For those who don't know, the community education program at IU is very unique and it's a very powerful and important program in my opinion, because the folks who are part of it are essentially social justice educators. So Kristen is giving us really wonderful perspective about mental health and various aspects of social justice. When we talk about the healing power of music and specifically musical anthem
Kristen McVicar
@Kristen · 1:27
And for those of you who don't know, that song is very empowering because it's basically saying, you can knock me down, you can punch me, kick me, curse my name. I'm not giving you the satisfaction of me quitting. And that has been my life for the past several months. Like, I'm not giving you or anyone the satisfaction of me quitting. And I feel like anthems are really important because it really pushes you to keep moving forward. It gives you hope
What music actually empowers me if I'm in a low space listening to the City Girl song is not going to help me if I'm in a low space listening to Killing in the name of is not going to help me, so I'm curious for you, Kristen you kind of mentioned this, but to dive more deeper into it. How does your musical anthem change with your circumstances and with your mood or whatever kind of comfort you're looking to get? Let me know
Swell Team
@Swell · 0:15
Kristen McVicar
@Kristen · 3:34
And for me finding the right song, because sometimes songs have the ability to put your emotions into words where you don't know the words, it can tell you and express how you're really feeling without you even have to say anything. And for me, there's three songs that I think of for, like, anthems when I'm really low, and two of them are by the same artist, Hunter Hayes
Thank you, Kristen, for your music recommendations and also for sharing your own story about how they've positively impacted your life. And also I appreciate you mentioning the importance of reaching out and that music helps, but it's okay that it doesn't cure things. It's just not reasonable to think that, but it's a tool for support, but it's not the only tool for support
Kristen McVicar
@Kristen · 1:36
It's important to have a song that really helps inspire you to keep going. But anthems can also be like, signifiers on your triumphs. Like, for example, graduating, you have your own song for that, making it through like, a rough time. And, like, succeeding despite all the struggles, there's an anthem for that. Recently, I have reached a major milestone with my mental health, and that itself deserves an anthem
Thank you for your question, Kristen. Before I respond, I want to reply to some of the brilliant things that you just said because my mind is now, like snowballing into all of these really great thoughts because of what you said. And I like how you brought up that there really isn't a wrong answer to the role that music plays or that musical anthems play
Kristen McVicar
@Kristen · 3:11
It kind of like makes you think it's slow, but it's really happy or vice versa. There's other songs as well, but yeah, and I feel like every song means something different. There are certain songs that I listen to that I think of something completely different