Who: Raveena
Where: Los Angeles, Calif.
Recommendation: Reconnecting with alternative healing methods, the creative process and your community
What's helping my spirit stay healthy is a vague sense of routine and developing a sense of purpose during this time. My work as a musician has been disrupted in the obvious ways: All my live shows have been canceled; I can't go to the studio and record my album anymore and work with my usual collaborators. I have been coping by turning all my sense of purpose from a work standpoint into writing new songs by myself and learning instruments, honing new skills and deeply exploring parts of my art that get put on the back burner because of all my other engagements.
I also have been using this time to get as creatively inspired and recharged as possible. I'm trying to read, free write, dance in my underwear, draw and paint, watch lots of Criterion movies, watch my favorite people on Masterclass, be a sponge and learn as much as I can about my craft and other crafts.
While aspects of quarantining are hell (the feeling of not being free to move around, money anxiety, the anxiety of getting the virus, feeling like outside is a apocalyptic spooky landscape), some aspects also feel like being a kid on summer vacation. Leisure time to just get lost in a creative pursuit, a book, or a dream for hours. It's funny — when I looked back on my goals I wrote for 2020, they were actually very in line with what most people are now taking the time to do. I wanted to meditate more, read more, watch more movies, get better at my instruments, buy less and live a more minimal life. I had so many concrete plans for this year and I was expecting to be working at a very fast pace, so it's interesting seeing how my personal goals were all actually around slowing down and going against the usual capitalistic grind that we put ourselves through.
This also feels like a really powerful time to connect with alternative healing methods and focus on the health of the body and spirit. My grandma has been giving me passages of Sikh prayer to read in the morning; my mom gave me an Ayurvedic recipe for turmeric milk; my friend Chris showed me an acupuncture method for calming anxiety that involves swinging a ball between both hands; my friend Zoe gave us a sea moss tincture that was used to heal people when SARS was breaking out. I've been trading tons of recipes back and forth with friends and family and we've been joyfully sending each other pictures of healthy quarantine lunches and dinners. Hiking and going to parks, at a safe social distance, is one of the few things we can still do, so getting in touch with nature has been really beautiful and important in this strange new existence. I think the earth is maybe asking us to slow down and heal ourselves and, in turn, her as well.
I know how devastating this time is from financial and health aspects, but in a way, it also feels like it's bringing us all together and I feel more in touch with my community than ever. Even on the internet — we feel less competitive, less out of touch with each other, less inclined to bring each other down or drag each other. Strangely, I feel like I'm going to miss parts of this strange pandemic reality. Above all else, I'm wishing everyone love and lots of time spent on the phone with friends, lots of time reconnecting with their inner child and abundance of safety and health for all human beings.
Raveena recently released an EP called Moonstone.
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