Music Heals the Soul

Music is the heart of the soul! It truly reflects our emotions and can speak for us when we can’t find the words to portray how we are feeling. We can tag a memory to a specific song, we listen to upbeat, party music when we want to get pumped up, or depressing, slow music when we are feeling down. It influences our emotions and can also help us with our healing process. When I am having a high anxiety day, moment, or know I will be encountering one of my triggers, I always listen to my music. It completely calms me down, distracts me from what is causing the anxiety, and gets me through the trigger. For example, one of my triggers is showers. I literally could not shower without having a panic attack until I started playing music in the shower with me and forced myself to sing along to the songs. It forced my brain to think of something else, quickly get through my shower, and get out of there before I had any time to trigger a panic attack. Now, I am able to take showers with hardly any anxiety and sometimes without my music playing! I’m very excited about this progress!

Here are some of the specific songs that I personally love to listen to and the reasons behind them:

Forever Now by Michael Bublé

This song is adorable. It’s about a father singing to his daughter (I’m assuming), and talking about how much he loves her and how much he wants to keep her safe throughout her life as she’s growing up. The chorus is my absolute favorite part! He sings, “I hope you understand that I’m always gonna lift you up, and I’m never gonna let you down. No matter what you do, I’m forever proud of you. I love you forever now.” Adorable! I love that! It always makes me feel protected when I listen to it whether I picture my own father protecting me, or my Heavenly Father being the one to protecting me. (Side note: I’m totally using this for my Daddy-Daughter dance song when I get married! So cute!)

 

Never Gonna Let You Down by Colbie Caillat

This song is very comforting. When I listen to it, she makes me feel like I have a friend who will always be there for me. The chorus, of course, is my favorite part as well, because she describes the perfect friend and how they will always be there for you and never let you down. It is a positive song that keeps your head up that there will always be people out there that will always love you like this and feel this way for you!

 

Praying by Kesha

Kesha described the meaning behind the song herself saying, “This song is about coming to feel empathy for someone else even if they hurt you or scare you. It’s a song about learning to be proud of the person you are even during low moments when you feel alone. It’s also about hoping everyone, even someone who hurt you, can heal. ‘Praying’ was written about that moment when the sun starts peeking through the darkest storm clouds, creating the most beautiful rainbow. Once you realize that you will in fact be OK, you want to spread love and healing. If you feel like someone has wronged you, get rid of that hate, because it will just create more negativity. One thing that has brought me great relief is praying for those people. Being angry and resentful will do nothing but increase your own stress and anxiety — and hate is the fuel that grows the viruses. Don’t let anyone steal your happiness!” Enough said! She said it perfectly why I love to listen to this song. I think we can all relate to this song.

 

Save Rock and Roll by Fall Out Boy (feat. Elton John)

WARNING: you will want to get the clean version of this song. It has one “f” word at the beginning of the song. Even so, I love this song. It is my anthem. The first verse perfectly describes how I feel towards my ex boyfriend. The words are, “I need more dreams and less life. And I need that dark In a little more light. I cried tears you’ll never see, so **** you, you can go cry me an ocean and leave me be. You are what you love, not who loves you. In a world full of the word yes, I’m here to scream No!” He will never know how I truly feel, how much he has made me cry, or how much he hurt me, but I will forever scream “No!” to him if he ever tries to manipulate me again.

 

I’m a Mess by Bebe Rexha

Honestly, this song completely relates to the two sides of me that I consistently feel. She sings about how everything is going to be fine, everything will be ok and it’s going to be a good life, but then she goes into the chorus about how she’s a mess, a hater, and feels embarrassed and doesn’t trust people anymore. Honestly, we can all admit we all feel this way now. Both sides! I absolutely do! That’s honestly why I like the song, because she totally relates to us. It’s always nice to feel like people understand.

 

Head Above Water by Avril Lavigne

If you haven’t heard Avril Lavigne’s new song, you definitely need to go listen to it! This is more of a gospel song. She sings about the storms in life that try and drown us, and she cries out to God to help us keep our heads above the water, and to pull us onto the shore. It’s an absolutely beautiful song that I love to listen to. She helps us focus on Heavenly Father, and how he will always pull us out of the storms when we feel like we are blinded by them and can’t swim. He will always rescue us no matter how difficult our storms may be.

 

The Last of the Real Ones by Fall Out Boy

Yes, I do love Fall Out Boy! When I listen to this song, I picture myself singing this with other survivors. Even though this is probably not the real meaning of the song, it’s like it’s describing how we were all alone at one point after this happened to us, feeling alone at least, but then we found each other, and we’re finding our glory, and we’ll never walk away from each other now that we’ve found each other. We’re here for each other and we’ll always be there for one another. You all might think of different interpretations, but that’s what goes through my head when I listen to that song.

 

Without Me by Halsey

WARNING: this is another song you’ll want to get the clean version for. It has one “f”word in the middle of the song. This is another song that perfectly describes my relationship. Halsey describes how she found the person when they were broken, and told them she would be there to fix them and take on their demons. Little did she know that the person was actually hurting her and taking advantage of her, but she didn’t notice because she was blinded by love. But now, this person has to try and live without her because she got rid of their toxic hold in her life. I completely relate to this song, and it’s more therapeutic to be able to feel like someone completely understands how I feel and what I went through.

 

The Breakup Song by Francesca Battistelli

This is a fun upbeat song that describes how we should feel after breaking up with someone toxic in our lives like our abusers. She sings, “Fear you don’t own me. There ain’t no room in this story, and I ain’t got time for you tellin’ me what I’m not like you know me, well guess what? I know who I am! I know I’m strong, and I am free. Got my own identity. So fear you will never be welcome here.” With her upbeat, positive tone, she encourages me to be strong and confident with myself and to not give in to my fears and anxieties.

 

My Little Prayer by David Archuleta

I absolutely love this song. It always reminds me that we’re all human and we all have flaws and have times when we are going through rough times and might lack faith. I also am so grateful for Heavenly Father’s plan for all of us. It may not be on our timeline that we want, but it will be in his timing. I also love the part at the end of the song when he sings, “Sometimes I have felt defeated. That’s when I kneel down in prayer. You show me you hear my prayer. I’m amazed by how you care. Cause you hear my little prayer.” It’s a gorgeous, peaceful song that always uplifts me and reminds me that the best way to get through the hard times of the healing process is to always pray. Heavenly Father does hear our prayers and will show us that he wants to help us as much as he possibly can.

 

I will keep updating this list as I find more songs that I feel relate are perfect for sharing! But overall, pick music that you feel makes you happy and keeps you positive. Music is there to help you through the healing process. The other music I haven’t mentioned that is always helpful is church music. Those never fail to keep the spirit around me and get me through my bad days when I feel like my anxiety is taking over. After all, music truly is the medicine of the mind.

If anyone else has any song recommendations, shoot me an email or comment below and tell us why you love that song and I’ll be sure to add it to this list! youarenotalone.skimball@gmail.com