“𝘐 𝘧𝘦𝘦𝘭 𝘭𝘪𝘬𝘦 𝘦𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘺𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘧𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘴 𝘢𝘱𝘢𝘳𝘵 𝘧𝘢𝘴𝘵𝘦𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘯 𝘐 𝘤𝘢𝘯 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘬 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴 𝘣𝘢𝘤𝘬 𝘶𝘱 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘱𝘶𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘮 𝘵𝘰𝘨𝘦𝘵𝘩𝘦𝘳... 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘐 𝘢𝘮 𝘱𝘪𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘶𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘪𝘦𝘤𝘦𝘴 and that's what counts.”
“'Day by day, step by step, mile by mile, brick by brick” -Whitney Houston
Prianca is a British-Indian songwriter. Prianca found strength in music to overcome some personal challenges and wrote songs that captured her emotional troubles. Music has played a cathartic role as she found writing lyrics allowed her to paint a picture of what she was experiencing at the time.
Passionate about helping others, Prianca RA aims to bring more awareness around mental health and reduce the stigma surrounding mental health through music. In one of her songs she sings, ‘even though we’re hurting it doesn’t mean we’re not healing’. Through this, Prianca shows that recovery is not a linear process and many experience days where everyday tasks are a struggle to do and they are constantly battling with their mind. It should be normalized in society to have these days and not fear consequences or fear that we are taking steps back in our recovery journey. Prianca is motivated to keep making music that would change views on mental health and impact listeners in a positive way; she says, 'If I can impact one person, if one person comes to be and says "Prianca your music really helped me through a difficult time", for me,that would be the most important goal to achieve.
What does mental health and wellness mean to you?
Mental health and wellness to me doesn’t mean that every day you expect every day to be all rosy and full of sunshine and positivity. There are days where life gets really hard and events happen that may put us off course and affect our feelings and mind. The events that affect our feelings and mind affect our mental health and wellness but there are systems to help how you cope in such an event; for example, the resources and helplines you outline on your site. For me on days where life is hard the light of hope in me doesn’t go out, I am at a point where I can feel so low and drained but know that there are better days and there is more to my life than what I am feeling presently. As Martin Luther King Jr said: ‘just take the first step, you don’t have to see the staircase, just take the first step’. This message epitomizes my mental health and wellness strategy for the days where I find it near impossible to be productive and “happy”.
Tell us about your work as it relates to mental health and wellness?
I am a singer and songwriter based in the UK. I found strength in music to overcome some personal challenges and wrote songs that captured my emotional troubles. Music has played a cathartic role as I found writing lyrics allowed me to paint a picture of what I was experiencing at the time. I was confused about my PTSD diagnosis and it was hard to know what was going on with me. Many professionals and forums compared PTSD to being an out-of-body experience but I didn’t feel that; I was very much in my body but I was teleported to outer space living in solitude on a spacecraft. So I wrote the song SPACECRAFT BURNOUT as a metaphor for my PTSD: I remember feeling the way I was feeling during those months where I really needed support to come to terms with past trauma, I felt connected to my body I just didn’t feel connected to others, it was hard to communicate with my family. I felt alienated and I was living by myself on a spacecraft with a communication network that had a bad signal.
Passionate about helping others, I now want to bring more awareness around mental health and reduce the stigma surrounding mental health through music.
Can you discuss some of the personal challenges you have overcome related to your music?
Some extended family assume I want to be the next pop sensation or reach for fame. Then they proceed to tell me it’s hard to make it as an artist. I studied law and my family always assumed I would go on to become a lawyer. Law wasn’t the right career for me and I’m about to embark upon a new career outside of music. I shouldn’t have to justify or face assumptions. I am an artist because I have a genuine passion about creating and preserving memories through my own music.
In your bio one of your lyrics is quoted, “even though we’re hurting it doesn’t mean we’re not healing” can you break down that line for our readers?
Sure! The lyrics “even though we’re hurting it doesn’t mean we’re not healing’ basically mean that it is okay sometimes to take a step back from the commotion that life brings but that does not mean that you are taking a step back in your recovery journey. Like I mentioned before, taking a step back and having days where you don’t want to do anything because you feel so drained is perfectly okay. We’re human, we’re not machines that you can just switch on and off. I’m healing because before I had suicidal thoughts but now there is internal light within me where I know there is purpose and I want to recover from trauma I am dealing with. I am not in the best place or know what the recovery destination looks like, but there is a bigger horizon beyond my sight and I want to go there.
How do you prioritize self-care? What does a self-care day look like for you?
Ans: self-care for me is listening to my music playlist whilst taking a walk and getting some fresh air. I like swimming too so I try to swim when I can. I then like to sit back unwind and watch a feel good comedy (even if it's a comedy I have watched time and time again like Fresh Prince or Friends)! I try to stay off social media as well to detach myself and focus on my own environment.
When I have self-care days I reflect so ideas or lyrics could pop in my mind and I’d write them down to then go back to later.
What advice would you give to your teenage self about prioritizing your mental health and wellness?
Ans: don’t push yourself harder or criticize yourself too much because you suffered as a result. You hurt yourself, you got drunk to escape the fact you were harboring past abuse that no one knew about. You focused on your studies and worked really hard to get good grades and go to a great Uni to compensate for the brokenness you felt inside and that’s a good thing but now you know it’s okay to talk about what you went through. You’re even writing songs about it and you are putting yourself first: being a workaholic isn’t going to fix the situation, it is an escape but it doesn’t lead to a destination.
Any final words for our readers?
Ans: you’re amazing for reading this far. We are all warriors in our own right and I’m always open to reading DMs and replying. I’ll do my best to listen to you and give advice or just generally chat about whatever. If you have any ideas on how I can communicate mental health through my music or if you know more about other mental health issues beside anxiety, depression and PTSD, I would love to know more about them so I can create music to address them. The world would be a better place if there was more kindness
Contact: priancaramusic@gmail.com
Website: https://www.priancara.com/