Building on the idea of wellness as both a highly individualized and deeply shared human experience, Pearl Street caught up with Andrea Angarica, Co-Founder of creative agency Sensory Overload, to inquire about music’s role in her work and daily wellness rituals. 

To integrate more music into your wellness routine, and help you tap into greater inspiration, focus, and motivation in the new year, Andrea has curated a unique sensory experience especially for the PSC community. Check out this curated playlist on Spotify, Apple Music, or Youtube.

Q&A

What role does music play in your wellness routine? The best thing that music does for me is allow me to be present. Even when I catch myself excessively worrying about something while it’s playing in the background, I’ll rewind a song to the beginning and give myself a check that I have to focus on the now. It also allows me to tap into emotions that may be hard to reach without it. We hear relatable lyrics all the time so music is our reminder that at the end of it all, we’re all connected. 

Research suggests that music can boost memory and mental performance, reduce stress, enhance sleep quality, increase motivation and improve mood. Which artists/genres do you listen to for these psychological benefits of music? Yes music does all of that for us. The best way to pick out who or what genre to listen to is to identify what message you need in that moment. If I want to feel liberated and care-free, I listen to afro-beats. If I want to tap more into my femininity and confidence, I listen to the London-based artist IAMDDB. She gets me there every time no matter the song. If I want to feel at peace with my journey, I listen to Jeezy, Big Sean, Kid Cudi and as of the last year BEAM. My music selection is all over the place but it all comes down to the artist channeling a message that I can go back to whenever I need. 

How are sustainability, music and wellness integrated into the creative work of Sensory Overload? With Sensory, we know that we’re a huge part of creating the change that we want to see. We also have come to this point where it’s not about us just having an agency to do cool projects. We work to reshape everyone’s idea of what an agency looks like and approach everything with care for a healthier community and future generations rather than just right now.

We’re now in January and we’ve already received chaotic news to start off the year. How do you look at wellness in terms of being prepared for 2021? So many thoughts are popping into my head reading this question. The state of where we are as individuals, what’s going on here as well as globally and the anxiety of what the future holds can be very taxing. Simultaneously, I feel like it’s a time where we need to sit down and be 100% with ourselves and ask the hard questions. These are the questions we keep ignoring by keeping ourselves busy with work, adding distractions to our lives, or holding onto ideas that we know deep down no longer serve us.

 Find Out More Information About Sensory Overload, here.