"I want to believe that I am worthy of love and belonging. And music was this lever I could pull and get some facsimile of that. People would say, wow you sound great, and I would think, that means you love me, right? It actually poisoned both me and the music, because it became the condition that needed to be met before I felt that I was able to receive love and belonging."

Violinist, composer and producer Behnam Arzaghi (Soundcloud) recounts how he became trapped in shame and despair in the world of highly competitive classical music. He then discovered the ideas of Brené Brown on shame and vulnerability, and in the end, left his classical music career. We discuss spontaneous creativity, flow states and the sense of self and ego, and how I ...