Musician H.E.R. Discusses Music, Silence & Mental Health

Gabriella Sarmiento Wilson, known professionally as H.E.R. is an American R&B singer and songwriter.
Considered among India’s 50 most influential people, Sadhguru is a yogi, mystic, bestselling author, and poet. Absolute clarity of perception places him in a unique space, not only in matters spiritual but in business, environmental, and international affairs, and opens a new door on all that he touches.

Transcript

Sadhguru – Namaskaram!

What… starts making music at the age of ten,

Can play five different instruments.

Some Gabby you are,

Hmm?

Gabby – Thank you so much.

Sadhguru – Wonderful talking to you.

Gabby – Oh,

It's an honor to talk to you.

Sadhguru – Please tell me,

Gabby.

Where are you?

In California,

Is it?

Gabby – Yeah,

I'm in California.

Sadhguru – I'm in Milano right now.

Gabby – I like your glasses.

Sadhguru – You're missing the man.

Please tell me.

What shall we talk about?

Gabby – Mental health,

Taking care of… taking care of your mental health.

Sadhguru – Unfortunately,

Artists,

Particularly musicians seem to have more than their share of mental health issues.

The recent surveys are saying that out of 1500 artists who were interviewed,

Nearly 73% of them have depression and bipolar tendencies within them,

Which is very unfortunate because music has a… I will go out to say music as a phenomena because in human life music is a phenomena.

Music as a phenomena should bring so much balance and joy into a human being.

But unfortunately,

It is bringing illness and misery and various kinds of problems.

I mean,

In my opinion,

I think it's because most people are not musicians,

They've become music industry.

It's the industry which is causing all this.

If they're just involved in music for the love of music,

I think they would be doing wonderfully well because music is a great healer,

Music is a great,

You know,

Tranquility and balance it can bring.

It can bring great joy and love into one's life.

But unfortunately,

It's bringing mental imbalances.

I think this is something all musicians should look at it because if people who are doing what they love to do,

If they are mentally ill,

What about all the other people who are doing something just to make a living?

Yeah,

I agree.

It's frustrating.

I think being a musician is a very sensitive place.

It's a very fragile place.

Being in any kind of artist really,

Music I think is just one of the most influential because everyone needs it.

Everyone loves it.

No matter what language you speak,

You can hear a piece of music and be impacted by it and feel something from it.

And I think the industry part and the people that aren't as close to the art,

The people that are in it for the industry,

Sometimes they weaponize the artist.

They take advantage of the sensitivity and really the fragility of it.

And they just use it and take advantage of it for their own benefit.

And being an artist,

You're so giving,

You're so giving.

And you have no choice but to give and to put out what's in you into the world.

People want to continue to take.

And just speaking from my experience,

That pure love for music and the pure joy when you allow the world and people in the world to take advantage of that and to use you,

Then you end up being very drained.

And you end up,

To me,

It's more difficult to listen to yourself because you want to do the right thing.

You care about what people think.

You care about how your music impacts you,

How to make a living.

And people take advantage of that.

And it becomes very hard to listen to your inner voice because there's so many people who are attempting to influence your mind and to influence your creativity,

To package it and turn it into something that is not pure anymore.

And then it becomes very hard,

I think,

To listen to that inner voice.

And you start believing all these lies that are told about you to you.

You start believing other people and what you know to be right.

And this is just kind of my experience.

Even in just the past two years,

I've had to reset my way of thinking and really come back to myself and get back to the truth and kind of push any kind of ego or pride or anyone else's influence out the way.

And it became like,

I don't know if this is even appropriate to say,

But it became somewhat of a subconscious schizophrenia or something.

And it's like when other people kind of infiltrate what is pure within you.

That's a very complex way of looking at it,

Gabby.

Very complex.

It's not necessary to make such simple aspects of life so complex.

See,

The simple thing is this,

When you say you're a musician,

As I said earlier,

You're doing something that you love to do.

And it's not only making you a living,

It is also making you popular,

It's making you a celebrity.

So,

You should have nothing to complain.

Instead of that,

We are finding all kinds of things.

Now,

You said sometimes,

When it's seventy-three percent,

You can't say sometimes,

All right?

If it is two percent,

Five percent,

You can say sometimes.

Seventy-three percent is not sometimes,

Literally all the time.

Literally all the time.

So,

Why is this happening is something that we must pay a little more attention.

Since you're complicating it in terms of ego,

Pride,

This one,

Fame,

Name,

All this,

All this is there.

But the important thing is this,

That human beings have not learned how to handle their own thought and their own emotion.

It's as simple as that.

Why is it?

How long should it take for a human being to understand?

See,

For example,

You know how to use your ten fingers.

How many years should it take for us to learn to use these ten fingers to eat or to do something simple,

Or maybe play a guitar?

Well,

Everybody figures it out by the time they're ten,

Twelve,

How to use the fingers.

Maybe musician learns to use it in so many other ways and different… people learn to use it in different ways of expertise,

That's different.

But just the simple thing about using your limbs,

You'll learn it just like that.

But the simple aspect of using your thought and emotion the way you want it,

Seems to take a lifetime.

This is simply because,

You know,

People are trying to run their lives with belief systems,

With ideologies,

With philosophies,

Not looking at life in terms of,

If you want to be peaceful,

Joyful,

If you want to be productive in whatever you're doing,

The most important thing is your body and your mind should take instructions from you.

So,

What you call as illness is just a case of your body and your mind not taking instructions from you.

So,

Your body doesn't listen to you,

Your mind doesn't listen to you,

Your emotions don't listen to you,

Your chemistry doesn't listen to you,

Your life energies don't listen to you.

So,

You're happening as an accidental force.

When you're accidental,

Anxiety is natural.

When… If you're driving a car,

And if you do the steering like this,

It goes in the wrong direction,

Then anybody will be anxious,

Even if you're the best driver,

You will be anxious.

All right?

So,

That's all that's happening right now,

That your thought,

Your emotion,

Your chemistry,

Nothing goes the way you want.

I think,

Whether… it doesn't matter what is the nature of what we do in life,

Everybody needs to do this much that we find a way,

A system through which our body,

Our mind takes instructions from us,

Does not function in reaction to what's around us.

See,

We are the only creatures on this planet who are referred to as a being.

You're a human being.

We don't call a tiger a tiger being.

We don't call an ant an ant being.

We don't call an elephant an elephant being.

They're creatures.

We are beings.

What this means is,

We are supposed to know how to be.

How far away from that people have gone.

If you knew how to be,

Would you choose to be blissful or miserable,

Gabby?

What's your choice?

Blissful?

So you ask anybody in the world for themselves,

It is always the highest level of pleasantness that they want.

Sometimes when they're in their moods,

What they want for their neighbor may be debatable,

But what they want for themselves is very clear,

Highest level of pleasantness.

Why such a simple thing is not happening?

Because we are not understanding that human mechanism.

This is the most sophisticated machine on the planet.

Most complex and sophisticated machine.

This body,

This brain,

Everything put together.

How to operate this?

I'm asking you,

Have you read the user's manual?

No?

You do one thing,

If you buy yourself a new phone,

Should you read the user's manual in the first three days or after three years when you're getting rid of the phone?

You must read it.

Sooner the better.

So you are still a very young woman.

I think it's time to read the user's manual,

Understand how to operate this.

So essentially,

All ailments,

No matter mental ailments I'm talking,

Are essentially some level of compulsiveness.

Our thought,

Our emotion,

Our chemistry becomes compulsive.

It starts moving in a certain direction.

So taking charge of this or in a simpler way to put it,

That you at least read the user's manual,

How does this work?

What makes it work the way it works?

If we pay attention to this,

There is a whole science and technology.

As there is a science and technology to take charge of external situations,

To create external situations the way we want,

We are using technology in so many ways.

But the greatest piece of technology is right here.

To take charge of this also there is a science.

It is just that our education systems,

Most of the cultures in the world have never looked at it.

So people are operating as accidental beings.

If they fail,

They're miserable.

If they succeed,

They're miserable.

Look at this.

Successful people are not bursting with joy.

They're also miserable.

Those who fail are also miserable.

So generally,

A lot of people keep on saying,

Children are joyful.

I'm asking you,

When you are five years of age,

If you're so joyful,

By the time you're thirty,

You should have been ecstatic,

Isn't it?

If you… if growth happened.

But retardation is happening.

This is happening mainly because without figuring out the nature of the machine that we are operating,

We're trying to operate it accidentally,

Just by chance.

When you do things by chance,

Well,

You will be only fifty percent successful.

Fifty percent of the time you may be okay.

But if you're only fifty percent successful in your life,

Or if you're only right fifty percent of the time,

There are only two professions for such people.

You can either become a weatherman or you can become an astrologer.

Anything else you need to do,

You need better percentage than that.

That's funny.

So,

How do you get a hold of your own user manual?

The problem is,

Just imagine how it would be.

We were born from our mother's wombs.

If there was a book hanging around our neck,

That wouldn't look nice.

So,

It got written into us,

We need to watch this.

See,

I'll tell you a simple thing.

Right now,

You can experiment if you want,

Or you can do it later.

Simple thing.

See,

Right now,

Your hands like this,

Facing down.

Keep it on your thigh,

This way,

Facing down.

Keep it on your thigh comfortably.

Just close your eyes and just inhale and exhale.

And notice where is the maximum expansion and contraction.

Where do you feel which part of the lung is filling up more?

My diaphragm is filling up.

Now turn it,

Turn it around like this,

Keeping it on the thigh,

Turn it around.

Then breathe,

Breathe deep and see where is,

Where does it fill up?

Or where is the maximum expansion and contraction?

It's even lower.

It's even lower.

You know,

I'll tell you,

When you keep it facing down,

It is in the lower lobe of the lung.

When you turn it around,

It moves to the middle lobe of the lung.

You can try it again and see.

So,

Why this is happening is,

If you just turn your hand around,

The way you breathe alters itself.

That is how subtle and sophisticated this machine is.

So,

I'm asking,

How many times in a day,

Millions of people are doing this without knowing what they're doing to themselves?

I'm saying,

The very way you sit,

The way you stand,

The way you hold yourself,

Everything is affecting the very chemistry and the organization of the body.

But there is no education to tell you how to do this.

So,

There is a whole science.

Generally,

You're in California,

I'm really afraid to use this word.

The word yoga in the West has become like this,

You twist yourself,

Turn yourself,

You know,

In the end,

You look like a leftover noodle.

That is the idea of yoga.

No,

The word yoga means you're in union.

The word yoga means you paid substantial attention to yourself,

That you have obliterated the boundaries of your individuality.

That is,

If you sit here,

You experience life in union with everything else.

Well,

Every human being has experienced this sometime,

A moment of love,

Moment of togetherness.

Somewhere people have touched this,

That you can experience yourself beyond your body,

Beyond the boundaries of your body.

But it is momentary.

They're not able to be like that.

If you could stay like that every moment,

Then we say you're in yoga.

Yoga does not mean twisting,

Turning at all.

Yoga means union,

That this is possible only for a human being.

That's why we are beings,

That we can be in such a way that our physical structure,

The boundaries of your body are not the limitations of our life.

If we do not explore this,

We feel trapped.

This is the nature of the human being.

See,

Every other creature is happy.

If their stomach is full,

Their life is complete.

They don't have to do anything else.

But once you're a human being,

Stomach empty,

Only one problem.

Stomach full,

One hundred problems.

Because once survival process is taken care of,

Then human being starts longing to expand.

Doesn't matter who you are,

What you are.

You want to be something more than what you are right now.

If that more happens right now,

Immediately you want something more.

If that happens,

Something more.

If you really look at it,

You want to expand in a limitless way.

If you want to expand in a limitless way,

Can you do this physically?

Physicality exists because of limited boundaries.

Without boundary,

There is no physical.

But there is something within you who wants to expand in an unlimited way.

This simply means there is something within you always longing to touch something which is beyond physical nature.

If you do not allow this life to touch that,

Then it gets frustrated within.

Nothing needs to go wrong in one's life.

If you just become stagnant in your life,

You will get sick.

This is the nature of human existence.

This is not the way other creatures are made.

Other creatures are happy with stagnation.

Other creatures are happy with status quo of their life.

Human beings are not happy with status quo.

Something needs to happen because it's always looking for limitless expansion.

Limitless expansion is possible only if you touch a dimension beyond physical nature.

This has not been facilitated for most human beings.

This is the reason why everything seems to be a problem.

The more successful a society becomes,

More affluent a society becomes rather,

You will see more and more people will turn sick in that society,

Simply because they're not fighting for survival anymore.

So they struggle within themselves,

Not knowing where to go,

How to go.

This guidance,

This possibility has to be opened up for every human being.

A conscious planet,

A more conscious human beings,

If we do not strive for that,

Then everything that human beings have achieved at a great cost,

At a great cost.

When I say a great cost,

See,

To achieve affluence either in individual life,

Or in the society's life,

Or in a nation's life,

Or in the planet's life,

Let's say in the humanity's life,

It's an extremely arduous journey.

And every other life pays a price for this.

Every creature,

From a microbial life to the biggest creature on the planet,

Has paid a price for our affluence and our well-being.

But human beings,

After doing all this,

They're not even happy.

They're losing their mind.

And losing your mind is not an individual thing anymore.

WHO is talking about,

In the next year or two,

There will be a mental health pandemic.

The United States Surgeon General is saying,

Every two.

.

.

One among two Americans is feeling lonely right now.

So what's happening to the other guy,

I don't know.

So,

One and two are feeling lonely.

Loneliness is a place where we incubate mental illness.

Once we feel.

.

.

Start feeling lonely,

Depression is just the next step.

So there is a whole science,

There's a whole technology how we can create a blissful chemistry.

One has to come in touch with that.

Right now,

You play music.

If it all goes well,

Yes,

Music creates a blissful chemistry.

But if it doesn't,

After some time,

There's a problem.

Because right now,

All these musicians,

Seventy-three percent,

Whatever,

Getting sick is mainly because they're in high decibel sounds.

Even there is such high decibel sounds around them,

They release excess hormones in their system,

Which causes enormous stress right across the body.

Wow,

That's very interesting.

I never knew that.

For yourself,

Gabby,

The important thing is,

You know,

To create spaces and times where you can simply be still and in silence.

There is a tremendous benefit from that.

There's.

.

.

It is in the scape of silence that all sounds can happen.

And silence not to create something,

Silence not to write a song or make music,

Just simply,

Simply being silent.

Like everything else is in creation,

Just being silent,

It will change the very neurological system.

The brain plasticity can go through a tremendous amount of shift.

We have a whole lot of studies right now.

We have a center in the Harvard Medical School where studies are done.

If you want,

I will send you those,

The results of those studies.

It's just incredible what kind of difference it makes just a few minutes a day.

If you practice something powerful,

What kind of difference it makes in your chemistry and in your energy systems.

Wow.

Yeah,

I would love to see that.

It's very important for me as I move forward in life.

To remember the things that you're telling me.

Because I think I've been moving accidentally.

If we do anything accidentally,

Anxiety becomes natural part of our life,

Isn't it?

So,

Do you think sitting in silence and having that moment,

Do you think that that will make a difference in the way that I make decisions in my life and the choices that I make and the people I choose to surround myself with?

Once you have clarity,

Say right now,

Let's have a physical vision.

Your eyes are very clear.

To walk across the room in which you're sitting,

It's not a problem,

Isn't it?

Simply,

Effortlessly you will go.

But if you can't see properly,

Let's say it's dark or you cannot see properly,

Then you see a simple thing walking through the furniture,

How difficult it is.

How many times you're going to bump into something or the other.

So,

This is how life is.

To bring clarity.

Right now,

We are muddled.

People are just getting muddled with their own thoughts and with their own emotions.

Because most people don't realize thought and emotion is not life.

Thought and emotion is psychological drama that we are playing.

Our thought and our emotions are created by us.

They are not our nature.

We are creating them.

Unfortunately,

Most people are creating them unconsciously.

So,

It feels like it's happening to them.

No,

Thought and emotion are not happening.

We are creating them.

Most human beings,

Unfortunately,

Are doing it unconsciously.

Whatever you do unconsciously,

It looks like somebody is doing it to you.

Nobody is doing it to us,

It's ourselves.

Every thought that we generate,

Every emotion that we generate is our making.

I'm asking you a simple question.

Right now,

You see me?

Can you see me?

Yes.

Yes,

I see you.

Use one hand or finger and point out where do you see me?

You're here.

Wrong,

Wrong,

Wrong.

See,

This image is coming and going through your lenses,

Inverted image in the retina,

That whole story you know.

So,

You are seeing me within yourself.

You're hearing me within yourself.

You have seen the whole world only within yourself.

Everything that ever happened to you,

Everything that ever happened to you,

Happen only within you.

Pain and pleasure happen within you.

Joy and misery happen within you.

Agony and ecstasy happen within you.

So,

Whole human experience is happening only within you.

It never happened outside of you.

There may be an external stimuli,

But it's only happening within you.

Why is it what's happening within you doesn't happen the way you want?

So,

When human experience,

The seat of human experience is within you,

If you don't take charge of that,

That is a tragic thing.

What happens within you must happen your way.

What happens around us will never happen hundred percent our way.

Some things will happen my way,

Some things will happen your way,

Some things will happen somebody else's way.

This is the nature of the world.

But what happens within us must happen our way,

Isn't it?

If what happens within us happens our way,

We naturally will be blissful human beings.

And when you're blissful,

You will do your best.

With the world,

You do your best and that's all we can do.

In this life,

If we do not do what we cannot do,

There is no problem.

But if we do not do what we can do,

We are a disastrous life.

But right now,

This is the problem with most human beings.

They are an impediment to themselves.

They don't need any outside enemies.

They're doing great.

This is what mental illness means.

Well,

It sounds little cruel what I'm saying,

But because when it happens to you,

It looks like it's happening to you from somewhere else.

But it's happening from within.

It is not some other source of misery that's coming to us.

It's happening from within.

Why is it happening from within?

Somewhere we fail to take charge of it.

And there are means and methods and a whole science as to how to take charge of our interiority.

Julie Gichuru Yeah.

Wow.

I hope to be able to pay attention.

Sadhguru Please explore this.

I will ask them to send you a link to a certain process.

It's a seven step process.

It's called Inner Engineering.

I'll ask them to send that to you.

Go through the seven steps.

It'll make a world of difference to you.

Julie Gichuru Amazing.

Thank you so much.

Sadhguru Thank you,

Gabby.

Wonderful talking to you.

I would like to hear you playing those five different instruments.

Julie Gichuru Thank you so much.

Sadhguru What all do you play?

Julie Gichuru I play piano,

The bass,

The drums,

Guitar,

Little upright bass and I'm learning the violin.

So I'm having fun.

Sadhguru One day you must play for me.

Julie Gichuru I would love that.

Sadhguru That'll be wonderful.

Thank you,

Gabby.

Wonderful talking to you.

Julie Gichuru Thank you so much for this conversation.

It really changed my way of thinking.

Sadhguru Wonderful.

Thank you.

You must do some music for me one day.

Julie Gichuru I will,

Definitely.

Thank you.

Namaskaram.

Reviews

What more can I say. This man is amazing