A couple of weeks ago I found myself stuck in a bad groove mentally. You know, those kinda stretches where you just can’t seem to find the energy to stay positive and the bad thoughts creep in and stay. I was able stay even keel on the outside (at least I think I did), but inside I struggled with a bad state of mind that I just couldn’t shake. In the past I would just stew on who or what put me in that negative frame of mind for weeks and I would end up miserable. You know what though? Who cares about how or who you got there, what matters is how you get out. So, I set out on utilizing everything I could to get myself out of that bad mood.

I tried challenging myself to a more difficult walk in a near snowstorm. Nope, didn’t work. I tried keeping myself busy by doing various tasks to maybe get some sense of accomplishment, nope. I thought going for a skate at lunch hour would get me out of it as I haven’t gone skating in a couple of years. Nope! It wasn’t until Wednesday morning that I decided to put myself into “the zone” and listen to some music. I was in such a weird frame of mind that I couldn’t even decide what to listen to, so I just told my most favorite music streaming service to play whatever it liked.

Well…. if the title of my posting doesn’t give it away, a song came on that instantly snapped me out of my mood. It was a song I had not heard in awhile, but did it ever do the trick! The song was “Get The Funk Out” by Extreme, a tune from 1990 that has always been an energizing song to me. When I heard the lyric “I don’t mean to be rude dude, but you’d better change your attitude”, I snapped out of my 48 hour daze and began feeling much, much better.

Music has a way to rattle our soul in all different directions. Humans are wired to respond to a good tune with great emotion and memory flashbacks. There are songs for happier times, songs for sadder times, songs for inspiration, songs for rest, songs for life, songs for death, songs for everything you could ever imagine. Why I didn’t retreat to my love of music to get me out of my funk is beyond me. In an attempt to learn from my trial, I decided to take my action one step further. I created a playlist with specific songs to get me motivated, or if I just want to get the funk out!

Here are the songs (I welcome your suggested additions!):

• Get the Funk Out – Extreme
• Roar – Katy Perry
• State of Mind – Clint Black
• You Get What You Give – New Radicals
• Eye Of the Tiger – Survivor
• It’s My Life – Bon Jovi
• Get Over It – Eagles
• Monkey Wrench – Foo Fighters
• Here Comes the Sunshine – The Beatles
• Not Afraid – Eminem
• Don’t Worry Be Happy – Bobby McFerrin
• Amazing – Aerosmith
• Right Now – Van Halen
• 18 ’till I Die – Bryan Adams

Updated resolution numbers:

69.4 of 1000 KMs walked

4 of 50 blog entries posted

2 of 10 books read (1 on the go)