Pursuit of Happiness: Erica Banks Finds Power in Prayer

That realization is just one part of her journey to a healthy emotional equilibrium. One month after unloading her latest project, Cocky on Purpose 2, Banks explains helping friends, herself and how prayer — and online shopping — became key parts of her mental health utility belt.

Erica Banks: To get away from negativity,I take time to myself and do things that I actually enjoy doing, which would be online shopping or trying something new to eat. Sleeping is always the top go-to, or I'll just spend time with my friends, or people who actually do enjoy my company so that I can kind of be reminded that, ‘Hey, there are some people that do still care about you.’

If I'm not spending time with my friends, then I'm spending some time shopping or I'm spending some time sleeping. And then of course I spend a lot of time praying as well. Both of my parents made sure to instill that in me. It’s been just a part of my everyday life since I was a kid. I could be in the middle of the club with tequila in my hand. It doesn't really matter where I am when I pray, because at the end of the day, I'm only speaking to one person and I know that that one person hears me, whether I say it in my head, whether I say it out loud under my breath. I know that I'm being heard.

Being in a bad mood definitely makes it easier to record. I feel like I make my best music when I am in an angry mood versus a sad mood. If I'm sad, I don't want to do anything, but if I'm pissed off, I can easily go to the studio and write a whole album because at that point I feel like, ‘Okay, now I have something to prove.’ When I'm sad, I just black out and I just sleep it off until it's pretty much over. When I'm in a good mood, I just want to go outside and see the world. I don't want to go record. When I feel like I have something to prove and I'm upset about something, it puts a fire under me.

If I notice that one of my friends is depressed, I typically try to speak life into them or give them my opinion on whatever it is they may be dealing with. Or I'll just give a general heartfelt statement; just some kind words. Or I'll offer to spend time with them. I know some people don't like to spend time with people when they're going through stuff, but some people do. So I'll just extend the invitation and let them know like, ‘Hey, I'm here. Maybe we should go do this. Maybe we should go eat. Maybe you should spend the night.’ Or I just always extend my loving hand to them. But if it's a friend that typically doesn't want to be around people when they're dealing with something, then I just let them know through a message or through a phone call that I'm here whenever you do want to talk. So I just let them know that I'm there as their friend.

At this point, my own mental health has become very strong — very solid, because I've dealt with so much as far as social media and people's opinions on things I may have said that the world disagrees with or pretends to disagree with. And at first, I kind of was like, ‘Damn, that's depressing.’ But then I started thinking, ‘Who gives a shit?’ So that's where I'm at with it now. As time went on, I realized, ‘Okay, everybody's not going to you.’ Once I was able to grasp that, it turned into okay, I don't care because there will be people that do love me and me and support me. They might not outweigh the other side, but I do know that there are people out there that love Erica Banks.