Turn on one of your favorite pieces of music, find a place in your home where no one’s watching, and DANCE!

Watch a good movie with a big batch of popcorn. My favorite way to make it is to use peanut oil to pop the corn and then top it with tamari and grated parmesan cheese.

Think back to the time when (handwritten) letters were the way one communicated both across town and the globe. Take the time to write an email to a good friend, while remembering/rediscovering the power and joy of words. Be sure and turn off AI suggestions. Tell a story. Add lots of detail. Experiment!

Thrive Recommendations here

Recovery is indeed an essential part of activity – not just a necessity but, in many ways, already a valuable outcome. 

• Striking a balance between motivation, action, and regeneration is what prevents burnout and allows us to truly thrive !!

Regarding my presentation, I would be delighted to share outcomes from our research project through the ÖGfMM project site

•  troy.eu 

Beyond academic dissemination, I would like to draw attention to our Instagram channel as a tool to connect with younger generations. It’s a space for exchange, inspiration, and outreach – feel free to follow, share, or interact.

• Follow on https://www.instagram.com/oegfmm/

Finally, I’d like to take this opportunity to announce our upcoming event:

• Beyond the Score – Health & Well-being in Music and Performing Arts, ÖGfMM Symposium 2026
• 10–12 April 2026, Universität Mozarteum, Salzburg
• The Call for Papers will open in June and remain open until 30 September 2025.

Suggestions for ways to thrive –

• Spending time with beloved family
• Making music with friends (and family!) and listening to music played by friends and family (I’m having a week of immersion in the Sheffield Chamber Music Festival and am reeling from this afternoon’s superb performance by members of Ensemble 360 and the Elias Quartet ofVerklaerte Nacht)
• Walking, cycling, swimming in nature (in other words, Natur und Kunst is my perfect recipe for thriving)

Recommendations made in the presentation I shared with Sarah Upjohn and Susanna Cohen:

• Treat yourself like the musical athlete you are
• Develop health literacy for performance and seek help when (or even before) you need it
• Enjoy your music making throughout your life; acknowledge and celebrate the way it will change as you do
• Prepare for retirement appropriately and in good time

My current website is https://www.rncm.ac.uk/people/jane-ginsborg/ but I will be developing a new one over the coming months. I will remain contactable at jane.ginsborg@rncm.ac.uk for the foreseeable future.

Articles available via open-access publication or directly from me, including the slides and references from our presentation:

• Cohen, S., & Ginsborg, J. (2022). One year on: The impact of Covid-19 on the lives of freelance orchestral musicians in the United Kingdom. Frontiers in Psychology, 13, 885606. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.885606
• Ginsborg, J., & Ackermann, B. (2023). Process evaluation of a Health Advisory Pathway to facilitate management of musicians’ performance-related health issues. Performing Arts Medicine Association, New York, NY, July 2023. (slides)
• Ginsborg, J., & Cohen, S. (2024). The experience of ageing among professional classical musicians. Performing Arts Medicine Association, London, UK, July 2024. (slides)
• Ginsborg, J., Spahn, C., and Williamon, A. (2012).  Health promotion in higher music education.  In R. MacDonald, G. Kreutz, and L. Mitchell (Eds.), Music, Health and Wellbeing. (Chapter 24, pp. 356–366). Oxford University Press.
• Ginsborg, J., Kreutz, G., Thomas, M. and Williamon, A. (2009).  Healthy behaviours in music performance and non-music performance students. Health Education, 109(3), 242-258
• Guptill, C., Slade, T., Baadjou, V., Roberts, M. R., de Lisle, R., Ginsborg, J., Rennie-Salonen, B., Ackermann, B., Visentin, P., & Wijsman, S. (2022). Validity and reliability of the Musicians’ Health Literacy Questionnaire, MHL-Q19. https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/psychology/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.886815/full.

I have also written three short (750-word) articles for American Music Teacher on healthy music making throughout the life course, and am happy to share the first two via email (jane.ginsborg@rncm.ac.uk).

Caetano Veloso - discography:

• Here  is a good compilation from YouTube:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p-7wv7v1tiw
• The Best of Caetano Veloso (Full Album): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=INA4Tc0qVcE&list=PLVcJC7_ws0_WcUXXyOGnqTOGW26ydoytv

Brazilian music that I love: 

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nwOwGzc9w28
• Top Músicas Brasileiras de Todos os Tempos – Clássicos da MPB, Samba e Bossa Nova
• Descubra as maiores músicas brasileiras de todos os tempos! Essa playlist reúne clássicos da MPB, bossa nova, samba e muito mais. Inclui sucessos como "Garota de Ipanema

Our forthcoming book:

• "Musicking the margins: Possible selves in Brazilian music programs" by Beatriz Ilari and Graziela Bortz

Two films that I absolutely love: Baraka and Samsara (both by Ron Fricke) - sound and images (no dialogue)

• https://www.barakasamsara.com/

Comfort food/drinks:

• Pão de queijo (gluten free, vegetarian and absolutely delicious) https://braziliankitchenabroad.com/brazilian-cheese-bread/
• Enjoy it with a hot cup of coffee or tea. (You can put jam inside the pao de queijo, but I just like it pure...)

My website at USC: https://music.usc.edu/beatriz-ilari/

My Suggestions for Thriving Stage Performance:

• Active shaping of stage behavior with consideration for appropriateness in relation to genre, venue, persona, audience expectations, and individual skills.
• Establishing credibility: Regardless of how unconventional one’s performance techniques may be, they must be practiced with the same level of precision and confidence as the repertoire itself.
• Drawing inspiration from live performances by artists across various genres. One of my personal favorites, for instance, is the crossover artist David Garrett and his dynamic use of the entire stadium space in the opening sequence of the DVD Rock Symphonies (2010).

Recommendation for further reading: Platz, F., & Kopiez, R. (2022). Stage behavior, impression management, and charisma. In G. McPherson (Ed.), The Oxford handbook of music performance: Enhancements, health and wellbeing, science, and innovations (2nd ed., Vol. 2, pp. 84–102). Oxford University Press.

- Song: Afraid no more - Bukahara

- Book: Factfulness - Hans Rosling

- Website (also available in english): https://www.yoga-quintessence.de/

- Articles available upon request about yoga for musicians.

– Also, I am currently planning the next sequence of 10 yoga classes specifically for musicians. This will also include 3 private classes addressing individual needs and questions as well as a questionnaire to gain a better insight into what yoga can do for musicians. Feel free to contact me in English or German: info@yoga-quintessence.de

• Mendelssohn’s Octet op. 20 – especially the electrifying video with Janine Jansen & friends (Youtube). Honestly, almost any chamber music with her has the power to catapult me straight into a state of flow and joy. It’s like sonic sunshine for the soul.
• Time outdoors, unplugged and in motion – Whether it’s walking, hiking, running, or cycling, being in nature and moving clears my head, grounds me, and recharges everything that feels stuck or tired.
• Simple, good food – Nothing fancy, but nourishing and flavorful. Much to the amusement of those around me, I light up noticeably when something tastes great. Good food = instant joy.

Specific recommendations during my presentation:

• Depending on the task, the situational constraints, and the kind of focus you want, clever goal setting sometimes means using SMART goals, sometimes do-your-best or as-well-as-possible goals, and sometimes using open, exploratory goals, but always aiming for self-concordance, that is, being in tune with your inner values, and being able to adapt. 

Links: 

• https://www.veronikajanalubert.com/
• https://www.hslu.ch/de-ch/hochschule-luzern/ueber-uns/personensuche/profile/?pid=6383

Thrive Recommendations here

Two links I’d like to share:

• https://occupationalhealthinmusic.org/ - The Occupational Health in Music Global Summit, a hybrid event to which people can register for free
• https://sbastep2.wixsite.com/postn-papr-health-ed - temporary link for the Position Paper on Health Promotion in Tertiary Music Institutions

A guaranteed ‘bliss-out’ on these two tracks:

“All I need” by Air from the “Moon Safari” album https://open.spotify.com/track/6T10XPeC9X5xEaD6tMcK6M?si=992974984c734f3f

“Says” by Nils Frahm from the “Spaces” album  https://open.spotify.com/track/5626KdflSKfeDK7RJQfSrE?si=c1e50fbae1cb4637

Regenerating by sitting on the rocks and being caressed by the waves in the  Mona Vale Beach Rockpool, Sydney, a meeting point between two northern Sydney beaches in the waters of the South Pacific Ocean

Thrive Recommendations here

As „thrive idea“ I recommend a mixture of the permaculture-principle observe and interact and the sitting place practice of the coyote-mentoring approach taught in wilderness schools around the world: First you find yourself a sitting place. It can be on your balcony, terrace, garden, in a park or any other outdoor place. It should be relatively undisturbed and accessible all year round. Go there as often as possible and just be there (at least 5 min at a time, ideally 30 min or longer). Make the place your „Me-Time“ place, where you spend time with yourself. Instead of taking in information through your phone or conversations, take in what happens in and around you. Observe the subtle changes in your mood, body, thoughts, but also in your environment, the plants, animals, seasons and so on. Don’t try to achieve something, but let things happen: If you feel to urge to write, strech, sketch or change something around you, follow it, but don’t plan or force it. See where the journey takes you.

Thrive Recommendations here

- Go for a long walk in the forest or other favourite landscape, create an embodied ritual in nature and produce some land art.
- Spend relaxed time with family and friends, with good conversations, hugs and laughter.
- Improvise music and dance/movement together with others.
- Find a quiet place and listen to the silence.
- Prepare and eat favourite Indian food.
- Write down everything that comes to mind, until the stories are told and the mind becomes clear.
- Spend time with horses.

• Constantly learn new pieces, including some that feel just outside of my comfort zone
• Keep up to date with the latest research with keen interest
• Put my sources into a NotebookLM notebook, so that I can ask questions from the oracle
• Walk, stretch and bend daily and keep clear of sugar
• Carve out time for a hobby or two, to avoid getting too narrow

Thrive Recommendations here

Thrive Recommendations here

I spent a year watching TED talks during my lunch break at work. Often watching things that had nothing to do with my professional interests, but seemed intriguing nonetheless. And I ended up stumbling into lots of ways in which there was unexpected overlap, and sparked little exciting thoughts that I otherwise might not have had!

Not a TED talk, but the Steve Jobs Stanford commencement address always inspires me.

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UF8uR6Z6KLc

https://bulletproofmusician.com

A “playlist” of thrive ideas:

• Leave all tech at home for a day and head deep into the countryside
• Listen to any recording of the late, great Oscar Peterson
• Focus far more intently on process goals than outcome goals, then outcomes take care of themselves

A link to my most recent book (Applying Music in Exercise and Sport, Human Kinetics Publishers) is

• https://www.human-kinetics.co.uk/9781492513810/applying-music-in-exercise-and-sport/

AiM25 delegates can access my back catalogue of publications (for free) via the link

• https://bura.brunel.ac.uk/simple-search?query=Karageorghis&sort_by=score&order=desc&rpp=10&etal=0&filtername=author&filterquery=Karageorghis%2C+CI&filtertype=equals

Any other things?

Professor Costas Karageorghis will be a keynote speaker at the 16th International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP) World Congress, Hong Kong, 8–12 December 2025

He will also be leading an invited symposium on exercise hedonics at this congress, which will feature a stellar line-up of speakers representing four continents.

• Website link is https://www.brunel.ac.uk/people/costas-karageorghis

What I would like to share with the participants, is this paper of mine: 

• https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/4qKhSxQtPfuAz2YBeatm/full

with its Supplementary Video Material available here: 

• https://osf.io/zx7rt/files/osfstorage (see "Supplementary Material for Mental Virtuosity")

• Remaining active and dedicated to my profession as a musician alongside the equally inspiring work I do at university: Being on stage is one of my essential nutrients for thriving. No concerts, and I tend to wilt like a plant lacking water. It remains one of the foundations for all the other work I do. 
• Experiencing and being in nature, and - very new since moving house - tending to our garden.
• Jogging and swimming.
• Always, and as best as anyhow possible, adopting a solution-oriented stance towards challenges, however big they might appear.
• "Living" the concepts I teach; drawing from these ressources personally
• Do not get tired of asking questions, of thinking out of the box and of having the "grandeur" to revise own viewpoints based on increase of knowledge and experience. And that in turn goes hand in hand with getting inspired from encounters with people who contribute to nurturing this kind of mindset.

Links:

• www.zzm.ch
• https://www.zhdk.ch/en/research/imr
• https://www.zhdk.ch/weiterbildung/weiterbildung-musik/weiterbildung-musikphysiologie
• https://www.zhdk.ch/weiterbildung/weiterbildung-musik/weiterbildung-musikphysiologie/zentrum-musikphysiologie
• https://www.zhdk.ch/en/person/dr-oliver-margulies-121537