Hot Press Mental Health Special – HamsandwicH: "I'm not one of these people who’s preachy, but yoga helped me"

Niamh Farrell:

I’m not one of these people who’s preachy, but yoga helped me. I also taught myself to play the guitar over the last two years and I find when I can sing along with whatever I’m playing, my mood immediately lifts.

I read a thing the other day that says singing is scientifically proven to bring down your stress levels, because of the way you’re breathing, which makes a lot of sense. It’s because of those things I have a better grasp on my mental health than I did three or four years ago – and also just getting older and being at peace with myself. Understanding my emotions better through yoga and just looking into things: understanding why your brain does the things it does, why you might feel sad one day and deliriously happy the next – and accepting that this happens.

A big thing for me is not letting other people’s emotions affect my emotions so much – which is what I’ve done a lot through my whole life. I would take on everything else and let it affect me. Now I’m just like: ‘You do your thing, I do my thing, and we’re good’. That’s the way I try to live my life.

Podge:

I feel like I’ve a very old-fashioned mind. I come from a big family where you’re thrown into chaos on a daily basis. I’ve had a fairly easy ride through life mentally and I think it’s to do with having a big family who also happen to be big talkers. If I’m feeling down, I know I should talk, and I do talk. I’m lucky that I have that. I was in a bad place for a good year, maybe more – but at the time, the band was busy which is lucky. That could go either way, but I was genuinely getting very therapeutic nights from just going on stage.

Darcy:

After three years of college I didn’t know what to do, so I stayed in bed for a year. I was probably depressed. Probably? I was depressed. I went to see doctors. That didn’t work out. Then I joined this band and the guitar and playing gigs was my therapy. I’m always afraid if the band stops and the music stops that I’ll get low again. Music is my therapy.”

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