Self-Esteem: Nitin Sawhney and "Accept Yourself"

One thing that has been a problem for me throughout my life is self-esteem. An artifact of my dysfunctional family past, it has dogged me throughout my life. I don't exactly put myself down, though I've even been known to do that on occasion, but I also don't really give myself any credit for things that I've done - even when others praise me. I deflect, I say that it's nothing, and don't accept any kudos. Over the years I've been working on being less critical of myself, and more accepting of the opinions of others about me. Yet, I still find myself at the age of 51 unable in many situations to "toot my own horn." All the praise of others are nothing unless one can praise oneself. All criticisms of others are magnified when one is too self-critical. To be at peace with oneself, one must accept oneself. It's a lesson I'm still learning.

Self-acceptance is also the theme of today's random tune from our archive. Accept Yourself is by Nitin Sawhney, a British Indian musician, producer and composer. Combining Asian and other themes with jazz and electronica, he explores themes of multiculturalism, politics and spirituality. As a child, Sawhney studied piano, classical and flamenco guitar and tabla. After meeting up with acid-jazz keyboardist James Taylor and joining his quartet, he also began working with tabla player Talvin Singh and formed the Tihai Trio. After dropping out of school, Sawhney formed the comedy group The Secret Asians with friend Sanjeev Bhaskar and developed the award winning BBC comedy show Goodness Gracious Me. After, he refocused on music and released his debut album in 1993. He has released nine albums, has contributed scores for stage, screen, television and video games, and has remixed a wide variety of artists including Sting, Jeff Beck and Paul McCartney. He also has his own world music show on BBC Radio called Nitin Sawhney Spins the Globe. "Accept Yourself" can be found on Sawhney's 2013 album OneZero. It sounds like he doesn't have any reason to be self-critical.

I really like this song! Sawhney's guitar playing, mixed with Indian flute and tabla, as well as the lovely voices of the three women make this song one that you'll listen to over and over.