Curate your life — Part 2
Curate (v): to select, or be in charge of selecting, things such as documents, artworks, music, products, or internet content to be included as part of a list or collection, or on a website.
As a writer, I discuss writing and word-related topics on my social media pages.
Last week — after sharing a blog about how to limit negative news and social media influences, I made a short video about lyrics — the words that are sung (or sometimes spoken) with music, or sung a capella (without music). It got me thinking…
Music has the power to change our mood, for better or worse. Have you ever listened to a song and felt like crying? Felt angry? Or uplifted? That is no coincidence. Songs are powerful.
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Just like the words we read and hear, song lyrics sink into our mind and subconscious, whether we realise it or not. So even if you are listening to music while you’re doing something else, your mind is paying attention to those words.
If you are curious about lyrics’ influence, try typing the name of a song and artist you’re familiar with into a search engine. Without doubt, someone out there has taken the time to put those lyrics you’re searching for on the internet. You’d be surprised at the negative themes in some songs, such as anger, self-harm, harm to others, and so on.
I started to take notice of song lyrics about two years ago; I started to curate my own music collection and playlists. Now, I mostly avoid songs I know have negative lyrics in favour of songs with positive lyrics (‘positive vibes only’, if you like). That has made a huge difference to my days, because I listen to music a lot — as I get ready for work, on my commute, and sometimes even in the office if I need to concentrate on my work.
What about you? Are you willing to take a critical look at the songs you like? What will they reveal?
I found that looking up the lyrics from songs I liked was an eye opener; it really helped me weed out the songs whose messages weren’t going to lift me up.
So once we’ve eliminated the negative, how do we replace it? There are so many songs out there with positive lyrics. You can even find whole playlists of them on video or streaming services. We don’t need to look very far to accentuate the positive. Take the opportunity to add sunshine to your life today by changing what you listen to.
