Music is powerful.
(I’m sure I can hear many of you respond with, “DUH!”)
-- Oh, God, she's writing about music again! Hey, Life is a Rock, But the Radio Rolled Me!
I'm just trying to get it right. I tried this same conversation back in 2013, but it never gelled. So now, here we go, once more, with feeling.
Music
is that important to me. “I often refer to music the
“Universal Leveler”. It brings people together because
of the emotions it evokes. Music
has the ability to resonate with our emotional energies, and can both raise and
lower them. We’ve all seen the many videos on YouTube set to Pharrell’s Happy. People have separate playlists for romantic
dates and working out. How many times have you heard someone say, “This song
gets me pumped!”? How do
you feel when you hear Amazing Grace? What
about We’re
Not Gonna Take It? What’s it like
being in a bar and hearing that song?” (Collective Consciousness, Mob Mentality, and Personal Energy")
Certain melodies and lyrics resonate with us, stay with us, comfort
us, empower us … and can change us.
We find that listening to
music, hearing the melody or words that call to us, can make us feel better
when we are down. (Thank you, Tears for Fears. You got me through high school.
Please come back to Boston soon!)
Negative feelings of any kind are usually made worse by
self-imposed isolation. Most of us will hide our true feelings, refuse to talk
about anything that is bothering, or actually lock themselves away from people
(I use sleep as a method of hiding). Music is something we use when we are
alone that can make us feel not so. We connect with the artist and the song can
take us out of ourselves, and we no longer feel like we are the “only one going
through this.”
Many of us will deliberately listen to music to feel that
support. Why not take that a step further and actually USE it. Find a song or
tune (or many), and listen with the intention of getting something from it?
I have playlists on my iPod devoted to certain themes ("If I Show You Mine, Will You Show Me Your ... Playlists?"). They are
not just broken down by decades or common genres, but they are broken down by memories
associated to certain periods of my life, memories of specific people, and
every single mood you can think of. We are talking serious splitting hairs
here, like Anger/Pissy, Anger/Despair, Anger/Empowered, Love/Sweet, Love/Sexy,
etc. – and I give each playlist a special name, too. I don’t let people see my
iPod because of how personal my playlists are. But I use all of them for
something; to get me moving, to think better, to cry with, whatever. I even
have a tendency to listen to one song on repeat (for days), if it is ‘hitting’
me right. Sometimes, a song will give me an idea, and I will listen to only
that song until I’ve been able to fully flesh it out.
Music is every feeling we have. I challenge anyone to deny
that they haven’t heard at least one song that made them feel.
Why not be deliberate with music? I’m not just talking about making party or workout themed playlists, I’m talking about making playlists that are put
together with the deliberate intention of helping you through something?
Playlists that make you feel better, or just feel good?
And then just listen ... and feel.
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