How do you tune out stress, anger, and anxiety with music? Let me tell you about how I did just that today. I was sitting in my car this morning, waiting for my nephew to get out of an appointment. It was a rainy, foggy, morning so I thought I would enjoy the peace and quiet in my car. I had my coffee and breakfast with me, so I thought this was a great idea!
The appointment was going to be around an hour long, so I had an hour to eat, drink my delicious latte, catch up on emails and get my day planned. I was ready for a productive hour!
As I cracked my window to breathe in the fresh fall-ish (70 degrees) rainy air, and enjoy the peace and quiet of the morning, a construction crew arrived. Turns out they were paving the parking lot I was sitting in. At first, I was agitated. I just wanted one moment to myself, that was peaceful, quiet, and productive. I was angry because I had this wonderful plan for my own self care for the next hour and I felt it was being taken away from me. How dare they!
In those first few angry moments, as I listened to the incessant noise, then quiet, then the *beep beep beep* of the construction vehicles I realized I had a few decisions to make. What options did I have here? I could venture to a nearby coffee shop but I really didn’t want to drive anywhere. I could stay in my car and just listen to this noise, not getting anything done, and stewing in my anger which I really didn’t want to do either, or I could look at the options to make my current situation work. When I put aside my anger for a moment, and remembered I could be creative here, and make my own reality that serves myself and what I want, I realized I could roll my windows back up, and listen to some music which immediately lifted my mood. I was able to be super productive! Although I still heard the construction noise and the *beep beep beep* it was now in the background instead of in my immediate surroundings.
I realized this was a beautiful moment of my own awareness, my own willingness to work with with what I had at my fingertips, and to empower myself with something positive versus sitting in anger for an hour at something I don’t have any control over.
How often in life do we let the construction noise take over and ruin our moment, hour, or day, and stay stuck in feelings that don’t serve us at all. I mean, can we go tell the construction crew to just leave for an hour because that is better for us? Life doesn’t work that way. We have to learn how to work and live within the noise. We can be creative in how we work with the noise! And if we are lucky and able to, as I was this morning, to find a solution that moved that aggressive headache-inducing noise to the background, just think about what we might be capable of? How many moments of anger, and lost energy can I then keep for things I would much rather give my energy and positive emotions to?
So as this holiday season approaches with its own set of parking lot paving construction vehicles, how might you work on focusing on what you need, even if that noise is incessant? Can you give yourself permission to be creative, playful, and find some joy even in those difficult moments?
If you are curious what I was listening to this morning-
For some great Indie playlists that change often visit AlexRainBird Music here: https://www.alexrainbirdmusic.com
