We were lucky to catch up with Giorgia May recently and have shared our conversation below.
Hi Giorgia, we’re so appreciative of you taking the time to share your nuggets of wisdom with our community. One of the topics we think is most important for folks looking to level up their lives is building up their self-confidence and self-esteem. Can you share how you developed your confidence?
This is a really interesting topic because I think it’s a constant work in progress your entire life, but eventually you get to a state of peaceful acceptance. As a woman you grow up always being told how to dress yourself, how to act for others, being put in competition with other women and being shaped in ways that you cannot control because it happens so insidiously. Once I started to question and challenge ideas of why I was doing certain things or changing myself, I started to understand that a lot of our behavioural patterns and choices we make really are centered around what we are taught growing up – from society, our peers, our parents… and I wanted to ask myself, what does this mean for me? What do I, as an individual, feel or think about this? So I started to put myself out of my comfort zone – which is the key for growth and for building confidence, and I started to express myself in ways that felt good for me, even if I felt judgement from others. This meant the obvious things like dying my hair bright colours, dressing in clothes that felt comfortable and cool for me & growing out my body hair… but it also meant really taking the time to think about who I wanted to be and how I wanted to show up in the world. I’ve worked hard to overcome a lot of childhood insecurities that were engrained in me, and the biggest way to work on this is to challenge everything. Don’t just blindly follow what you’re told, allow yourself to lead. Be the main character in your own life, which means making your own rules. I am always working on myself, I am my own best project haha, but I’ve come to accept that I am loveable and deserving exactly as I am. You can spend your entire blessed existence trying to hide parts of yourself you feel ashamed of, trying to mould and cover up the blemishes, trying to be whatever is deemed as “beautiful’ in that era, or you can come to accept who you are, appreciate the gifts that you have, and learn to help others accept themselves too. None of us are perfect, and yet we all absolutely are. Through reflection, introspection and pushing myself out of my comfort zone, I’ve come to know myself deeply, so I try to focus on my strengths instead of fixating on the things that I don’t like or I cannot control. If there are things that I would like to develop or improve on in myself, then I find ways how to do this too. Life is such a blessing, there are so many more interesting things to be fascinated with outside of your own insecurities or the weight of other peoples opinions.
Great, so let’s take a few minutes and cover your story. What should folks know about you and what you do?
I’ve been making music since I was about 10 years old, I started paying guitar and singing and instantly started writing songs. I always wrote as a child: poems, stories, songs. I was a very expressive kid and I found writing to be one of the best ways for me to channel my inner confusion and curiosity. I didn’t ever really think that I would pursue it as a career because I always wanted to work with animals and or/the environment, but when I was 17 years old I decided to go to a music university instead. After studying music I took some time out to travel. I moved to Australia, bought an old 1984 Toyota Hiace camper van, did a bunch of work on it and then travelled around living in it and performing music on the streets. I had the time of my life, and I met some amazing people on my way, one of which quickly became one of my best friends and we decided to move to Vietnam together to write a series of children’s books. I lived there for a while, teaching English and playing shows around the city of Hanoi. After that I moved to Thailand for a few months to study to be a Yoga Teacher, and did some backpacking around Bali and Nepal. Finally I decided that I wanted to build something more of myself, really trying to fulfil some creative projects and giving the music thing a real shot, so I decided to move to Berlin to pursue my career. Moving here has not come without its challenges, and my relationship with this city is always fluctuating between love and hate (lol), but it’s brought so many amazing people and opportunities into my life, and I’m really proud of what I have achieved since moving here. I’m currently working on my debut album and building my own music event series. I guess I’m just trying to focus on building a creative life and finding a way to make it sustainable. The best way for me to stay creatively fulfilled is to think about things on a project basis, and new ideas are always popping up. I want to write a book next year after the album is out, I want to travel again and make a documentary. I have lots of goals and dreams, and I’d like to just be able to live a self-employed life with my own business, maybe the Cozy Concerts and my own Artist career is what will enable that for me.
Looking back, what do you think were the three qualities, skills, or areas of knowledge that were most impactful in your journey? What advice do you have for folks who are early in their journey in terms of how they can best develop or improve on these?
Getting comfortable with being alone and travelling alone changed my perspective on everything. I think having to do things alone can sometimes hold people back from experiencing things they want to, because of fear I suppose. The quicker you can get over that, the fuller your life will become. You meet so many amazing people along your path, and you’re never truly alone, but learning to find comfort in being alone is really essential to getting to achieve the things you want to, because sometimes other peoples timelines won’t link up with yours and if you don’t take opportunities as they arise, sometimes they don’t come back.
Learning to communicate has been another essential skill. Sharing my thoughts and feelings and surrounding myself with people that help me feel safe enough to do that. Some things I look back on in my life and I realize I was too afraid to speak my truth in the moment and I think things could have gone differently had I had the courage to speak up.
Trusting my intuition, and learning to tune in to it. Practicing differentiating between an anxious thought and a strong intuitive feeling is hard and I’m still trying to navigate it, but I do believe that a lot of the time we get intuitive feelings/messages that we should trust and lean into. If you let it, it can lead you to beautiful places, or save you from some dangerous situations too. Our bodies are very reactive and we should listen.
Developing a spiritual relationship with my life and the universe. This has been the most essential part of my journey so far that has helped me trust and have faith that things are unfolding as they should, even when it feels like they aren’t. I practice manifestation, and I have watched these things come into fruition. I ask for answers, and they come as signs and messages. I pray, I practice gratitude and I speak with “God”/the Universe”, this has brought me immense comfort and peace over my journey in life.
The best advice I can give to anyone who is starting on their own journey is get to know yourself. Spend time alone, reflect, do the inner child and shadow work, go to therapy, start yoga and meditation, find community and learn to share, speak your truth, find what you believe in and what you want to fight for, find what drives you, dress how you feel or how you want to feel, trust that you can achieve what you set out to, be kind but be real: don’t be afraid to speak up when something is unjust, try new things, get out of your comfort zone, try to lighten the load of caring so much about what other people think and just do it anyway, live a balanced life, be creative just for fun, find your passions and your gifts and nurture them, journal,
allow yourself the space to feel all of your emotions, don’t be afraid to cry – often being vulnerable encourages the same in others, figure out how you will play your part in collective healing and try not to judge others too harshly, we all have a different story.
If you knew you only had a decade of life left, how would you spend that decade?
This is a good question because honestly, it wouldn’t change much, as right now I don’t even know if I have a decade! This is the problem, we all assume we have 80+ years, but none of us truly know what we’ll get. I have asked several of my friends: if you were to die tomorrow, would you feel satisfied with the life that you’ve lived? And if not, why? What can you change?
I have lived a truly blessed life so far, and I wouldn’t change anything about it. I would continue to live the life I am living, working on my creative projects, travelling and experiencing new things, and sharing love with my friends and family. A decade is a beautiful amount of life to be given.
Contact Info:
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/giorgiamaymusic
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@giorgiamaymusic/videos
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