Music is a fast, easy, cheap, and powerful tool you can use to improve your mood.  You can go from down-in-the-dumps to shining and smiling.  You can go from doom and gloom to positive and hopeful in no time at all with some mood-boosting tunes. 

Music affects us mentally, physically, and emotionally.  Music can be used for relaxation, stress reduction, motivation, an energy injection, and a quick and easy mood booster, all promoting increased health and well-being. 

Music can improve your disposition, therefore, creating an improved, more productive behavior resulting in increased happiness, improved relationships, and greater overall satisfaction, equaling a better life. 

Pump You Up

During the warm-up, pre-game period of my high school varsity volleyball games, music would blare through the speakers in our hometown gym.  I was lost in my own mind thinking, anticipating, and visualizing how the game would go.  

I do not know who picked the songs or who played them.  Nonetheless, the music worked for me. 

The combination of the loud, exciting music along with the hometown crowd ready to cheer our team on and the opportunity to play the game I so dearly loved to play, was thrilling.  Adrenaline pumped through my body.  I felt faster, stronger, and more capable, almost invincible.  

I have seen this same type of scenario play out where music is hyping everyone up before a football game, a basketball game, and even swim meets.  And these days, if music is not playing loud enough for everyone to hear, you see athletes utilizing earbuds or headphones so they can listen to their own playlist to prepare them for the competition ahead.  

Upbeat music that motivates, causes an increase in brainwave activity and heart rate, bringing about a higher state of alertness and better concentration. 

Needless to say, I often listen to music when I am working out.  I have a couple of different playlists that “speak to me” and get me revved up and motivated to push myself during my sweat sessions.  Some of these songs date me!

Click here to see my workout playlist.

Soothe the Soul

On the other side of the coin, music can calm a person, promoting a more meditative state.  Heart rate and breathing slows.  Stress and tension lower.  Overall, our bodies and minds are more relaxed which in turn can make you feel less drained and more energetic.    

In the months following my cancer diagnosis, I wanted to find and be in a state of peace.  I wanted to be soothed.  I wanted to not necessarily think or feel, but to just be.  I wanted to be healthy, not destructive in any way. 

I was grateful for the feet under my legs holding me up and the rug underneath my feet.  I was grateful for the friends and family who would take away all of my pain if they could.  I was grateful for the doctors who performed surgeries and care for my health.  I was even grateful for the emotional pain I was feeling because that meant I was fortunate to be alive.  

I did not necessarily want to completely distract myself with music but I did want to break the momentum of my negative thought loops. 

I created a playlist that I have listened to countless times, still listen to, and will continue to listen to.  It is timeless for me.

I created this playlist because I wanted to feel a certain way.  I wanted to feel soothed, comforted, hopeful, and safe.  I wanted to feel strong, loved, and un-alone.  I wanted to feel relief, gratitude, and power.

Some of the songs brought me “back home” to my childhood where I did not have any adult, real-life problems yet.  I remember my Granny listening to some of these songs.  Listening to them while thinking about her made me feel as though she was sitting next to me, holding my hand, comforting me.  

Some of these songs I have sung in church, both as an adult and as a child in the choir.  Though my voice is far from stellar, I have no problem belting them out in the privacy of my own home. 

I can attest that music is healing.  This set of songs helped me cope, grieve, and progress to an improved, better emotional state. 

Control Your State of Mind with Music

To be in an emotional state, or state of mind, is just a combination of how you are thinking and how you are feeling.  Given that you can control your thoughts, which in turn create your emotions, you can control your state of mind, or your emotional state. 

States of mind can be positive or negative.  With mind control, you can reinforce your current state of mind or completely change it.  Either way, your body is experiencing your state of mind physically, chemically, and mentally. 

Music can be used as a tool to influence or change your mood.   

Music can deepen, contribute to, and shift moods.

You can use music to support or enhance your current state of mind helping you plunge forward into whatever you are aiming to accomplish.  Playing upbeat music while working out is a good example of this.  In this case, music helps you connect to your current state of mind. 

On the other hand, music can be used to distract your current state of mind and break the momentum of whatever thought and emotion combination you are currently stuck in.  If you are feeling a little low, put on some cheerful tunes and let yourself “feel” the music.  Your mood will improve in just a short period of time.  You will go from feeling blue to feeling friendlier, lighter, calmer, and more optimistic.  You might even have fun!     

Life is a Dance

To quote one of my favorite songs, John Michael Montgomery sang “Life’s a dance, you learn as you go.  Sometimes you lead, sometimes you follow.  Don’t worry about what you don’t know.  Life’s a dance, you learn as you go.”

As your days go by, you learn new songs, meet new people, lose some along the way, gain new experiences, learn new lessons, open new doors, and close other doors.  Some of this is fun, some of it is effortless, and other times it is a purely painful train wreck of an experience. 

Through all of this, use music as a tool for yourself.  Let it be a selfless partner in your life.  Music can help you drive.  If you need it to, let it. 

My Healing and Workout Playlists

In case you did not see these playlists in the text above, here are two of my playlists.  Take a gander and see if you want to add any of these songs to your playlist.

Keep on Dancing!!!