Enriching lives through participation in music
Music Therapy Services of West Music
A Mini-Mixtape Playlist
10/03/22
Ever since I was little girl sitting on my mom’s lap as she played the piano flawlessly, music spoke to me. As a teenager, the way music spoke to me only grew more and more. I remember hearing a song on the radio that said exactly what I was feeling. I knew that I would have to share it with my friends the very next day and that I would be singing it to myself on repeat. Music gave me a way to help me understand what I was feeling and helped me understand what others were feeling too. My generation of teenagers posted song lyrics as their IM (instant messenger) status to let others know what kind of day it was, and it worked!
I love that this powerful communicator has never stopped speaking to me over the years. As I became a music therapist, I learned the why’s behind the way music expresses and effects our emotions, how it activates so many parts of our brain and it just has added to my love and amazement for music and the mind. Over the last few years, I have been diving deep into noticing and analyzing songs that get stuck in my head. I have begun to trust that those ‘ear worms’ are trying to tell me something if I’d just slow down and listen. Sometimes the music is friend validating my feelings and letting me know I’m not alone, and sometimes the music is teaching me about my current situation, the complex emotions I’m feeling or how I want be in the future. Music has helped me move through grief, process life, and come back home to myself when I thought I was lost.
As I’m coming into a new season of my life and as the world is transitioning to Fall, I’ve been noticing some songs that are speaking to me. I want to share my current mini mixtape of songs with some of lyrics that are speaking to me. Click the song title to hear the song!
Joy
(Andy Grammar)
“And grief she came and overstayed way longer than I’d liked
But I found joy in my life.”
Shame, she had way to make me hate myself inside
But I found joy in my life.”
Easy on Me
(Adele)
“There ain’t no room for our things to change
When we are both so deeply stuck in our ways.
Go easy on me, baby.
I was still a child,
Didn’t get the chance to feel the world around me.
Had no time to choose what I chose to do
So go easy on me.”
In Case You Don't Live Forever
(Ben Platt)
“In case you don’t live forever,
Let me tell you the truth
I’m everything that I am
Because of you.”
It Only Gets Better
(WILD)
“I can’t go back.
Now I finally, finally, finally, finally know
Who I used to be and where I wanna go.”
“Through all of the change I made
I won’t go chasing the good old days,
‘Cause ooh, woo, ooh, woo (just wait)
It only gets better.”
Sing It With Me
(JP Cooper, feat. Astrid S.)
“Maybe you could sing it with me,
Don’t know who you are,
But you spoke to my heart.
That melody you wrote,
Please don’t be somebody I don’t know,
But I feel like I already know ya”
Chasing Cars
(Sleeping At Last cover of Snow Patrol song)
“Let’s waste time Chasing cars,
Around our heads.
And if I lay here,
If I just lay here,
Would you lie with me
And just forget the world.”
What this mini mixtape says about me right now:
I’m learning to embrace life: past, present, & future, and all the emotions that come with it instead of fighting and trying to control it. I am also learning that joy and rest is a very important part of this process.
What songs would be on your mini-mixtape right now?
What are those songs saying to you? Are you taking the time to listen?
