What is Magnify the Mind?

Magnify the Mind is a community I created to help people navigate anxiety through music and pop-up events. Its mission is to create safe spaces and raise awareness about mental health. My goal with Magnify the Mind is to create a supportive and creative culture where people are welcome to be themselves and cultivate friendships through music and art. We will be hosting our first pop-up event, showcasing creatives from the NYC area. Partial proceeds from events and any Magnify the Mind merch sold go directly to the JED Foundation which aids in mental health struggles among young adults.

What prompted the creation of MTM?

For one, my family started the JED Foundation after my Uncle, Jed, took his own life. The event had a tremendous effect on my family and changed the way they viewed the mental health of loved ones forever. While I was too young to comprehend the event when it happened, I still harbored feelings of sadness, knowing that I’d never be able to meet my uncle, who was a cool guy I would’ve probably bonded with a lot. On top of that, I had struggles with intense social and generalized anxiety throughout my life. Combining these things and my love for healing through art made me want to launch Magnify the Mind.

What are your personal struggles with anxiety?

Since I was young, I have reacted inwardly to things very intensely. Even minor interactions would be complicated, especially in social scenarios. It always made interacting with people very difficult, even in the most ordinary settings, restricting me from experiencing many things an average elementary or middle school student would experience. I would see people interacting, playing, and socializing with others and wonder why that couldn’t be me, often repressing these feelings because my anxiety was too strong to talk about it. I felt this way until my sophomore year of high school when I started coping with these feelings through unhealthy habits. While I won’t go into detail, these things got me into trouble and led my parents to send me to a psychiatrist. After evaluation, he informed me that my feelings resulted from severe social anxiety. Until then, I had no idea what I was experiencing had a name. This was the result of little to no awareness of the subject. My childhood could have been much different if I had been told that what I was suffering from had a name, online resources, or a supportive community. I think about this a lot and never want somebody to have to deal with that.