Accidental rejuvenation

I’m sitting at the airport waiting my mom to come through the arrival gates. She is coming to visit her oldest son in Ireland. We don’t see each other’s as much as we should, but it’s a two-way street. I travel a lot and when I have a chance to take a holiday, too often Finland just isn’t on the list. Having said that, this is her second trip to Ireland. As we say, life gets on the way.

But as this has been a busy start to the year, it comes as a perfect excuse for me to take few days off and be a tourist 🙂 I am also bit stuck for photos for my new album “After The Storm”, which seems to be delaying the release date at this stage, so a trip to the West of Ireland hopefully will fix that as well. Also the break is starting to be sorely needed. As you might remember I talked about resetting your brain before, and I can feel the need for this again. I have little bit longer break (6 days) coming up at the end of April, so this should tie me over nicely 😉

As many of you know, I play traditional Irish music as well, in fact lot of my regular session work is surrounded by that here in Dublin. March is a busy month always due to the St. Patrick’s day celebrations. Also it almost feels like a kick off for the tourist season in Dublin. So when I am back working this Sunday after my small mini break, I’ll be working flat-out for few weeks.

I know this is a great problem to have, but it comes with implications as well. If you play as music as I do, tension can build up in your arms. This tension needs to be released, and sometimes a break from the playing is the only way to do it. I have few friends who have become victims of tendonitis and as a result decided to head on a  different career path. Your hands and your arms are your tools, so you need to take care of them.

And the need for a break does not only apply to the full-time musicians. Many of you out there work very hard to build your career in music, while still clocking in 40 hours a week in a day job to finance it all, and the rent. You can very fast become too exhausted. Also tendonitis is not only a musician problem, long hours of typing on a computer can trigger it as well.

You have heard me talk about productivity, efficiency and how to push your self harder. But all of that is no good if once in a while you don’t just stop and charge your batteries. Few days a way from your normal surroundings will make a world of difference. So when an opportunities for an accidental rejuvenation comes along, take it 🙂

J.P.

The author J.P. Kallio is a singer songwriter
To get EIGHT of his songs for free go HERE