Day 13: Self Help

Self help is a subject I had to ponder for a bit as I had to reflect on what it really is for me. I am the type of person that tends to put themselves on the back burner to make sure everyone and everything else is taken care of first. When I sat and thought about, the two things that have always been what I turn to when I need to decompress, or uplifting or to relax are books and music. Throw in a nice cab sav and we’re cookin’ with gas.

Music has always been a constant in my life. My mother told me that I was singing before ever started talking. And while I do enjoy singing, it was never a passion to the point that I wanted to pursue it professionally. As far back as I can remember, there was always music playing in our house, on vinyl and my mother always played a variety of genres, so we grew up well rounded. At the age of 6, Heart was my favorite band and you could hear me rocking to Barracuda with the Wilson sisters. Saturday mornings were set aside for house cleaning and Bob Seger and the Silver Bullet Band was frequently played for that. Everything from Alvin Bishop’s Calling All Cows to Bruce Springsteen’s Born in the USA came across our speakers.

Growing up in the 80’s we were exposed to a plethora of fantastic music and in our little town, I was the queen of the hair bands. My first concert was Def Leppard and Europe and I remember vividly to this day. Tonight I will be going to the first concert I’ve been to in a while and I am beyond excited as it will be my first A cappella show to attend. I first saw Home Free when they were on the tv show The Sing Off and was blown away by their talent. There are a handful of singers who can stop me in my tracks where I have to just listen. Bing Crosby, Dean Martin, Urs Buhler of Il Divo, Avi Kaplin, and both Austin Brown and Tim Foust of Home Free.

Music is powerful and can drive your emotions. This is demonstrated how it’s used in movies, commercials, at sporting events and can even further or change the mood of a listener, depending on what they choose to listen to.

While music brings me back to center, reading is my escape. I can go anywhere in any country in any century. My taste in books is as eclectic as my taste in music. Like with music, I have had a book in hand from my childhood. And again, like music, what genre I read is often determined by the mood I’m in. Currently I am in True Crime mode and while I don’t get to pick up one of my books as often as I would like, I do spend time in the children’s genre as my granddaughter is becoming a bookwork just like her grandmother. I will not apologize.

No matter what you do as a mode of self help, it is important to take some time to invest in yourself, doing some good to you. We live in a busy world and it doesn’t seem to be slowing down, so taking the time to purposefully slow down is something that we have to do on and individual basis and then we have to make the most of those “me moments”.