
When staring into a field of dandelions, do you see a hundred weeds or a hundred wishes? The choice is yours. When it comes to our everyday lives, we can choose to dwell on the negatives or seek out the positives.
Having fought battle after battle with anxiety and negative thinking for the majority of the last few years, Folk/Pop singer-songwriter Jacqui Verellen decided to put herself first. Reconstructing her surroundings and mindset, Jacqui was able to say goodbye to things that no longer served a purpose in her life. “I am much happier this year than I’ve been in a long time,” says Jacqui. “I moved to a different city, surrounded myself with loved ones, worked on being more positive, and overall, I looked for more experiences that make me truly happy.”
A spiritual journey forged from a place of healing, Jacqui is set to release her debut EP Honest, in 2021. Earlier this month, Jacqui released “Colours,” her first song off of the upcoming record.
Learning how to embrace thought patterns and find clarity in everyday life, “Colours” is a song of hope and promise. Hope that things can get better and the promise that they will if you’re willing to put in the work needed to get there.
Sometimes we can get so caught up in our everyday lives, we learn to accept our lives for what they have become. Thus, propelling ourselves into the “it is what it is” mentality of a black and white world, but that is not how things have to be nor should be.
Everyone has a “light” inside themselves that they can choose to find, and Jacqui chose to turn on the switch. Taking small steps every day toward the person she wants to be while being proud and grateful for exactly where she is. “It’s always a process, but I’m honestly feeling much more like myself, now that I’ve made so many changes in what I choose to surround myself with and the thoughts I entertain.”
Congruent with this thought is the lyric, “There’s a spark in the dark from this light I’ve found.” Although the ghosts of her past may carry a considerable amount of weight on her shoulders, Jacqui sees this newly found “light” as a candle amongst the darkness. In other words, there is always hope in life’s darkest moments.
Jacqui wanted this song to be so vulnerable that it could become a good companion to those going through similar situations. “I think when we remember that others share our same struggles, that in itself can be very healing,” explains Jacqui. “I also wanted this song to be a reminder that you can always start over and choose to focus on what’s good in life. Although mental health can leave us at a disadvantage of not knowing “how” to be positive, we can still choose to try to look for what’s beautiful, every single day, with unrelenting courage.”
Being in a better headspace, Jacqui is more confident now than ever with sharing her story. “I used to be terrified of releasing music because I was too focused on the negative possibilities, but now that I’m focused on the positive, I feel really proud of my art and feel excited to share my stories with other people, explains Jacqui.
Jacqui’s ultimate goal as an artist is to create strong emotions with the listener and invite them into her head so-to-speak, unafraid of being vulnerable.
There’s always rain before a rainbow. Work through your troubles to become that rainbow. The colours of a rainbow always shine brightest in a black and white world. Make for yourself the life you want and the life you deserve.
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