This morning was one of those days that my partner wasn’t available for our morning run. So I popped on my I Pod and let the music carry me up those tough hills and long stretches of road, with a dancing spirit ready to boogie.

A few years back my friend Elisabetta told me about an article about how a song can lift your spirits on those rough days, help pump you up for an interview, even find the courage to tackle challenges heretofore not considered possible. It’s so true . . .Music has the ability to change our perspective and transport us to another time and place.

When I hear the song “Brandy”, it brings back the memory of playing on my radio in the mornings of senior year of high school. “Let it Be” reminds me of the school dance where I met my major crush Ronnie Hogan for the first time.

Music can inspire us to take chances—to find the courage to step up to the next challenge or opportunity that has come into our life—to really consider that career change, to introduce ourselves to that interesting colleague at the networking meeting, to wear that fun outfit that makes us feel oh so alive.

There is nothing like a great song to move us. I like most kinds of music, but there is nothing like a rocking, pumping pop song. The aerobics and spin classes have it right—some grooving music will allow you to do those intense classes!

I love to dance and any song with a great beat and melody is good for me. My current faves are Hevia “Busindre Reel”, anything by Imogene Heap, and all of Alanis Morrisette. There’s a song from a 1980 film, Bagdad Café-“I’m Calling You” that is beautifully haunting that speaks to some deep place in me. And then there’s the music that calms and centers me–solo piano music and classical cello pieces.

How about you? What music makes your spirit soar? What makes you want to get up and dance? What music relaxes, calms and centers you? Do you make time to listen to music and allow it to move you? Go for it—it’s free and all around us.

The dancer moves to the rhythm of song
A love harmoniously keyed
Bending melodically to and fro
Swaying cattail reeds
DEI Music