In this powerful RU OK? Day episode, singer-songwriter Lynda Manwaring joins Dr. Jo Braid for an intimate conversation about using music as a pathway to mental health healing and authentic connection. Lynda shares her personal journey from bottling up emotions to embracing vulnerability, including how the loss of her closest friend to mental health challenges inspired her to speak openly about these experiences through her songwriting. The conversation explores how music bypasses our mental filters to access genuine emotion, why creativity flows directly from the heart without ego, and how sharing our authentic stories through any medium creates space for others to open up about their own struggles. Lynda offers practical wisdom on daily self-care practices, the importance of accepting life's inherent difficulties, and why kindness—both to ourselves and others—can literally change our brain chemistry through oxytocin release. This episode beautifully demonstrates that asking "R U OK?" any day of the year, combined with genuine authenticity and creative expression, can create the life-changing conversations our communities desperately need.
Resources:
drjobraid.com
Lifeline - www.lifeline.org.au
RUOK - www.ruok.org.au/
Lynda Manwaring
Website - www.lyndamanwaringmusic.com/
'No Fortune Teller' on Spotify - open.spotify.com/album/3H0foQ3bn7Tooq0chJsP46?si=yWE1JCmcQx2PzfQ8w377FQ
I acknowledge that I create this podcast on the traditional lands of the Wiradjuri people, who have been the custodians of this land around Orange, New South Wales, for thousands of generations. I pay my respects to Wiradjuri Elders past, present, and emerging, and recognize the continuing connection to land, waters, and culture. This acknowledgment is a small but important step in recognizing the sovereignty of First Nations peoples and the deep historical and ongoing relationship with Country.
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