The View From Here – Feel Good Friday!

Feel Good Friday is BACK!  My favourite day of the week.

Every Friday, The Fox teams up with The Canadian Mental Health Association, to give you some ideas on how to take care of your mental health.  Over the past few weeks, we’ve learned the importance of being creative, getting out in nature, exercise, and the power of paying it forward.

TODAY – Feel Good Friday is ALL about the music.  I don’t know about you – but music is therapy for me.  I don’t remember a time in my life where music didn’t play an important role.

From my mom playing her records in the living room, getting us all to dance with her, to the Beatles, Sam the Sham and the Pharoahs (odd that I remember that), David Lee Roth or Michael Jackson.  My mom loved music and loved to sing and dance around the house.  I have the best memories of that.  She’s been gone nearly 30 years and whenever I hear one of her favourite songs played it takes me back in time.  When my kids suddenly come up with one of “her” songs, it’s like a sign from up above that she is still with us and watching over us.  No 14 year old suddenly cranks up Neil Diamond or the Beatles Hey Jude on purpose.

I remember discovering Duran Duran.  Buying that first album.  Yes, album.  On vinyl.   From the RECORD store.

I bet you remember the first music you bought.  The first album you held in your hands.  I would sit for hours playing the same album over and over.  Listening intently to every song.  Loving the transition from song to song.  Wondering what it meant.  Why it was written. The meaning behind it.  I would sit and hold the album liner notes in my hand.  Reading the lyrics, the thank you notes. All of it.  There was a time there was so much excitement over a new album release.  My kids don’t know that feeling.  They listen to what they want.  They haven’t gotten to grow with a band, album to album.

High school dance, wedding dance, father / daughter dance.  I bet you know them all.

Songs that make you dance, laugh, cry.

Music is therapy in the best form.   Listening to a song all alone, feeling every word, every lyric.   Listening to a song in the car on a hot summer day, windows down, volume turned up.   Car pool karaoke has always been a thing for me.  Before James Corden made it so popular.

Music is powerful. It can get you through the good times – the celebrations, the victories. It can get you through the darkest of days and remind you that you are never alone in the struggle.

I can’t imagine life without music.  A glance at my favourites would tell the story of my life, and I bet you can say the same.

On this Feel Good Friday – the Canadian Mental Health Association reminds us of the power of music.

And don’t forget – the Ride Don’t Hide Event is NOW a virtual event. It’s all online.  But you can STILL participate! With uncertainty, stress, anxiety, and physical distancing = we all need connection and support from our communities like never before.   Show everyone that even though we are apart – you are NOT alone in dealing with their mental health.  Click the link to register, ride and raise funds for mental health.

Ride Don’t Hide is the largest Canadian event of its kind and raises more than $2 million each year for the Canadian Mental Health Association!

Categorised in: Afternoons, Afternoons Fridays

This post was written by Carrie Buchanan