How To Keep Busy While Recovering: Music Soothes The Savage Beast

Music is one of those things that I believe truly speaks to my soul.  Different moods call for different music.  And like our moods affect the music we want, the music we listen to can also affect our moods.  I remember reading that it's helpful for babies to listen to calming, classical music when they are babies.  So I went out and got a Bach tape when my daughter was an infant and played it for her when she slept.  And she's an awesome kid, so obviously it worked :)

Music is an easy way to uplift your mood and help you feel better.  One of my favorite ways to listen to a variety of music according to my mood is through Pandora radio.  (I've already made small mentions of my Pandora listening here and here.)  I love how customizable it is, and that it's completely free!  I listen to it on my TV through my Roku box.  I also downloaded the app on my Kindle fire, but I don't usually use it too much on there.

Here are some of my favorite channels:

 

Bon Jovi

Plays mostly 80's bands with classic rock mixed in.  So in addition to Bon Jovi, I'll get bands like Poison, Aerosmith, Guns 'N Roses, and Queen.

Johann Sebastian Bach

Gives me classical Baroque era music.  Other than Bach, I'll get Pachelbel and Vivaldi and other composers that I am not too familiar with.  Sometimes I'll also get opera/ballet instrumentals like stuff from Carmina Burana and the Nutcracker.  I listen to this a lot as background music.  Since there are no words, I can't sing along...so I get less distracted.

John Williams

This channel was created by my son.  He loves all the orchestra music from Star Wars, and Pirates of the Caribbean.  This channel gives us a lot of classic movie instrumentals.  We like to listen to this during dinner sometimes.

Counting Crows

My newest creation is the Counting Crows channel.  My physical therapy office also plays music through Pandora.  Well, one day I commented about how good the music was that morning and asked what she had on.  It was the Counting Crows channel.   Other than Counting Crows, you'll hear Tom Petty, Bruce Sprinsteeen, U2, and Clapton.

The trick with Pandora is that when you first create a channel, you have to really sit there and do your like/dislikes.  If you do this for a couple of days, you will have the perfect channel.  I took a nice hot bath just a few weeks ago and put on my soothing, relaxing Bach channel and heard Pachelbel's Cannon in D three separate times within 45 minutes.  All different covers.  I call that a Pandora score!

Do you think music affects your mood?  What type of music soothes your soul?  What kind makes you happy? 

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