Tuning Into Your Happiness Through Music with Kevin Roth

Today I welcome Kevin Roth, a renowned dulcimer player, singer, and songwriter with a rich musical career starting in 1974. Kevin shares his journey from being a successful yet unfulfilled musician to finding true happiness and purpose following a stage 3 melanoma diagnosis in 2015. This wake-up call led him to reevaluate his life and become a consultant who teaches others to live happier and more fulfilling lives through radical self-love and addressing fears. Kevin speaks on the importance of living authentically, the essence of true wealth, and his unique approach to overcoming emotional eating and stress through dulci meditation and music. He also encourages listeners to explore what happiness means to them and take actionable steps towards a more joyful life.

Learn more about Kevin's book and Dulcimeditations on his website: https://kevinroth.org/

Transcript

Magic Barclay: 0:42

Welcome back to a magical life. I'm your host, magic Barclay. And today we are joined by Kevin Roth. He's an internationally known dulcimer player, singer, songwriter, and recording artist. His recording career began in 1974 with Folkway Records Smithsonian Recording 14 albums for the prestigious folk music label. In 1984, Kevin began to record award winning children's music on his own label. He sang the theme song for the hit PBS television show shining time station. As well as composed and performed several of the music videos. Kevin has an extensive history in music and I could read through it all listeners, but I want to hear from Kevin. Welcome. You've got a very long bio here and I don't want to just read it. I want you to explain to the listeners what you've been up to and how that journey played out for you.

Kevin Roth: 1:45

Well, as you said, I have been a professional musician, played the dulcimer and piano and singing. I have, I think there's about 55 recordings. out now, under, various labels, but mostly my own. and the last one was the CD of songs that goes with my new book, Between the Notes. So there are lyrics in the book, but you can download the CD and hear it too. So that's something new. and I was, You know, an average kind of musician going around touring, I thought I was pretty successful. I wasn't really that happy because I was always searching for happiness and I thought it would be in financial security and it wasn't. I thought it would be in having a relationship with someone and it, that didn't pan out either. So, uh, I was content, but I was looking for more. And then I had what I call a kind of a spiritual wake up call, I was diagnosed in 2015 with stage 3 melanoma and told I would have only 2 years to live. So, um, that of course was 7 or 8 years ago and the cancer never came back, but it made me look at my life and say, well, If you only have a year or two left to live, how do you want to live your life? And I decided I was tired of being depressed. I was tired of being in debt. I was tired of feeling stuck and living in fear. So I redid my life, which led me to becoming a consultant, really mentor teacher to people. Teaching them how to live a happier life. And a lot of that has to do with, really radical self love and dealing with fears and living your bliss. So I now combine my music with, this new purpose.

Magic Barclay: 3:41

Fantastic. All right, let's get into our standard three questions. Your first one is what can your expertise do to accelerate health, be it physical, emotional, or spiritual?

Kevin Roth: 3:56

In my experience. It's living an authentic life and finding some sort of spiritual grounding, something other than just your, your own self. So when you're living a life that you're happy with by following your bliss, And you know what matters and why it matters and you execute them, you've got all you really need.

Magic Barclay: 4:21

And we talk about wealth here as well. People think wealth is just the financial, but it can also be personal and emotional wealth. So what are your top three tips to creating wealth?

Kevin Roth: 4:35

The first tip I have is your health. If you've got good health, you've got your first couple of million. your second is your peace of mind, uh, which really is related and connected to your health. And that has to do with, again, living an authentic life and really loving yourself and therefore loving others. And the third thing is financial wealth is not bad, but it's not the true wealth because it can come and go. If you latch onto things that are lasting joy and happiness and self love and helping others, that doesn't come and go, that's something that you're in control of. So it's not the stock market or, you know, the environment. So that's something that you have in a sense. Control over, and then you're very wise and rich.

Magic Barclay: 5:29

And our final standard question is around weight loss. Have you ever battled your weight? If so, how did you win the battle and what can you offer the listeners who might be on that journey?

Kevin Roth: 5:41

Well, I have been an emotional kind of compulsive eater for most of my life. And as they say, it's not about the food. It's really about, uh, what sets you off. That you feel you need food to numb your feelings. So what I do is I really ask myself when something comes up, that's, aggravating or stressful, I simply ask myself, and I teach this to my clients. Is it true, you know, is that letter that you just got in the mail that you think is bad news? Do you know if it's bad news? So you find out the truth of things. And then the fear, which is really false evidence appearing real, subsides. And then, for me, the need to stuff down emotions, goes, pretty much away. And there's also trigger food. So, for me personally, if I have, pistachio nuts or peanuts or cashews, in the house, um, I can't just eat. A handful of them. I'm just sort of addicted to them. The same with sugar and sugar is terrible for cancer as is any kind of inflammation. So I don't bring those things into the house. And the third tip I would have would be to have some sort of a spiritual, connection against something sort of bigger than you, that you can, meditate on so that your mind isn't the problem. Because it's really the mind, you know, as the Buddhists say, no mind, no problem. So when you believe your thoughts, thoughts or feelings, and if you don't know what to do with either, it's As a compulsive overeater or binge eater, or even, uh, you know, someone who's anorexic, you go to the food because it's just like a drug, you know?

Magic Barclay: 7:31

Great. Now, let's talk about what it is that you do and how you can help the listeners with what you do.

Kevin Roth: 7:42

I teach people how to live a happier life. Uh, most people are not that happy. A lot of people have stress. They feel stuck in life. They have a lot of debt and there there's no self love there's, it's just dealing with fears and problems. And they want to get out of it. They want to be happy, but they don't know how. So I asked my clients, number one, what don't you want in your life anymore? So that there's clarity on that. And then what do you want? In your life and we discuss why you want that and what that would mean to you and how your life will be different If you achieve that goal, which most are achievable And then getting a game plan and working with the individual client in their own way It's a partnership to to help get them out of Stinking thinking so that's basically what I do I teach people how to live a happier life radical self love

Magic Barclay: 8:45

Now, with years as a musician, we know that music can stir emotions. Do you use music in your coaching? Do you encourage people to attach to that emotive way of, of thinking?

Kevin Roth: 9:08

Well, there's scientific evidence, I don't know exactly where, but there's a lot of scientific evidence. Uh, you can find it on the internet that music is a healing, entity. It's a healing process. I play an instrument called the mountain dulcimer, which is a very simple folk instrument. I sell them. And I also teach something called dulci meditation, which is a of just playing to myself. Very gently, very quietly. And then listening to my own self, sort of inner, inner world. Uh, my inner voice, I choose to do that because I get distracted. If I'm listening to other kinds of music, if I just sort of lullaby myself. Things will, will come up that usually don't come up in an ordinary circumstance of just thinking and writing and contemplating. So a lot of people have learned Dulcey meditation and find it very simple and very useful. But any kind of music is very, very healing, whether you can learn to play an instrument or, you know, just even basic singing. Has a vibrational qualities to it that are very healing if you do it correctly.

Magic Barclay: 10:27

So I often talk with other guests, you know, we mentioned meditation quite often and I'm not the best at meditation, but for me, putting 80s music on takes me back to a time of being carefree. And, you know, fully healthy and nothing was ever going to touch me. I was invincible. So I love that music can transport me back to when I was truly happy. So I can experience that joy again. If music can do that, why don't you think that we use it more? To take us back to happier times. What is the fear around that?

Kevin Roth: 11:08

I think many people do use music, but they don't realize that they're doing it. You know, I think fear is really, you know, fear is false evidence appearing real. Someone sent me a recording of some subliminal musical trance kind of thing. Um, and I listened to it and I felt uncomfortable and I don't know why. So I think it's important to be open to different things that you enjoy. Um, and if 80s music is what takes you to a, a place that can trigger a, you know, a, a happier time for you, that's certainly a really good thing. I'm also not a meditator. I can't, I don't enjoy just sitting and closing my eyes and doing deep breathing and chanting mantras. So that's why I developed a dulce meditation. In fact, how I became a, uh, a teacher, um, and a consultant or someone call a life coach, um, is someone told me that the way I play the DUL is very meditative. He and I were talking about what I did to get over being broke and having cancer and rejuvenating my life, really restarting it. And part of that process was through playing the dulcimer, through dulci meditation. So he suggested, well, why don't you teach people how to do that? Because, you did it. So I had to backtrack my steps. You know, what did I do? When did I do it? What was my attitude? How did the dulcimer help me and how am I continuing to live a life that's far more pleasurable and successful than even in my music career?

Magic Barclay: 12:53

Fantastic. We've covered a fair bit here today, Kevin, what is something we haven't said that you feel the listeners need to hear? A

Kevin Roth: 13:02

lot of people. Want to know about how to like themselves more and, and how can I be happy? Everyone wants to be happy, but nobody knows what happiness is unless you really do a lot of what they call self realization thinking. So what, what I do for people resume is I help them discover what happy is for them. Uh, I certainly know what it is for myself and I know certainly how to teach it to, to people, because that's what I do for a living. But I would encourage, either people, contacting me and doing a, uh, a complimentary zoom session to discuss these things, or to find other, books on the subject, my book, Between the Notes. Uh, you can find, I don't know if you have it out there, but Amazon, I think, I think you have Amazon. Don't you? Yes,

Magic Barclay: 13:57

we do have Amazon here.

Kevin Roth: 13:59

Okay. So, or, or other books, but the most important factor is that you have to want to change. You have to say, I could be happier. My life can be better and I don't need to stay stuck in this feeling of ambivalence and fear about my life. I mean, for me, it took a death sentence. So people don't need to hit the wall like that to wake up. You know, do you need to work that much? Do you need expensive car payments and house payments? I mean, I live very simple life. It's very enjoyable. So that's what I would, I would tell, you know, the folks listening is that. There is a way to be happier. There is a way to discover radical self love. There is a way to deal with stress and to understand how to live your bliss, how to create a life you love. It's absolutely doable.

Magic Barclay: 15:00

Fantastic. And people can get hold of you at kevinroth. org and listeners, don't forget to book that zoom session with Kevin. Kevin, thank you so much for joining me today. I've really enjoyed chatting with you.

Kevin Roth: 15:15

Oh, thank you. It was a pleasure. Thanks for having me.

Magic Barclay: 15:19

Thank you. And listeners, thank you so much for your time. Go forth and create your magical life.