Music Can Make Everything Better!
Let’s start somewhere near the beginning…not the beginning of time. I wasn’t there for that. Were you? If you were, well you look pretty darn good for your age!
No, I am talking about the “youngster” years. I don’t remember much about them now except for things like my Fisher Price record player and my cabbage patch kids record. Or my Smurfs 8 track….or my La Bamba cassette tape that probably started my whole love of Latin music that I most definitely sang to but have no clue what I was singing!
Music has always played a crucial role in my life and can instantly teleport me back to a time and place of good, bad, funny and sad memories.
Does music do this for you too?
Like a specific song comes on in the grocery store and suddenly you are standing outside at a bonfire party and about to have your first real kiss! November Rain by Guns & Roses if you were wondering….I know you were! Wink Wink…
At a young age, maybe 4 or 5, my mom put me in dance classes at the Barb Hunt school of dance. I embraced learning new music and about all different styles of dance from around the world. Music and dance helped me to see a world beyond a classroom and books. Music is the lyrical version of an epic story played out and interpreted with movement.
I also grew up in a family that has always loved music and many different genres. I remember as a kid polka nights with my parents, brothers and grandparents. I believe it was a local radio station at the time that would play polka music on Friday nights, and we would all dance and in between songs the adults would play crib. It was awesome! I loved it! Okay, I don’t remember if my brothers actually danced to polka…I may be stretching the truth a little bit here.
As an adult now, if I hear polka music I am transported back to standing on my dad’s feet as he effortlessly twirled me around the dance floor (also know as the living room). I love this memory!
Another memory gets activated when I hear the song Here I Go Again by Whitesnake. I can’t help but think of the time I was in a Newfie bar in Brampton and jumped off a speaker playing my air guitar and singing at the top of my lungs and then the next days feeling like I broke my knees but it was all worth it in the moment….If you were in that bar all those many years ago and wondering whatever ever happened to “that girl”, well now you know…it was ME!
No autographs please! Well, if you pick up my book, I will sign it for you!
Okay, probably nobody remembers that but me….either way, that song brings on some fun memories with friends and I still want to sing it at the top of my lungs!
To this day, music has played a huge part in everything I do and how I be out here in the world. Music and movement supported me all the way through my breast cancer diagnosis.
When I was going through breast cancer, I had a “pick me up playlist” that would help clear my mind and get me smiling again almost instantly!
Here is the Top 20 to that list in no particular order:
- Walking on Sunshine by Katrina and the Waves
- Have a Little Faith by John Hyatt
- Stuck Like Glue by Sugarland
- Skinny Legs by Mark Lalama
- La Bamba by Ritchie Valens
- Wheat kings by The Tragically Hip
- Farley by Adam Sandler
- Valerie by Amy Whinehouse
- Raise Your Glass by P!nk
- Point of View by Julia D’Angelo
- Call Me Al by Paul Simon
- Something to Talk About by Bonnie Raitt
- This is My Passion by Ehrling
- Best Friend by Sofi Tukker, NERVO, The Knocks, ALISA UENO
- Wagon Wheel by Darius Rucker
- Ai Se Eu Te Pego by Nooossaa!
- I feel Good by Pitbull, Anthony Watts, DJ White Shadow
- Broken & Beautiful by Kelly Clarkson
- I Believe That We Will Win by Pitbull
- Me Too by Meghan Trainor
I know! You are shocked that Here I Go Again didn’t make this playlist! I think it did but no point adding it here…you know already! Now when I hear any of these songs it reminds of all I had to go through and how I kept believing it would all work out.
Even before any illness I have always shared the value in music. Music helps to reduce anxiety, lower the pain in the body, improve sleep, mood, and memory clarity.
Whether it be popping on a favorite song for 5 minutes a day and getting up to move or working with music playing in the background which I can NEVER do or I won’t sit still and no work will get done… however you embrace music and lyrics in your life can be a very positive and soul nourishing experience!
Music can move us beyond the imaginary boundaries we put up around ourselves. It is the window into one’s soul. Okay, that got a little deep there…. But it is true! Music can make whatever it is we are dealing with seem easier to handle even if just for a moment and that to me, makes it all worth it!
What was a song from your childhood that the moment you hear it you are instantly back in that time? What is the memory associated with that song?
This is going to get juicy, I can feel it already! Come on! Share YOUR list!
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