Category: music

music and distraction and joy…

I love music. Lots of different kinds of music.

I love music just for the music itself, but when I’m feeling stressed or anxious music can provide even more than enjoyment. It can be a way to shift my mood and offer distraction (at least somewhat) from the difficult stuff.

In our home, we have a local radio station playing in the kitchen literally all day long. This station plays music from the 70s through the current time, and we love how much air play the DJs give to our favorite music decades of the 70s and 80s. We also really enjoy the special interviews and features they do at regularly scheduled times. (And yes, there are actual, human, real-life in real-time DJs on the air.) It provides background sound for the day, it keeps me company when I’m in the kitchen cooking or painting or washing dishes, and it generally brings joy to our lives.

Although the kitchen radio provides most of the music in our house, I’ll also turn to the CDs we still have in our collection, as well as music online. Sometimes when I’m feeling anxious or stressed I’ll go to youtube and find a long video or playlist containing lots of 70s or 80s songs, and I’ll listen to the music while I do nothing else other than relax and breathe. Almost always, it will help.

Are there songs or genres/periods of music that help you feel more uplifted? That help you feel calmer if you’re feeling stressed or anxious? That help you feel more capable of making it through a hard day?

Music can reflect mood, definitely. But music can also impact mood and shift mood. It can be useful for calming and de-stressing.

It can be an important tool in an anxiety-reducing, stress-reducing toolkit.

❤

passings, memories, and the soundtrack of life…

The first news I saw this morning was that Walter Becker, co-founder of the band Steely Dan, had died.

I’ve written before (a main example is in this post) about the power of music and memories.

And as I – and the singers and songwriters and musicians I grew up listening to – get older, and the years and the decades pass, there are more and more deaths of people who have been part of the soundtrack of my life.

In just the time between the beginning of 2016 and now, there have been several (not a complete list by any means):

Prince. George Michael. David Bowie. Maurice White. Leonard Cohen. Al Jarreau. Leon Russell. Glen Campbell. Paul Kantner. Gregg Allman.

And Glenn Frey.

I mention Glenn Frey separately because the music of the Eagles has been extra-huge in my life. And…  it was after watching the documentary History of the Eagles on Netflix shortly after Glenn’s death in January 2016, that I felt compelled to finally do a final revision of one of my novels – In New Harmony – and publish it. (You can find it right here.)

Watching that documentary, which I’ve seen several times now, simply does something to my creativity, especially when it comes to writing fiction.

Watching that documentary makes me WANT to write – and, specifically, write fiction – so much that my fingers start to almost physically itch to do it.

Listening to Eagles music does something to me very similar to how I feel when I watch that documentary. For the past year and a half, I’ve come close several times to writing a blog post with the title “the Eagles are my spirit animal” but I simply haven’t been blogging much… (So maybe I’ll write that blog post sometime, but I’m just not sure when.)

Music is a muse for me.

And music is a memory-holder and time-traveller for me.

That’s why when there’s news like today’s passing of Walter Becker, I feel an impact.

Steely Dan’s music has definitely been part of my life’s soundtrack. I’m 55, so the music of the 70s and 80s will always have a unique and special place in my heart and my memories, and Steely Dan songs are part of that for me: junior high and high school in the 70s, beach trips with my friends, going to see FM on a Friday night at the movies.

When I decided to post on facebook this morning with a link to a youtube video of a Steely Dan song, I had trouble deciding which song to choose. I finally decided on “Deacon Blues.”

As I said in that facebook post: Someone else in the soundtrack of my life has passed. I always feel sadness along with the nostalgia… and I always feel so grateful for the music shared with the world.

RIP, Walter Becker and so many other song-makers.

And thank you for the music.

♥

what self care REALLY is…

 

A while back – maybe earlier this year, maybe before that – I started to notice is that there seems to be some confusion about what self care really is.

Self care includes any intentional actions you take to care for your physical, mental and emotional health.

It’s as simple as that, which means it doesn’t have to be complicated or expensive, and it doesn’t have to look a certain way.

(The paragraph above that’s in bold is a definition I came across in a pdf put out by the Student Affairs department at the University of Kentucky.)

Self-care will vary from person to person – and for any one person, it will be different at different times.

Self care can mean being mindful of your diet, getting some exercise, getting enough sleep. It can be going to a meet-up on a favorite topic or spending time at a church service.
It can be cuddling with a special person or pet, listening to music, taking a long hot shower, relaxing in a candle-lit room, dancing for a few minutes in your kitchen, going to a spa, painting your nails, getting your hands dirty in the soil.
It can be sitting on a beach, or under a tree, or on the floor of your bedroom as you read a book or color a mandala.

The list is endless. It can be any or all of those things – and so much more.

And some things for self care involve money…

But there are so many self-care practices and activities that do not.

Self-care is caring for YOU. It’s doing something that tends to you and what you need (on any/all levels – physically, mentally, emotionally, spiritually).

And there’s no shame involved in caring for and tending to yourself.

No one can give from an empty well, no one can run on fumes, no one can be a constant light without burning out.

Self care doesn’t have to be hard.

It doesn’t have to be luxurious.

It doesn’t have to take loads of time.

Self care can be as simple as pausing throughout your day, relaxing your shoulders, and taking a few breaths.

Self care is anything that involves “any intentional actions you take to care for your physical, mental and emotional health.”

That’s what self care really is.