Instead of a biography about my life, I want someone to turn up the volume and let my playlist run. Life for me is about the theme songs. It started in the late 90’s, watching Dr. Tracy Clark (played by Tracy Ullman) tell Ally McBeal (played by Calista Flockhart) during a therapy session (on the Ally McBeal TV series), to find a theme song. If you’ve never seen the series, I highly encourage you to start binge watching it tonight. Its available pretty much everywhere. Here’s a little clip from season 2, episode 5 to inspire you. I think we all need a wiggle walk song on our playlist for life!
Deciding that life must always have a theme song isn’t just about picking a song that you like and listening to it on repeat. It is more of a lifestyle that you decide to adopt.
Decide to feel the music. Research shows that music can activate neurological and biological responses within our bodies. The pleasure and happiness that some music elicits activate important parts of our brains that help those happy feelings last well after the music stops. On the flip side, there are those times when we try to hold in feelings of sadness, disappointment, and anger because it may be difficult to find safe times and spaces to express those feelings. Research also shows that listening to sad songs when you are holding on to sad feelings can actually help you to more openly feel those emotions and express them in healthy ways.
Decide to let a song hold you in a moment. There is growing evidence demonstrating the importance of being more present, or mindful, in our daily lives. The available resources that exist to help us practice mindfulness are everywhere. In our hurried lives of constant multitasking, I challenge all of us to pick a single song each day, put on our headphones, close our eyes, and just be present in that moment. We all might be surprised at the outcome.
Decide to let the music connect you to a shared experience. There is nothing more validating than when you hear a song for the first time and it is as though the lyrics were written just for you. While we may feel that type of personal connection to a song, knowing that there is someone who wrote that song and someone who singing that song and other people who are listening and feeling that song…suddenly we become connected to others through the song. Music creates a shared experience in a way that if we are open to it, we are reminded that we are never alone.
Decide to give your life a playlist. Seriously. Let your theme songs start to mark your time. I’ve listed some of my favorites from my playlist for life. Each phase of life or significant experience has been marked by a theme song. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions about my life with my mashup of songs. Some help me feel connected. Some help me be in the moment. And others….others are just about getting my wiggle walk on.
- We didn’t Start the Fire (Billy Joel)
- St. Elmo’s Fire (John Parr)
- Bring Me to Life (Evanescence)
- Paradise City (Guns N’ Roses)
- Brown Eyed Girl (Van Morrison)
- Summertime (Shaggy)
- Round Here (Counting Crows)
- Think Twice (Celion Dion)
- Good Intentions (Toad the Wet Sprocket)
- I Go Through (O.A.R.)
- Praying (Kesha)
- Broken Glass (Rachel Platten)
- NOTE: All of the links are to official music videos posted to YouTube and are intended to be used for your entertainment only.
What is your theme song for right now? What song connects to your life?
Get going on that playlist. And make sure you include a couple songs that are good for wiggle walking.
