Once when my daughter was in college, we were driving down the freeway to some event. She was justifiably upset about something that had happened to her. We allowed her to rant, we validated her right to be angry, we agreed that an injustice had occurred, we offered solutions, but she was locked in a loop of frustration and despair. So, I snuck her favorite CD (the Kinky Boots soundtrack) out of the storage box, slid it into the player, and selected one of her happy songs. As soon as it started to play, she got quiet. Within ten seconds, she was humming. Within 30 seconds she was full-on singing and dancing in the backseat. The power of music.
The other night at my women’s group, one of the members asked about our associations with music, and I confessed I haven’t been tuning in much lately. Since I started all this mindfulness and meditation study, I’ve stuck mostly with quiet. I’ve never been one to play background music anyway (I’m too auditory and find it distracting) unless I’m doing housework. But after our conversation that night, I remembered hearing on a Hay House interview you have to “turn on” happiness, and songs are a way to do that.
I’ve taught myself how to start the day with grounding and gratitude exercises, but that hasn’t seemed to be enough to lift my mood lately. So, this past week, I found a playlist on Spotify called “Happy Songs” and another…
