Music is powerful. It has the ability to influence mood enormously. I only realised how much of an impact music has on me when I was suffering from depression. I had a playlist I created on my ipod made up of feel good “power tunes” I used to play on my way to work when I needed some inner strength building up on the journey – just to get myself there. It was heavily made up of female singers and ‘feel good’ tunes.
This playlist served two purposes.
- The first was it helped with my mood. It made me feel like I could do it.
- The second was it provided a sense of routine. Having the same songs, in the same order daily, somehow gave me a sense of security. I knew what I was getting and it helped.
Of course occasionally I would get a bit bored of the same playlist. But when I needed to know where I stood on a morning it was there for me. If I was feeling particularly fed up I knew these tunes would cheer me up and remind me of how I could feel. In a way it was just a habit of triggering a better mood for me.
I couldn’t stand the radio. I still can’t stand radio 1 (in the UK) but maybe that’s my age now! Loud DJs being upbeat and daft irritates the hell out of me and used to make me feel worse. I needed to be within myself, calm, reflective.
So why not turn the radio off and create your own playlist of music that can help you feel a little better? For the moment I’m not going to share what was on my playlist because I don’t want you to be influenced by my choices. Everyone is completely unique, and you will have your own tastes.
If you need help creating a playlist for an ipod/iphone check out this link to ipod help. Feel free to get in contact with me I would be happy to help with creating your own playlist.
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I blogged just today about music and mood! Bono helped lift me out of a major funk this week. Thanks for this post. You have a very nice blog. You can check mine out at http://www.onemanswar.blogspot.com. Would love your feedback. Going to add your site to my blog list.