Jaz Elise shares how she maintains good mental health
For genre-bending singer Jaz Elise, catering to her mental health is top priority especially during the pandemic.
“I do a lot of breathing, I do a lot of guided meditation and yoga…” she said during a recent interview with DJ Becca Dudley.
“I just make sure I take time out a mi day fi pray and give thanks and just centre myself and stay connected to people ‘cause this is just a isolating time if you’re not careful.” She added that the physical distancing induced by the times has made her more appreciative of the “little things” like social support.
“There were parts of last year that were really, really rough for me personally, just the whole pandemic and not being able to be around family… One thing it taught me, to be honest, is that social support is very important for me and sometimes it can mean just reaching out, calling somebody…those little things that we used to take for granted, to how it just helps us to ground ourselves and fi just be stable.
It gave me a lot of hope to just be able to message my mom and just check in on my friends and drive out somewhere and go look at the water and the sky.”
Contributing to her zen is advice from her InDiggNation principal, Protoje, when it comes to her feelings of career uncertainty.
“Him have this thing where him she, ‘Is not a sprint, is a marathon’ and sometimes it gets so frustrating especially as an independent artist for a very long time and I’m still a very independent person but it’s just like going from all the drive then the uncertainty… Sometimes it can be a little anxiety-provoking and a likkle frustrating if you don’t quite know what’s happening or where you going and sometimes yuh just haffi go through the motions and know seh nothing is just a quick buss.
You want a career in this thing so is a marathon so everything I’m doing is working towards the type of life and the type of career and stability that I want so that’s really something that him definitely drive home with me.”
Elise’s debut EP The Golden Hour was released in March and features seven tracks including After 3 (featuring Mortimer), Elevated and Straying.
