When I was a teenager, I remember sitting in my room for hours listening to music on cassette tapes. I would memorize the lyrics from the insert in the cassette case and sing along. Loved making mixed tapes too! Recently I’ve realized something, music can be healing.
Music is all about the feelings you get from a song, whether it’s the tune or the lyrics. When my marriage wasn’t going well, there was an effect on my love of music for a long time. I stopped listening to music, just wasn’t interested for a lot of years. Looking back, I think I’d switched off my emotions so I wasn’t missing my family and friends in Canada and could accept how my marriage was. So I’d listen to a song and it didn’t mean anything to me.
Towards the end of my marriage, I started going for walks a few times a week in the evenings after the kids were in bed. Partly for exercise, partly to be alone with my thoughts. After all those walks with my ear buds in, music became important again, songs were inspiring me to do something about my life. Suddenly the lyrics meant something.
Now I have a massive streaming playlist. I play it at work most of the day. It’s on when I get home from work for a few hours before I even switch on the TV at all. On my days off, it’s playing most of the day. AirPods are in while I’m at the gym. I’m constantly singing along and dancing (at home only!!). Music can be healing. I think it’s been the best therapy I could ask for. It has made me cry when that’s what I needed, it’s cheered me up when I’m feeling down, and it’s motivated me to carry on.
I was going to mention some of my favorite songs that inspire me or just make me happy. But there’s too many to choose from! What songs inspire you? It’s just such a big part of my life now, don’t know what I’d do without my tunes. Music can be healing.