LiFe/MeNTaL HeaLth/ReCoVeRiNg
When we are recovering from something, we tend to feel rejuvenation happening from the inside of our being, traveling outward onto the hairs that stand up on the back of our necks. Some would call it the butterfly effect, some feel excitement, some are curious, and some may say I’m being deceived. But I personally feel all of it matters, it all counts when recovering. Let not one thing be more relevant that may be considered insignificant when it comes to your mental health.
These very things I say to you…coming from a know-it-all.
“let me tell you what I think of your life and what you should do with it”
…but from deeply personal experiences from hitting rock bottom that I have collected over the years. It happened over and over again not realizing that the lowest I thought I was, wasn’t really my bottom at all, but just an ongoing elevator ride down a rabbit hole.
Sometimes a wave of baby steps and needing to believe in your change can have us stepping into “Filters and applying MakeUp” figuratively. We begin to minimize mistakes and bad choices by applying these very adjectives. So, what you ask would I consider a Filter? Why must we use Filters when living in a “recovering” lifestyle? What is it to put on MakeUp metaphorically speaking? And what constitutes having to do that?
You see we have to face our mistakes and bad choices every day; navigating the byways and highways of this mad society in which we live and the people around us. The streets we walk down, the local grocery store or corner bodega, the gym, school, the workplace, bars, drug dealers, gangs, politics, our own family, friends, church, etc. can all present a high level of stress and peer pressure.
“Don’t let someone else’s inconsistencies dictate your ability to be consistent and focus on your now.” -BOBBY TAMIR BALDWIN
So, what do I consider a Filter?
Filters are like LUTS (Look Up Tables) in iPhones, Androids, social media sites or video editing programs that allow you to change one set of color values to another desired color value. Dark to bright, color to black and white etc. So is the same of what we must do as individuals when living in a recovering lifestyle.
Old habits, routes we walked or have driven, people we used to associate with, places we used to hang out, the food we eat, daily routines, and our thought patterns, are among the many things and more that now need to be filtered so we can live with some change of heart, love and purpose one day at a time. These filters could very well be something you’ve been doing every day in your recovering lifestyle and not even realized you’ve been doing it. Filtering can occur subconsciously or consciously allowing negative characters that “supposedly” made up who you were, not cripple us in the transformation of who YOU were meant to be.
Don’t be afraid to occasionally place yourself or others in filters to keep yourself in survival mode when recovering. Filters are an important necessity in anyone’s life for forward thinking and some level of peace of mind.
Applying MakeUp (Figuratively Speaking)
MakeUp and Filters pretty much go hand in hand with recovery but can be applied individually given the situation. Survival- you're in or the circumstances you might be facing. I’ve learned when using this technique essentially from my immense skill of “stretching the truth with a little white lie” and you learn what people are thinking… YES, I’m saying it, who would have thought that being a phenomenal liar in my past would benefit me in my recovering process? Let’s go straight to the videotape, lol. Sometimes you must traverse through an old route to get to your destination. For me, it was my job.
“Be willing to fail in order to succeed, meaning none are perfect therefore failure is inevitable in all our lives. So sometimes embrace your failures to propel you to your next victory.”
-Bobby Tamir Baldwin
I work in a low-income, high-crime neighborhood beleaguered with bars, gangs, drugs, and drug dealers. I would get hailed every time I walked by the dealers.
“Yo! Yo! Yankee Ras, I got that good shit, that headbanger boogie for you.”
Knowing I would have to walk through here, I mentally put on my “MakeUp” and shouted back with confidence,
“I’m good Bruh I got a drug test coming up so I can’t mess around.”
It worked! And inside my head was this little mini party going on as I kept walking in celebration of my first street victory. I was so enthusiastically pleased with myself, excited that I said that same harmless lie for the next 90 days until finally, they stopped asking me about what they were selling and just lifted their hand with a tight fist hail-up. If it is your hunger to live a different lifestyle than what “You’ve” allowed yourself to live, don’t be afraid to put on Makeup to disguise yourself when you find yourself approaching a bad situation that can ultimately affect your recovering lifestyle, choose the high ground don’t be indecisive, have clarity on what your goal is because the better you do in life the harder it gets to live that way. Negativity looms always and will always be out to trick, deceive, and manipulate you into a relapse not just physically but mentally, so use these methods in your process of bettering who you are while recovering, let them be self-preservation mechanisms that fuel your flames of persistence in recovering. The road you must navigate is by no means a straight one but where there is a mustard seed of will and faith in your being you can crawl, walk, run, or roll and will cross the finish line.
Until next time BE IT! DO IT! LEARN IT! LiVE IT!
About the Writer
The often fun, high-spirited, comedic, music producer, songwriter, and Ex-Dancer of the Iconic Super Star Queen Latifah is now the founder of Free Your Soul Publishing LLC based out of the United States Virgin Islands. Bobby Tamir aka Kreata is a Harry Fox Agency Publishing Affiliate, ASCAP member, Music Producers Guild UK member, AIMP (Association of Independent Music Producers) member, Sync Community, and has multiple music catalogs up on Disco (a place for music and media).
From a youth, he’s played multiple instruments in school and church from clarinet, flute, trombone, baritone, and drums. But as time goes so do we evolve taking us into the digital performance era of DAW’s (Digital Audio Workstation) and Cubase Pro 12 is my g for all my musical productions load up an instrument and Go! A far cry from his first home studio project, starting out with just a double cassette deck, record player, hundreds of records, 8 track Tascam board, Gemini digital sampler, and Yamaha keyboard. By middle school, he attended the “Newark Boys Chorus School” where he learned the educational aspect of musical training as well as the opportunity to perform a diversified repertoire that includes traditional classical music, spirituals, folk music, and jazz throughout the East Coast and a performance at the renowned Carnegie Hall which was a concert sung in Japanese and was an extraordinary experience. For almost 4 decades as an underground independent artist, he helped form Hip Hop groups such as “Fascinating Two”, “High Tech MCs” and the well-known East Coast MMF group.
In 1986 he began to appear in music videos like “The Bridge is Over” by BDP and “Soul Sisters” by Finesse & Sequence” as well as “Push it” by Salt and Pepper not as a producer or lyricist but as a dancer. Although dropping lyrics and making beats is his numero uno, his versatility allowed dancing to become a creative outlet. In 1988 the queen of rap, “Queen Latifah” handpicked him and his dance partner of Co-Wilden dancers to be her stage presence and combined with Fab Five Freddy to co-choreographed dance scenes in “Queen Latifah’s” “Dance for Me” video and also did choreographing for her future stage presence the Jungle Girls. His friendships with Da La Soul, Jungle Brothers, and Latifah helped open up more street notoriety for this Detroit Born but East Orange, N.J. raised native Bobby Tamir launched “G-King Productions “and in 1993 while in New York with one of his mentors, Steven A. Tucker a.k.a. The STR180 of the MMF group came across “Survival Sounds” a live band that was promoting their album on the streets in the West Village Manhattan. These two groups blended and began recording in their Brooklyn studio and performing live shows with the band until 1999. The two groups recorded one album with a Japanese company called Felissimo titled, “The Sounds of N.Y.” It was the year 2000 the millennium was here and his production moved to South Florida where he met and began to produce local artists like “Ace Ron” and “Trappa Jon”, from Overtown and Liberty City, the entire trio transitioned to the Atlanta Area where a humble female artist named “Tricee” from West Lafayette Indiana joined the team and by 2005 released a double CD “Only God Knows” and “The Stellarship Live”
By 2006 a courageous jump to St. Thomas U.S.V.I. was made and his first-ever music recording studio was set up. For him this was a dream come true, he would often quote God’s timing is the best timing.
After putting together an extensive catalog of beats and conscious lyrical content this seeming hobby turned into embracing his calling. There was a gift a message that needed to be relayed and broadcasted to the world that God chose him to be a messenger of so in 2017 began his first ever Urban Christian Hip Hop Album titled “UNVEILING MYSTERIES” that was released in 2019 with innovative songs like “Take a Deep Breath” “Buried iN HaZe” “iT’s BeeN GoD ALL ALonG” and other hits that bring out a message for many to relate to and be encouraged by. “UNVEILING MYSTERIES” gives people with no hope, hope that you can achieve anything when you believe and work for it! One Day at a Time.
Bobby Tamir is amazing natural light 💡 that moves.