One post said, “learning to take
care of myself when things are
stressful has been a struggle my
whole life.” How have you been
working on this?
I have been meditating and
taking the time to decompress.
It makes a big difference in how
I feel. It can be hard to focus
on meditating when you’re on
edge and stressed out. I work
on listening to my breath and try
my best to ignore the clutter of
thoughts. It helps to use a guid-
ed meditation to keep my focus.
The greatest form of medita-
tion for me is singing, though. A
song or a whole set can become
a total emotional release when
I’m locked in and belting some-
thing out.
Does the song writing process
help as well?
Yes. Songwriting does help
with stress. The songs I write are
taken right out of my journals. I
NJ STAGE 2017 - Vol. 4 No. 9
pour my heart out onto a page,
and then I am able to get on with
my life. There have been times
when I had severe writer’s block
and I didn’t feel like myself. I was
bogged down and heavy.
I read that you were a bit of a
punky/goth teenager. Did that
cause issues growing up?
I was a total goth from the ages
of about 12-16, and I definitely
did not fit into the small catholic
schools that I attended. I lived
the majority of my life with my
Dad in the mile-square town of
South Amboy. Middle school
was especially rough for me,
but I’m sure it’s pretty torturous
for most tweens. I stuck out like
a sore thumb and was teased
relentlessly for my “dress down
day” fashion choices. I loved
black nail polish and safety pins!
The majority of my close friends
didn’t go to my school, so, al-
though I was friendly with most
INDEX
NEXT ARTICLE
10