Bressie’s advice on staying sane in a world gone mad

This year has been a strange one for all. Bressie, co-founder of A Lust for Life, and the man behind mental health podcast series, Where Is My Mind, tells the Westmeath Examiner how he has managed to keep busy in one of the most challenging times for his industry, and reminds us all to keep anger and frustration at the global pandemic in check.

His Lockdown Ukulele, which he describes as “just a silly idea that grew into something much bigger... Every ounce of it driven from Mullingar, it was recorded and filmed here”, saw hundreds of cocooning individuals get involved in a national music project during lockdown.

“I’ve been in Mullingar 30 odd weeks now,” he begins. “The recording studio (in Dublin) is the only problem, and it is difficult running a business from Mullingar but we're now into another lockdown so I don’t really have much of a choice.

“Obviously the business has been deeply affected, bands need to play live music in order to make money to be able to record, it’s a circle and we’re part of the circle,” he explains.

The Blizzards recently played their first gig in seven months at Tullynally Castle, a Visit Westmeath initiative. It was live streamed and raised funds for LARCC Cancer Support Centre in Multyfarnham.

“That was immensely enjoyable,” says Breslin. “The only thing that was hard about it was knowing that we probably won’t be able to do it again for a long time. And that’s the problem.”

The online concert marked the release of the band’s latest single, One Good Thing, the video for which was shot by director Terry McMahon on Mullingar's lakes and premiered on Sunday night's IFTA's. (Watch it here )

“We as a band decided that throughout this pandemic we’d keep doing stuff. We made another music video earlier this year in complete isolation with motion sensors, so we’ve managed to stay deeply connected to the music industry throughout it all. We were very much involved in the We Are The Support Act (a campaign for artists), so we’ve done our best to make sure that we stay connected with our peers and not isolated from them.”

The art of podcasting

The time spent at home for Bressie has allowed him to do “nothing but research and read, and figure out what’s important to people right now – what they are struggling with, and what are the things we need to address”.

He does so via his Where Is My Mind podcast, and his Wake Up Wind Down podcast on Spotify, both of which have benefited many, particularly in the last year.

Now, as Covid-19 case numbers continue to rise, Bressie believes the national mood is very different to the first time around. It’s more angry, and there’s huge levels of frustration.

“I think it’s something we really need to watch. At the start, there were huge levels of fear, and with Lockdown Ukulele, the aim was to try to occupy people who had to cocoon, or who felt a little dismissed by the idea of being told to stay in their homes. This time around I think it’s a different mindset we’re finding ourselves in.

“There is that level of frustration, even though we were told that there would be a second wave. I think now that we’re in it, people feel frustrated and slightly angry that more wasn’t done during the interim period to make sure hospital capacity was going to be able to deal with it.”

Bressie also thinks the pandemic has highlighted the high level of inequality in Ireland.

“When you look at things like direct provision, and homelessness, and we look at our Tánaiste and our Taoiseach, who were both ministers of health before this... At the end of the day the reason we’ll probably go into strict Level 5 restrictions is we don’t have the capacity in our health system, that’s the fundamental problem. That’s why Ireland has to be slightly stricter on their recommendations compared with the rest of Europe.

“I think people have a right to be frustrated because we’re a wealthy country, we pay a lot of tax, so why are we in a position where we’re now looking at a health system with such limited resources. But at the end of the day anger’s not going to fix this.

“Right now we’re all in survival mode because there’s nothing else we can do. We must stay collective and not turn on each other or rip each other apart because that’s what’s happening online at the moment and it’s not going to help us.”

Shared humanity

Bressie believes the one good thing to come out of it all is the “shared humanity”.

“We’re all in this together – we’re all frustrated and we’re all angry, we’re all scared. What’s happening is people are going on Instagram and thinking someone else is having a field day, which is not true. We’re all struggling with this. People keep going on about words like ‘resilience’ and stuff like that, but this is the definition of resilience. Just getting up every day, getting the kids up and out to school, having a coffee, working and getting to the end of the day. And that should be enough right now.

“You don’t need to run a marathon, you don’t need to learn 10 languages, you just need to get through this. That is the very definition of resilience,” he says.

“I don’t know what any individual is carrying or dealing with, but it does give me comfort to know that I’m not the only one finding it difficult. I have many tools to stop myself getting overwhelmed, and one of them is to watch what you’re surrounding yourself with. If you are constantly reading horrific negativity on your phone, it is definitely going to affect your mental health, it really is.

“Ask yourself how much of your time are you spending looking at other people rather than actually being with the people you love, giving them your presence and attention, and surrounding yourself with people that make you feel comfortable. That, for me, is the best way to get through this.”

Accolades and activism

Years of speaking about his own mental health, and that of others, and the stigma that still surrounds the topic in Ireland have seen the Mullingar man and UCD graduate honoured by Trinity Law Society with a Praeses Elit Award.

“The award was founded by Mary Robinson, who I am massively inspired by. I’ve read all her books and she has done phenomenal work on human rights as well as her work on women’s rights in Ireland. So I was very humbled to be part of it,” he says.

“There was meant to be a big speech in Trinity Law Society, which I was preparing for, but it ended up being a Zoom speech made from my bedroom,” he laughs. “It was a slight anti-climax, but it was a huge honour nonetheless.

“We need the legal brains of today to get behind the mental health movement because a lot of the obstacles surrounding mental health are legal obstacles that we need to address.

“I’m also looking back to when we started A Lust for Life. You see young people now showing huge energy around social activism and change. But within activism your audience isn’t the people you agree with, it’s the people you don’t agree with. They’re the people you need to bring on board.

“And also with activism, you’re meant to look at what works in our society. I look at our really amazing teachers and education system, and I also look at our flawed and broken health system – which has amazing people working in it. I ask how are we going to effectively develop mental health programmes and the only way to do that is to work with our schools, because that’s the best vehicle right now.

“At the moment we’re very good at going into our own corners and shouting at each other. One of my big passions is to try to make young people aware that the energy they have is amazing but they need to really focus that energy, because it’s not all about protesting, we have to think bigger than that.

“That’s the only way to achieve proper social change and effect a paradigm shift in our governments. We need to stop standing over inequality and the pretty horrific stuff going on in society.”

Coming back to educating the young, Breslin’s children’s books deal with the different emotions kids experience but don’t have the language to express.

“We’ve been taught as children to dismiss difficult emotions, to ignore anger, sadness and fear, but these are crucial components to the human condition.

“Kids should be taught that these emotions should not be brushed aside, they should be explored and understood and that’s what the books are about, and about using mindfulness techniques to do that.”

The new book, The Chill Skill, explores anger. “Anger is a very normal human response, and even though it doesn’t feel good, and generally doesn’t do good, it shows you how to deal with it when it happens,” says Bressie.

• Illustrated by Emma Proctor, The Chill Skill is published by Gill Books and available on Friday October 16 (€16.99). The accompanying podcast, Niall Breslin’s Mindful Moments for Children, will be released daily the week of October 12 on YouTube, Spotify and all major podcast apps.