Happy Tunes Into the New Year
This will be my last post till January, then I’ll be picking things back up again once Joe and I are settled into our new home (deep in the woods). I thought I’d leave you with a few more tunes from my happy collection just for the hell of it.
And why not play myself offstage to a jaunty tune. It’s.. almost fitting. Close enough.
[audio:Paul-McCartney-Ram-Heart-Of-The-Country.mp3]
Happy Christmas and assorted other holidays, and a glorious New Year to everybody!
Hooray for Happy Songs!
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The Spinning of Life
The human mind is an endless source of fascination for me. Lately I’ve been particularly intrigued by our ability to creatively rearrange and spin external events, encounters, words, people, etc. into very different internal ideas about those realities, and then as a result, each get a completely unique experience from the same external stimuli.
It can be frustrating at times, of course, but that’s life. And rather than spin life and human nature into internal experiences of frustration for myself, I prefer to look upon it all with detached bemusement. I mean, just think, if it weren’t for our tendency towards wacky misunderstandings, Three’s Company would never even have been made! And that’s a sacrifice me-from-the-past just isn’t willing to make.
Anyhoo, no time for philosophising. My point is best expressed further in the form of re-cut movie trailers.
Laughter Therapy Time.
In a continued effort to lighten the mood and reduce holiday stress levels (in myself most of all, today), I shall share a little of what I like to call… the gift of laughter…
Right up there with masters of absurdist sketch comedy the likes of Kids in the Hall, Stella, Wonder Showzen and Mr. Show… I bring you Tim and Eric’s newest show, Tim and Eric Awesome Show Good Job!
And for you Youtubers, I offer my personal ‘funny’ collection. It contains only the highest quality sampling of all those mentioned above, and more! Now go be happy now.
Happy Tunes Make You Happier. Shocking.
That’s right, I’m going out on that limb. Call me a revolutionary if you will… Music does in fact effect your mood.
People still argue about this, but the arguments are generally about the degree to which this is true and the degree to which musically-induced mood-effects lead to certain acts (ie: of suicide or violence). Few will go so far as to say that music doesn’t influence one’s state of mind at all. “Studies show,” it does. I can’t vouch for the validity of any particular study, but I can speak from my own experience, and my own experience is conclusive. Music effects my moods.
The degree of influence varies of course. The more ‘emotional’ I am to begin with, the more profound the effect of the music I’m listening to will be. If I’m teetering on the edge of depression already, sad music will definitely help topple me over, and happy music will help me regain some balance.
If I’m in a good, stable mood, on the other hand, happy music will reinforce that a bit, but conversely, a melancholy song won’t get me down at all. My positive state will lead more to an appreciation of the beauty and subtleties of the musical composition itself. It’ll send me off on philosophical musings about the ability of music to express and evoke such complex and interesting emotions in human beings. It’ll inspire me with new ideas for musical projects of my own.
So yeah, the initial mood, and strength of that mood, is a large factor in determining how much and what kind of influence a given type of music will have. But Christmas, as I’ve ‘discussed’ recently, can be a source of overwhelming stress, panic and depression for a lot of people. Not all people, but a lot of people. For those with such a seasonal predisposition towards negative emotional states, music selection can be one little way to start shifting the balance towards a healthier, happier holiday experience.
It helps just to be more conscious of what you’re listening to, particularly if you find yourself slipping below sea level, emotionally speaking. Of course, if you’re to the point where you feel like you’re drowning emotionally, you probably need to take more drastic measures. (I, as you know, would opt right out of the gift-buying-panic-trance and use the money to buy myself a kitten instead! Seriously, kittens and puppies: best therapists in the world. Go ahead, try and prove me wrong).
In any case, it doesn’t hurt to start paying attention to the soundtrack currently setting the mood for your day. If you’re not already feeling great, and what you’re listening to is not helping, don’t just sit there and keep listening to it, skip the damn track! Keep skipping damn tracks until you find something uplifting! Or, just turn the sound off and enjoy some peace and quiet. Try listening to the air particles around your head (this is actually a good meditative exercise I use sometimes).
If you can’t find any music that’s uplifting to you, hmmm… you might want to start looking for some. I have a subfolder in my MP3 collection designated only for happy and/or funny and/or upbeat songs, and I try to add to it regularly. Just having it there means I always know where to go for an emotional boost. And it does work. I don’t care what anybody says, happy music makes me happier. Even more so if I take it outside (in my mp3 player) for a hike. There’s no mood enhancer quite like oxygen, nature and happy tunes combined.
As for the why? Well, off the top of my head… our thoughts often follow the contours of our emotional state, and the interplay between the two becomes a self-reinforcing loop, one way or the other, positive or negative. Trying to turn your thoughts around from a negative to a positive mindset can be very difficult when you’ve already built up a strong current of negative emotions to wade against (even just biochemically speaking), but bypassing the left brain and plugging directly into the emotions via, for example, uplifting music, I’ve found to be immediately effective. It’s not a long-term solution to your life’s problems by any means, but it’s a useful tool for leveraging yourself into a better position from which to solve problems.
It works on several fronts. First, it provides a temporary distraction from the negative internal dialogue you’ve been engaging yourself in, long enough to stop your brain from releasing ‘fear/stress chemicals’ and start releasing ‘happy/calm chemicals.’ This has an uplifting effect on your mood, which also increases your energy levels. That clears your head a bit and gets your thoughts moving in a more positive direction, which opens you up to new ideas and solutions you weren’t able to access before. That new upward-moving thought-flow further elevates your mood, which further improves the whole biochemical situation, and raises your psychic and mental energies higher. That allows you to think even more clearly and constructively… and so on.
To help you out a bit, and in the simple spirit of giving, here are a few tunes from my own ‘Happy’ file… Even if they don’t seem to suit your tastes, give them a try. Your heart might love you for it. Besides, brand new music can trigger brand new parts of your brain! So why not experiment a little? Brain experimentation, woo! :)
Happy Songs! Yay!
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It’s a Freaking Holiday. Relax. Be Happy. I’ll Help.
I remember a time when Christmas could get me really stressed out. I got over that years ago. But, having a decent memory and being pretty empathetic, I’m pained and saddened to see the exhaustion and sheer desperation on so many other faces out there; so many frightened, beaten down, worn out people, scurrying around, trying to satisfy needs and desires and expectations that aren’t even real, put there by others; trying in vain to quiet those demanding inner voices, spending themselves deeper and deeper into debt…
And for what?!? Does anyone stop and ask themselves what in the hell they’re doing? and why? I want to shake some of these people and scream, “Dudes, wake up! It’s not worth it! Stop! Go take a nap and do something nice for yourself for a change, take a little time to think about what Christmas actually means to you, if anything, and call me in the morning. No, don’t call me in the morning. Call me in the afternoon, because I want you to sleep in late tomorrow gaddammit. Get out of here!”
Seriously, I don’t want to hear any of this crap about how stressed you are because you still ‘have’ to buy x number of presents for x number of people - only a fraction of whom you really want to buy for; less of whom you can really afford to buy for. That’s what we enlightened folk call bullshit. Grow a spine. If you can’t afford to buy a gift for someone, tell them you’re opting out of gift exchanging this year because you can’t afford it. If they’re the kind of person that won’t understand or sympathize with your situation, why are you even friends with them, let alone buying them presents?
My Christmas shopping list this year is the shortest it’s ever been, and I’ve told people that. Some of them have been openly relieved to know they don’t ‘have’ to buy me something now either. (Funny thing is, I’m not even broke. I just don’t buy into this particular ritual all that much, and at this point am only willing to play along so far. That is, to the extent I see it as an excuse to give to a few especially close friends and family members, who I’m feeling generous towards already).
Why would anyone want to receive a gift given out of obligation anyway? out of a sense that they ‘had’ to give you something? That’s not genuine. Please, don’t anyone ever do that on my account, because I might have to physically hurt you. (And I’ll admit, I might enjoy it a little… but only a little, and only because I’m doing you a favor).
Mandatory gift giving, if that’s all it is at the time, is stupid. I give people gifts when the mood strikes me, regardless of what day of the year it is, because it’s nice, and I want to show I care, and I want to make that person feel special. I don’t know about you guys, but Christmas gifts, while nice and appreciated, rarely make me feel particularly special. In fact, for me, they even carry a bit of guilt. In the back of my mind I’m wondering how much stress searching for my gifts added to that person’s Christmas shopping stress-fest.
Bottom line: Just keep things in perspective. This time next year, who’s even going to care what went down this year. The point of this whole rant is, if you’re not enjoying a holiday, you’re doing it wrong, and you should either start getting it right (that is, make it fun, meaningful and for Christ’s sake, keep it within your means!), or just sit the thing out. Why not? Life’s too short, and it just blows my mind that people actually commit suicide over this shit!
It isn’t even Jesus’ real birthday you know, for what that’s even worth, if you’re even a Christian. Everybody knows this, so I wish people would stop pretending otherwise. But I digress.
If you’ve been stressing out needlessly over Christmas, a holiday, that ought to just be warm and fuzzy and celebratory and fun, for the love of God, just stop. Just cool out!!!… take some deep breaths… cheer up. Don’t worry, I’m here to help.
My posts for the remainder of this month, what few posts there will be (we decided it would be a good idea to move halfway across the country on Christmas eve) - shall bring you only smiles and good cheer! That is my Christmas present to you.
[audio:Flaming-Lips-Bad-Days.mp3]