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There have been good times and tough times, but overall, my days lately have allowed me to have so much more time to myself for self-love and also time to focus on my music.
When the quarantine first started, I had just gotten back into Nashville after spending a week in Arizona filming the music video for my single “Dream Catcher”!
Let me tell you, I am so grateful that we were able to venture out to one of my favorite places with some of my favorite people before everything changed so much. Looking back, I genuinely feel like being able to experience that trip helped to preserve my sanity for what came next.
The beginning of quarantine started off as a shock. After months of planning and rehearsing, one by one, my shows and tours started to get cancelled. It was heartbreaking after all of the hard work and dedication that went into them, but I just had to trust that everything was happening for a reason. Thankfully, I had just moved in with one of my close friends, so she and I were able to keep each other reasonably sane throughout the early days of the pandemic. The downtime gave us plenty of opportunities to polish up on our cooking skills (with both of us being plant-based, this was really fun!). She also introduced me to some fabulous television shows! Fun fact – I’ve never owned a TV and had a lot to catch up on. At night, we binge-watched “Shitts Creek”, “Sex and the City” and my new obsession, “Queer Eye”. My days were filled with yoga, meditation, songwriting, reading, making jewelry, running on the trails and working on the new plans for releasing “Dream Catcher”.
Overall, the slower pace of life was something I needed, but that’s not to say that there weren’t and still haven’t been moments of fear and the reality that life is changing beyond our control. My roommate made the decision to sell her house and move back to Texas to be with family, which prompted a much-anticipated question if I should head back home to Canada. After a while of sitting on the idea, I decided it was best to spend this time with my family – especially my sisters who were both expecting their first babies this summer, so I sold the majority of my belongings in Nashville, packed up my Jeep and made the long haul home to Alberta.
The uncertainty of the music industry and how my career will look in the future weighs on my mind daily, although I’m trying to see the positive and allow the universe to point me in the right direction moving forward. I have felt for a while that a shift needed to happen in my own life, and this has been the opportunity to come back to my roots and genuinely feel the steps that I need to take next.
I feel for everyone else who is stuck in the uncertainty of it all. It’s definitely a hard and confusing place to be when we’re so used to having the freedom and will to do whatever we want. Now being under the ever-changing nature of our day-to-day lives, it can make the world seem like a scary place.
If I can offer anything to others right now, it’s that I really hope people understand that their mindsets can be catalysts for the world around them. They can allow their minds to propel them forward or hold them back. Through all of this, I have done my best to allow my mind to propel me forward.
Ultimately, I choose to believe that our day-to-day lives will return to a better normal and that in the meantime, I can lean on compassion and caring for those around me and that above everything, love can heal the hate and fear that is part of today’s uncertainty.
A day in the life for me today is in a trailer on my family property. I have decorated it myself with a Bohemian theme and I have a loyal roommate to keep me company – my dog, Lucy. I wake up saying what I am grateful for every morning, I sip on warm tea, meditate, do yoga, take in as much of the outdoors as I can and let people around me know just how much they mean to me.
I have loved spending much-needed time on my single release, and I am looking forward to the fall when we shower the world with more new Mandy music in a time when I believe that our spirits will be higher and hopeful about the future.
The uncertainty of the music industry and how my career will look in the future weighs on my mind daily, although I’m trying to see the positive and allow the universe to point me in the right direction moving forward. I have felt for a while that a shift needed to happen in my own life, and this has been the opportunity to come back to my roots and genuinely feel the steps that I need to take next.
I feel for everyone else who is stuck in the uncertainty of it all. It’s definitely a hard and confusing place to be when we’re so used to having the freedom and will to do whatever we want. Now being under the ever-changing nature of our day-to-day lives, it can make the world seem like a scary place.
If I can offer anything to others right now, it’s that I really hope people understand that their mindsets can be catalysts for the world around them. They can allow their minds to propel them forward or hold them back. Through all of this, I have done my best to allow my mind to propel me forward.
Ultimately, I choose to believe that our day-to-day lives will return to a better normal and that in the meantime, I can lean on compassion and caring for those around me and that above everything, love can heal the hate and fear that is part of today’s uncertainty.
A day in the life for me today is in a trailer on my family property. I have decorated it myself with a Bohemian theme and I have a loyal roommate to keep me company – my dog, Lucy. I wake up saying what I am grateful for every morning, I sip on warm tea, meditate, do yoga, take in as much of the outdoors as I can and let people around me know just how much they mean to me.
I have loved spending much-needed time on my single release, and I am looking forward to the fall when we shower the world with more new Mandy music in a time when I believe that our spirits will be higher and hopeful about the future.
While practicing social distancing, watch my latest music video for "Dream Catcher":
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