Stress less with Music
I need a personal assistant, as I always manage to pack my days from beginning to end with various different tasks, events and plans. Everything from work and working out to obligations with friends. Unfortunately, I do not have a personal assistant, and it’s not uncommon for me to overbook myself and spread myself too thin. Having several different things I’m passionate about, leaves me wanting to be everywhere doing everything at once! Now that It is the holiday season, I have to fit shopping and family parties into the mix, which makes things even more intense and exhausting!
So what do I do when I think I’m about to spin out of control or simply pass out? The answer lies embedded in so many of my memories. For as long as I can remember, I have always turned to music. When I was on the bus to an away basketball game, after a long
day of class and friends, I would put on my headphones to unwind. Humming to myself, eyes closed, I would listen to the calming tones of The Vines. My mind would instantly go from running in circles to standing still, and fully focused on the game.
When I leave the house in the morning, my mind is already running through all the different tasks that lie before me, and it’s not uncommon for me to forget things in the mix! But it has been proven that music can help your memory! Knowing this, I wrote a little song to help me remember the basics! I sing, “don’t forget your phone, keys or purse, because that is the worst”. That’s right, I have been known to forget my purse, but when you have so many distractions, things get left behind!
There have been several other times in my life that I have found a sweet comforting calm in the arms of a good song. One time in particular happened my senior year of college. I was wrapped up in classes, cheerleading, choir, church and friends, when I received a call from my sister. My mom had fallen very ill, and needed to be hospitalized. I rushed home from Iowa to be with her, and stay up with her in ICU overnight. As she screamed in pain, weaving in and out of sleep, I sang to her. I sang old church hymns and Jason Mraz songs, all of our favorites. As the sun came up, she finally fell asleep, right as I was losing my voice. To this day she doesn’t remember that night, as the medication and her condition at that time wiped her memory of those hours. As I left in the morning (since my sister was there to stay with her) the overnight nurses of the ICU thanked me for singing and bringing comfort to the other patience. I’m glad I was able to bring music to that place of high stress and tension, but I wasn’t singing for them. I was singing for myself. In the wake of senior year stress, and my mother’s illness, I was singing to myself to find calm in the hurricane of life. I don’t know if I would have made it through the night without those old familiar songs to ease the weight of stress and worry on my heart.
In the hustle of life, it’s easy to get lost in the comings and goings and all the things that seem so important. But none of those things are more important than your personal health. as it has the power to take you back to the first time you heard that song and really felt what it means. A song can simply help you breathe.