This article is brought to you as part of the ASCAP Wellness Program.

While the pandemic has provided us with no shortage of things to disagree on, one thing we can probably all acknowledge is that we didn’t expect to still be dealing with it two years later. Or that its conclusion would be preceded by such an anti-climactic gray area. 

Depending on who you ask, the pandemic is either still raging, over entirely, or hanging out somewhere in between. What’s for sure, though, is that this current chapter, now widely referred to as the “new normal,” is a decidedly confusing time – and a not insignificant source of stress for those of us who care about our health and the wellbeing of our friends and loved ones. Not to mention for creators in particular, whose livelihoods and routines rely heavily on close-quarters interactions with others, be it collaborators or crowds.

So, how are creators navigating this “new normal?” Well, if you ask prolific composer and ASCAP member Tom Salta, not too badly! Thanks to a few minor mindset adjustments, a couple of new habits and some helpful daily practices, Salta has been able to achieve a sense of stability and confidence in these tentative times.

“I didn't really think many of these practices were things that I actually needed,” Salta says. “I really had no idea how beneficial they would become.” From insights gleaned from sources ranging from Albert Einstein to the US Navy SEALs, to prioritizing daily routines and meditation, Salta has assembled a pandemic playbook that we could all take a few pages out of.

 

Critically, most of Salta’s self-help practices are things he picked up recently. “I’m not the kind of person who's been into this my whole life – not at all,” he says. And that means there’s hope for the rest of us yet. 

 

Eight Tips for Finding Balance

 

Remember that we are all going through the same thing.

 

Due to the unprecedented nature of this pandemic and the distance it has forced us to put between our physical selves, it’s easy to feel like we are navigating these difficult times alone. “We’re living together, but also separately in a lot of ways,” says Salta. As a result, it’s common to feel some uncertainty and anxiety about what we should and shouldn’t be doing; none of us has ever experienced a global pandemic like this, after all. But, to Salta, that fact has a reassuring silver lining. “One of the key things that I think is really, really important is to understand that we're all going through this together,” he says. Basically, there is no right way to get through this, so take the path that makes you comfortable. “Understand that it's okay,” Salta says. “It's not just you; you're not going crazy.”

 

Cut the noise.

 

Yes, news channels can be an important resource for knowing what is going on and learning of key developments in the pandemic. But the updates that actually matter – for example, those from the CDC – are few and far between; almost everything else is commentary. And then there’s all the pandemic-centric content that follows downstream online and on social media. “The talking heads aren’t doing us any favors,” says Salta, who advises to focus on the hard facts that matter, and ignore the fluff designed to fill airtime and catch clicks. Not only will it help ease your anxiety about the pandemic, he says; it will also allow you to spend more of your time in a mindful state. "Sensory overload is through the roof,” says Salta. “We have 24/7 news, our phones, pinging email. We’re just reacting to stuff all day long. Human beings were not designed for this level of sensory overload and bombardment. We need that downtime.”

 

Clean your lens.

 

“There's a lot of power in our own perception of reality,” says Salta, who cites a timeless observation by none other than Albert Einstein. “He put it really nicely many years ago when he said that the most important decision we can make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or a hostile universe.” Think of your outlook as the lens through which you see the world. Nothing is inherently good or bad; it’s all in how you view it. “Do we feel that the world is out there trying to kill us, that it is survival of the fittest, or do we feel that we are here on this planet to bring love and light and goodness into the world and to be ourselves?” Salta suggests taking an objective view of your outlook – your lens – and wiping away the smudges that aren’t serving you. “A good indicator is in how often we have this sense of universal love and compassion and acceptance for everybody and everything,” he says. “It's not easy to do, but taking an honest look at the paradigm that you're viewing the world through is definitely helpful.”

 

Make meditation a part of your day.

 

“This is something I've been doing for probably two years now, and it's amazing how beneficial it has become,” says Salta, who credits meditation with allowing him to shed layers of stress and anxiety. “It’s like peeling an onion and finding what’s at the center,” he says. “For me, I found a massive increase in my creativity and self-confidence, and it’s also helped my mood, my energy, my patience and even my memory.” Salta has found that, thanks to meditation, he is better equipped to deal with the ever-changing circumstances. “I'm like a new person,” he says. “I feel so much more myself. And I feel like I'm so much more friends with myself and comfortable with who and what I am. Because I realize I'm not my title. I'm not how many awards I have. I'm not my education. I'm not my thoughts. I'm just me. To take that mindset into the world and deal with all the anxiety that’s out there right now, it's a game changer.”

+6 Ways Creators Can Benefit from Meditation

Treat this phase like a new climate, not a temporary hurricane.

When the pandemic first took hold, we could have never imagined how long it would drag on. “Many of us thought that we’d just buckle down and hang in there until life went back to normal, like a sort of hibernation,” Salta says. However, as much as we’d all love to put this pandemic in the rear-view mirror once and for all, the reality seems to be that COVID-19 will continue to be a part of our lives for the foreseeable future in one form or another. Accepting that can be a valuable tool in finding a steady footing in these tentative times – a notion that Salta picked up from an unlikely source. “A Navy SEAL once told me that, when he goes into a difficult situation, he mentally trains himself to think about it as indefinite. I think that's a valuable mental endurance tip: Stop trying to wait for the pandemic to be over and, instead, try to function at full capacity right here and now. This isn’t a hurricane that we can hide from.”

 

Embrace technology for being social.

 

While the pandemic certainly impacted our social lives, the shift to virtual versions of previously in-person interactions has actually given us an opportunity to connect with more people than ever before – and in new ways. “I've done more socializing during COVID than I did without it,” says Salta, who explains that face-to-face video calls have been an immense help in allowing him to feel connected to his friends, colleagues, and community in recent months. “For me, now, the norm is to have video calls,” he says. “I think there's a lot of beauty in just looking someone in the face and connecting, because even though we're not physically together, there's an energy here that you just don’t get verbally.” And for creators with heavy workloads, he recommends it even more highly. “If you can't get out of the studio, like composers usually can’t – as much as they should socialize – use Zoom meetings, use whatever video you can, and as much as possible. Even your business calls. Socialization is really key.”

 

Talk to a professional (everyone else does).

 

“It really is time to de-stigmatize this idea of speaking to a professional,” Salta says. “It’s funny, I ended up going to a psychotherapist by accident. As it turns out, my spiritual director is also a psychotherapist. At some point I realized I was actually talking more about things that you talked to a psychotherapist about, and I remember thinking, ‘Wow, this is really beneficial!’" Now Salta schedules an appointment with his spiritual director once a month, and he credits those sessions with helping him through the pandemic. “Having someone who knows how to listen and knows how to ask the right questions is life changing,” he says. Just don’t get lazy and unload onto an unsuspecting friend. “Friends are good and nothing replaces friends,” Salta says. “But you’re potentially putting strain on your relationships and giving your issues to people who have their own problems; they may even give you the wrong advice if, say, they're struggling with the same thing.” 

Focus on the things you’re able to control.

 

One of the most frustrating things about this “new normal,” and really the pandemic altogether, is how little control we seem to have over it as a whole. But there are lots of variables that are within our reach, and focusing on those can bring a sense of calm despite the surrounding uncertainty. "I strongly advise coming up with daily routines – and sticking to them,” Salta says. “Now I schedule my days in advance, and it brings me such a sense of peace and control. A lot of people feel out of control right now, so the more we can bring into our own control the better.” These don’t need to be elaborate routines with every minute of each day accounted for; just try to add a little more structure to your day, Salta explains. “You might say, ‘Okay, I’m starting work at this time, breaking for lunch here, doing this and that, and then coming back to work until this time – and then that’s it for the day.’”

********

 

ABOUT TOM SALTA

ASCAP award-winning and BAFTA-nominated composer Tom Salta is one of the most versatile and prolific music artists/producers working in film, television, advertising and video games. Renowned for crafting emotionally engaging soundtracks for multimedia, Salta has received widespread industry acclaim for his world-class produced hybrid scores featured in film, television and video games such as Arkane Studios’ Deathloop, Machine Games’ Wolfenstein: Youngblood and Cyberpilot, Microsoft’s iconic Halo series (Best Original Soundtrack Award at Game Developers Conference), Ubisoft’s Prince of Persia: The Forgotten Sands and Red Steel (IGN Award for Best Original Score), Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon and H.A.W.X. series, as well as the epic theme music for the record-breaking online multiplayer game PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, which has sold in excess of 70 million units with over 700 million players. 

 

Salta is nominated for a 2022 ASCAP Composers' Choice Award for his score to Deathloop. He won in 2017 for co-scoring Killer Instinct: Season 3.

Read more: www.tomsalta.com