I’m usually the kind of person that likes to dress these things up, but I can’t bring myself to risk taking anything from this one by dancing around it. Gold Steps is an incredible pop rock band who has a knack for writing stellar hooks and songs that will bounce around your head for days on end. Today, I’m excited to share the music video for a new song called “As Luck Would Have It” that highlights the importance of positive mental health and what an impact just having someone that is willing to listen to you and re-affirm the idea that you are not alone can be.
The music video, which can be seen above, is actually the condensed version of a twelve-minute long documentary/interview that focuses on Heart Support and the importance of positive mental health. You can read more about the personal importance of this organization to Gold Steps vocalist Liz Mauritz below.
HeartSupport is an organization that is very close to my heart.
I’ve struggled with mental health for as long as I can remember; a lifetime of anxiety and years of self-harm, body image issues, and panic disorder have haunted me into adulthood. I always felt alone in my pain, turning to music for solace, and often writing lyrics about my inner turmoil.
In March of last year, a chance meeting in the press room at So What Music Festival changed my life. Someone pointed to a couple of guys with cameras in the corner and said they were looking for bands to interview. So Gold Steps wandered over and introduced ourselves to Dan and Casey with HeartSupport.
Our interview commenced, but when they brought up the topic of self-harm, I hesitated. The only person I had confided in about my own self-harm was Zach. The rest of my bandmates didn’t know. My family didn’t know. My friends didn’t know. If I came clean, would they understand? Be ashamed? Be disgusted? Disappointed?
I can’t explain why, but in that moment I realized that I needed to share my pain for the benefit of others. Maybe someone would hear me talk about my experience with self-harm, relate to it, and feel less alone. Maybe someone who didn’t understand self-harm would hear it, and be more compassionate to someone in their life who was self-harming.
Since that day, I’ve felt a call to action within myself. Everyone deserves a chance at a happy, healthy life. We deserve understanding, tolerance, empathy and love. There is a lot of darkness in this world, and I want to spread light however I can, even on the smallest scale. Change starts with one person; why not start with you? Imagine the powerful message we can spread if each day, we told one person they matter, and inspired them to pass on the compassion.
When I began conceptualizing ideas for the “As Luck Would Have It” video, I wanted to relay the lyrical message on a higher level: “We all fall down; but we all help each other get up again.”
I wanted to involve HeartSupport because their community is built on that concept, that life is hard and painful and sometimes you want to give up, but we need to reach out to one another and raise each other out of the darkness together. The best way I could think to show others that they aren’t alone is to have several courageous individuals share their experiences, their journey to recovery, and how each person’s story is different. How we find recovery and how we cope is different for every one of us. It doesn’t matter how we get there or how long it takes, just that we keep moving towards recovery.
I’m eternally grateful to HeartSupport for awakening my activist spirit, and for giving the world a community that is full of hope, compassion, and love. I am humbled and inspired by their mission to reduce the stigma surrounding mental health issues, substance abuse, and self-harm.
If I can make one person feel that today is worth living, then I have been successful.
