1. So Yesterday - Hilary Duff
I've loved this song since it came out way back in 2003, when Hilary Duff was riding high on her Lizzie McGuire and other Disney related successes. Sure, it has a bit of a Disney sunshine pop sound to it, but it always manages to calm me down when I'm feeling stressed, overwhelmed or anxious, mostly because the lyrics of the chorus encourages letting things go (I know it's about letting go of a relationship, but it can be applied to different relationships, like a person's relationship with anxiety): "If it's over, let it go and come tomorrow it will seem so yesterday, so yesterday. I'm just a bird that's already flown away. Laugh it off, or let it go and when you wake up it will seem so yesterday, so yesterday. Haven't you heard that I'm gonna be okay?"
2. Complicated - Avril Lavigne
I like to think of this song as me singing it to myself when I'm anxiously overthinking things that are way beyond my control. "Chill out, whatcha yellin' for? Lay back, it's all been done before. And if you could only let it be, you will see I like you the way you are, when we're driving in your car [...]" The song, of course, is about how people can act differently around different people which is certainly annoying, but I tend to use it as a way of asking myself to just chill out and let things be once in awhile.
3. Blow Me (One Last Kiss) - P!nk
I love P!nk so much for so many different reasons, the number one reason being that she's awesome and her music is awesome. This song, in particular, I like to blast when I'm just really done with everything. Maybe something hasn't gone my way, or I've found myself putting my all into something only to have it be blown up in my face, or I've found myself caring and worrying about something that ended up not being worth the time I spent caring and worrying over it. "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)" is about someone leaving a relationship after trying to hold it together for so long, and quite often that's me, when I'm stressed over work or a wide variety of other things, and this song is me leaving my relationship with my stress or anxiety, if only for a short while. It also promotes trying to worry less, which I'm always trying to do.
4. Miles Away - Madonna
This song's interesting beat has always had a calming effect on me ever since the first time I heard it and I can't really explain why, it just has. Also an obvious breakup song, it always just puts me in a nicer mood if I'm having a bad day or stressing out over something. My favorite lyric is, "Too much of no sound, uncomfortable silence can be so loud."
5. What the Hell - Avril Lavigne
I don't listen to this song as much now as I did when it first came out, but I find myself relating to it on the same level as "Blow Me (One Last Kiss)"; when I've found myself caring and worrying about something that really didn't deserve the time I spent caring and worrying about it, I just wanna shout "what the hell" and do whatever I want. It also helps me stop second-guessing things, which my OCD leads me to do and more than half the time it's second-guessing things that others would not think about for more than 3 seconds. And, this may sound strange, but the lyrics that go, "You're on your knees, begging please stay with me. But honestly, I just need to be a little crazy", is kind of like me attempting to let go of my OCD tendencies and just relax, which, if you have the disorder, you'll know is very hard at times. So maybe in my case my OCD is begging me to please stay with it, and I'm just not going to.
6. Why Can't I? - Liz Phair
Another song with a really soothing beat, and, you guessed it, another breakup song. I actually first heard "Why Can't I?" in 13 Going on 30, one of my favorite movies, so I quickly put it on my iPod and unexpectedly just started listening to it all the time. Nothing about the lyrics in particular remind me of my OCD or anxiety, I just find listening to it and singing along calms me down in a way that's hard to describe; it just works.
7. I'm Not Your Hero - Tegan and Sara
I actually only put this song on my iPod recently, but it was always one of those songs that I'd hear on the radio, sing along and tell myself to download later, but I would always forget and then once the radio had moved onto other songs, I almost forgot about it completely until I was searching for Tegan and Sara songs a few weeks ago and knew I had to buy it immediately! The message I get from "I'm Not Your Hero" is just that even if you're not the best at something, it doesn't mean you didn't try really damn hard, so you should give yourself a break every now and then and stop being so hard on yourself.
8. Unwritten - Natasha Bedingfield
No one can tell me they don't like this song even in the slightest... It was used in so many commercials about a decade ago or so, and was on the radio all the time. It's a great song for just releasing tension and trying to make yourself realize that every day is a new day with new chances, new experiences and just any new things that can come your way as long as you open yourself up to them.
9. Today is Your Day - Shania Twain
I love this song so much, almost as much as I love Shania Twain herself. This is one of her most recent songs to date; Twain stopped recording music and performing around the mid 2000s when she separated from and divorced her longtime husband, Mutt Lange, who she discovered to be having an affair with one of her best friends. As she stated in numerous interviews, she just lost the will to perform for quite a long time, and I think that's more than understandable and even respectable for her to take a break. In 2011, she released this song, a memoir and had her own reality series on the Oprah Network. "Today is Your Day" is about how everyone is worth it, and that today is your day to be who you want to be. Life can be unfair and cruel but you eventually have to pick yourself up and recover; you've survived the worst and the best is yet to come. My favorite lyrics are, "Life is gonna kick you, it's gonna kick you around, it's gonna keep you down. But brush yourself off, no regrets. This is as good as it gets. Don't expect more or less, just go out and give it your best."
10. Human - Christina Perri
Christina Perri is such an amazing singer and songwriter. This song is about what the title suggests; being human. We're only human, we're not indestructible and sometimes we need time to recover when shitty stuff happens to us. Yes, we have to be strong, but there's only so strong a person can be. For someone with anxiety, this song gives hope that they are not the only one struggling to keep it together sometimes. The chorus is really powerful and my favorite part of the song: "But I'm only human, and I bleed when I fall down. I'm only human, and I crash and I break down. Your words in my head, knives in my heart, you build me up and then I fall apart 'cause I'm only human."
11. Scream - Hedley
Hedley is one of my favorite bands and while I wouldn't describe this song as my favorite song of theirs, it is still a good tune to play when you need a break from everything. It basically promotes screaming when you need to, and I think we could all benefit from that! As goes the chorus, "Will you scream when you're alone? Even the beautiful lose control. Will you scream when you let go? I got a burning need to know, know, know. I can't explain my bad behavior and baby you're my savior and I don't wanna end up alone. Will you scream when you're alone? Even the beautiful lose control."
12. The Call - Regina Spektor
This song was written for and included in The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian, which I have seen so many times and I only picked up on this song the last time I watched it. It's so soothing and has very nice lyrics about accepting change as you go and just picking a point in the sky to stare at as you move the hell on.
13. Do Somethin' - Britney Spears
I like to listen to this song sometimes when other people are just being annoying and judging you when you don't really deserve to be judged. It's also your typical Britney song (pre-autotune) so it's fun to dance to and pretend you're putting irrelevant people in their place.
No comments:
Post a Comment