We got rhythm.

How about you?

So now.

I'm gonna invite you to take turns doing a little different rhythm.

We got rhythm Yes we do.

We got rhythm How bout you?

Now, anybody want to take a solo on this next one.

We got rhythm.

Yes we do, we got rhythm.

How about you?

We got rhythm.

Yes we do, we got rhythm.

How about you?

Anybody else want to try?

We got rhythm.

Yes we do, we got rhythm.

Now give yourselves a hand.

So Buggy, How do you feel?

I feel good.

I feel good.

You know, it's.

It's really a joy to have you on this platform.

You have produced some great, incredible music.

Produced, written.

You know, all of the things.

And my team, when we sorted through your music, it was very hard to choose which two we wanted for you to do on the show.

So you know.

Tell us about your experience with being a songwriter, a producer.

How long have you been a musical artist?

Okay.

Well, I started very young.

I got to give credit.

I'm from DC originally and we listened to a lot of Go-Go music, so shout out to my dad.

He plays bass.

Yeah, he was into Go-Go a lot.

And so just listening to that and I wanted to be a drummer first.

So that's the first thing I learned.

Okay.

And and just being in that world is always been something that I loved.

And I picked up the guitar and it just kind of rose from there and learning how to deal with my feelings and actually be vulnerable with them, you know, and put it to song.

So honestly, did performing today give you anxiety.

Yeah.

Oh, yeah.

Oh yeah I walked in here.

Yes I did.

A lot of it.

A whole lot.

So, anxiety a lot of times people can't see.

when people can't see it, they don't validate your feelings as, as they should or acknowledge them.

But just because people can't see it doesn't mean it's not there, right?

What made you get over the hump of just accepting the call to do something that you felt stretched?

God has blessed me so amazingly.

And I, you know, I wouldn't have these this for nothing.

So I just know I have to push through and actually give my all.

And this is like a relationship and a talk with him really, you know, with God.

And that's why I have to.

yeah.

Chris Green is our mental health professional on the show.

And, Chris, I want to bring you into the conversation.

When you have a gift, what can allow you to ease that anxiety?

To share your gift?

So I think the first thing we have to understand is anxiety is often misunderstood, is something's wrong.

And there's really nothing wrong with anxiety.

It's just your body telling you you're feeling something, right.

music in itself is therapy, right.

You explained that you had anxiety while you're performing, right?

But you had to breathe in order for you to perform so that it's already natural that you do something.

So I think the thing is just breathe, right.

Hold that breath longer when you exhale.

Oh, absolutely.

So Buggy, there's another thing that you and I have in common, right.

So while a lot of people deal with anxiety, you and I share chronic illnesses.

Yes, ma'am.

And when you deal with anxiety on top of chronic illnesses, especially chronic illnesses, people also can't see exactly Yes.

How how do you manage tday to day is very, very heavy.

with what you do with, with and however you want to share that?

Yeah.

So I have sickle cell anemia that is already a disease that I feel like doesn't get a lot of credit or it gives a lot of it's not a lot of awareness, not a lot of awareness for it.

And it affects everything.

It affects what type of socks I put on.

If I have, it does like if it's holding, it does.

If it's too tight, it was squeezing around you cause pain and so people don't know.

It's like my sales are shaped like a crescent moon shaped.

So when they go through your vessels and stuff, like it gets caught up, and that's where it causes this terrible pain crisis.

And I stopped counting how many times I'm into the hospital and surgeries and stuff.

It's been a lot.

So dealing with it, though, I've always had music and that's the thing that I love the most.

And I want to shout out real quick for even at Palmetto Children's Hospital here, Carla Roberts and them over there, they have been beautiful when helping with my illness.

It was a lady who's to come by with a guitar and I can't remember her name, but she used to come by- Music Therapist on staff.

Yeah.

On staff.

Yeah.

And so she would come by and she would just play songs with me, and then I'm like, you know what?

Let me see that.

Let me see that.

Then she'll leave it with me when she goes on break.

And then I just would learn a chord and then learn a chord.

And then actually up there, right there at Palmetto Health, they awarded me my first guitar because I started getting really good with it.

So so so wait wait wait wait wait wait wait.

So you're telling us you learned to play guitar from having a music therapy resource?

Yes, ma'am.

Look at God.

You see that?

You see?

Oh, wow.

You.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Oh, really?

Good.

on our show, we have the Remedy Room.

And our music therapist, Alison Hughey is one of the creators of this art and creative therapy card game.

All right.

Cool.

So I'm going to pick a card, and I'm going to read the card prompt.

Buggy I want you to respond to the first one.

And Chris I'm gonna give you the next one.

All right.

Right, right.

Listen to a song that reminds you of someone you love.

If you'd like to share it.

Send us all to that.

That person with a message of care.

So if you had to do this, what's a song that you would listen to that reminds you of someone you love?

It'll be “Stand By Me.” Okay.

Yeah.

♪ When the night has come and the land is dark And the moon The only light we see ♪ Yeah.

That's my song.

Do you want to share who it reminds you?

Oh, reminds me of.

Okay.

It reminds me of my family.

And first thing in person came up with my daughter.

Yeah, So, Chris.

Okay, this card says choose a song you find calming.

As you listen to the song, bring your attention to the muscle groups from your toes to your face.

Now I want you to do this, but if you had to start this exercise, what song would you choose that you feel is calming?

I probably would say Yahweh.

Yeah, probably say Yahweh.

Which is again another one, a gospel song that is very, very keen to being in tune with Spirit.

So, I've been in tune with myself, and I can imagine myself sitting in the middle of a park, wind blowing grass, and my toes just breathing and feeling everything you just explained.

So yeah.

Yahweh.

So, Chris, we asked the audience some questions before they arrived in the studio today.

They want some responses from you on the topic of anxiety.

Okay.

All right.

So one person said, I sometimes allow my anxiety to control my every move but I want to live my life.

But it's crippling.

Help!

Help!

What should they do?

The first thing they need to identify with themselves is where did they start feeling anxious for that moment?

And when you get to that moment, then you start taking the steps to to self-identify, right?

We can't correct something until we learn where it started.

So say, say if they say it back to you.

what is the step before that.

Like how do I slow down to even get my brain to say, you know, I'm not living in anxiety 24/7 because that's how they're feeling.

And there's like, I in every moment, like, what do you say to that you have to find a moment to slow down.

And journaling is really important.

So write down what you're feeling.

Give it a voice.

Go back and read it.

Don't do any edits.

And it may sound repetitive even as we were talking, but these are the beginning steps.

If you don't learn to self-identify yourself, you don't write these things down, then you're going to have the issues.

It's going to be repetitive, right?

You know, different.

Then you go in the studio or whatever, no matter how many times you're prepared, if you don't get to a point where you're slow down in the studio or whatever and actually think about what you're going to sing, sometimes it just doesn't come out like you want it to come out.

So I just say, write it down, understand what you're writing down.

Just just write it down and then go back and revisit it, So the next person says what helps with anxiety besides medication?

So it's not really a medication.

That medication can do many things right.

That's why we have it.

Outside of breathing.

Find your place of happy.

Find your place of peace.

And once you get there, you begin to allow your body to self-regulate.

You got to find safety again.

Anxiety is it's not.

It's not something wrong with the body.

Your body is just trying to tell you.

Hey, I'm feeling something.

This is unfamiliar to me.

And so you just need to get to a point where you can feel safe.

But if you don't self-regulate your body to feel safe, your body is not going to respond.

So your your mind is in one place.

The body is something different.

And so the goal is to slow it down.

Someone once told me to think of a childhood moment I know a lot of times, especially when you are an adult, you carry the worries of adults and we're like, I don't want it to be grown so bad, but I can't, you know, I wish I didn't have bills no more, you know, whatever.

But there's this moment I think everybody can find as a child that brought them joy.

And I think that is a good place to go back to, to start to have that pause moment, to feel it.

All right.

So before Buggy goes back on the stage to allow us to feel it all, we're going to jump back to the Remedy Room.

So when we're hearing a steady beat, whether it be in a song or in a stadium full of people stomping their feet and cheering, or if we're walking down the hall and we hear somebody wearing high heels going, click clock down the hall, that steady beat is processed And if we open up the brain, you'll see in the middle brain.

we have the limbic system and the amygdala, which is always looking out for danger.

It's kind of like our inner security guard.

And then again, the lower part of the brain.

And then up here on the front, we have the frontal lobe, which is where we have our executive functioning, our decision making, our logic, our ability to communicate and receive communication clearly.

So when we feel worried or when we sense danger, our amygdala send signals to our body and our mind to either fight, flight, freeze, or fawn.

So those reactions are our brain just trying to keep us safe.

But sometimes when we're in prolonged stress or prolonged experience for the trauma or have trauma in our developmental years, that can make it where we stay on edge more than we really need to.

And we talked about what our favorite music is.

What did we grow up with?

So those are the things I think that also calm us.

You know, you put on your favorite music, you think about your favorite singer and music, and which is why I love it, because it's so transformative to your peace of mind and spirit.

You know, you could play one thing and be real high, but then play something else and it just brings a calm about you.

Some music makes us sad, you know?

So music is so important, I think, in regulating our nervous system.

Yes.

Dr.

Dan Siegel is a psychiatrist that shares this on YouTube.

And he uses the palm.

Then the thumb in the middle of the palm represents our amygdala.

And back here we have that rear brain, the reptilian brain.

And then if we fold our fingers over that represents our frontal lobe.

So again that frontal lobe is right here behind her forehead.

That's where we have our executive decision making or critical thinking.

So when our amygdala senses danger we flip our lid.

Right.

So I invite you to follow along with me with the movement.

When your amygdala gets jacked, you flip your lid.

When your amygdala gets jacked, you flip your lid.

When your amygdala gets jacked, Then your thoughts get really whack.

When your amygdala gets jacked, You flip your lid.

The American Psychological Association reports that chronic stress can affect the entire body.

Anxiety doesn't just live in our mind.

It shows up physically.

Fatigue, muscle tension, brain fog, disrupted sleep are all common signs.

But your body is listening.

It's communicating.

Those signals are not weakness.

That's information.

So one simple tool is focusing on your breathing, specifically your exhale.

Slowing down your exhale longer than your inhale, That signals safety to your body.

You're not broken.

Your body is just trying to keep you safe for more resources, visit solbirdsessions.com.

For immediate assistance, you can call or text 988.

♪ See this ain't been the usual day, Man, it's been a long night.

What would it take to get me out of my mind?

See, this is for the ones that don't really get it.

Who got family that suffers with depression It'll only take a second.

Now, Hold on.

I know you feel fed up with my cycles, my emotions dance around just like it's Michael.

Got a balance with me on the tightrope.

and if I'm drowning make my hope float.

I mean, it ain't no telling where I might go.

I can hit rock bottom or the liquor store.

I'm not proud of my actions.

But this is what happens when I feel it all.

Tell me what you feel.

Tell me what you feel.

Tell me what you feel.

Tell me what you feel.

Tell me what you feel.

Tell me what you feel.

Yeah.

Tell me what you feel.

Tell me what you feel.

Tell me what you really feel.

Tell me what you feel.

So 'round and 'round we go.

I spin.

Hey now, ooh baby, baby, baby.

Hey.

Ooo baby, baby, baby.

Don't go too hard on me.

Baby And I can sense that you're angry.

And it's making me anxious.

See all your frustrations I understand.

Oh, I'm so delicate.

Then I turn and switch like a flip kick.

I can't stand the rain like Missy Elliott.

Ten steps forward Then go back again.

Act a fool again.

I'm a hooligan.

Like a Bruno Mars and Andersen.

I can Pak ‘em in.

Talking ‘bout emotional baggages I can handle them ‘cause (I feel it all).

Tell me what you feel.

Tell me what you feel, baby ‘Cause I feel it all Hey, hey, say I feel it all again.

So 'round and 'round.

Come on, Drew Give me some now, Hey Go, I spin.

See, this ain't been the usual days.

Man, it's been a long night.

When would it take to keep me out of my mind?

This is for the ones that don't really get it who got family that suffers with depression.

Hey.

So round and round we go.

I spin.

♪ If there is anything to hold on to.

Is this.

What you're feeling matters.

Even the things no one else can see.

Give yourself permission to slow down and to know it's So when you feel you need to take a deep breath, remeber you have Solbird Sessions, where melody becomes remedy, on South Carolina ETV and Public Radio.

♪ I feel I need to take a deep breath.

The energy around is a mess.

Somehow, I need to free myself.

Starting with my mind then I'll heal the rest.

I feel I need to take a deep breath.

The energy around is a mess Somehow I need to free myself.

Inhale, exhale.

Inhale, exhale.

I feel I need to Oh, Somehow I need to free myself I feel, I feel I need to take a deep breath.

♪