Instructions On How To Turn Your Day Around
Being an artist and working another job that is not entirely your passion can be draining at times. Bad days happen. Days where your energy is zapped and the frustration starts to rise like the tide and you’re in the middle of the ocean. I’ve had a bunch of rough ones the past few weeks. My anxiety has risen and I sit staring at my screen fighting tears. Am I doing enough? What if I don’t finish this goal? How am I going to do all of this and stay sane? Should I just give up?
I had one of these days yesterday. Listening to music always helps me so I popped into Spotify. I have a few playlists I’ve exhausted to a point that if they were a cassette tape, they would be in tatters. I browsed suggestions, nothing sparking an inspiration. Then I thought of albums I love that I can just put on and let them wash over me.
I chose The Get Up Kids - Something To Write Home About
This album was a fucking journey. I haven’t listened to it in a while and the moment the first chord of “Holiday” hit, my body reacted. Even glancing the album cover on my phone screen stilled the world around me. A warm tingling rushed up my spine and down my arms and legs. My heart expanded in my chest like a startled puffer fish. A smile crept across my lips in that slow, beautiful way of pure pleasure. My brain fizzed and cracked with memories. This album was on heavy rotation in college and it makes me think of my closest friends and our emo hearts and screaming these lyrics at the top of my lungs when I needed to get some angst out.
The most magical part? I still knew every damn word of this album. It was like I was an empty fishbowl being filled with marbles. The words tumbled out and into me and filled me up.
My day turned around.
So here it is, a Recipe to Turn Your Day Around
Think of an album you loved from a specific time in your life. Important that this is an entire album you love so you can really sink into it. For me, it was either this one or Jimmy Eat World’s Bleed American for this day.
Press play
Give it a moment to sink into you.
Mouth the words. Or sing them if you aren’t at a desk like I was. Blast that shit in your ears, your car, your kitchen.
Grab the memories as they float by. Sit in them for a moment. Let that smile come. Let the tears come.
Nostalgia is a powerful drug. Let it be. Give in. Remember your life that you have lived. A good album or song is like someone holding your hand and walking with you. It can take you back or forward or keep you right in the present. The world swirls around you and a good album can make it stop cold in its tracks. It slows it down so you can BREATHE.
When I am stuck in a rut with writing or a panic attack or a bad day, I grab an album and press play. It may not work for anyone but one fo the few things that exists in every inch of the world is music. When you have those few albums that capture a moment in time or bring comfort like a warm blanket, why not press play on them once in a while?
