StressBust with Music

05 May StressBust with Music

Finals week is just around the corner and I’m sure you are exhausted. The end of the semester is typically the most difficult time to find any kind of motivation. You are stressed, you don’t feel like working out, you don’t want to cook or clean at home, you stop reading the news; basically you start to mentally check-out. The tough part is that this time of year is when you seem to be the busiest; grading finals, turning in grades, cleaning up the office, and all the other tasks you must do before the summer.

When I’m exhausted or stressed, I look to an old trusted friend to brighten my day, make me smile, and motivate me. That friend is music. Before I start, I must warn you, my musical taste is quite erratic. As the cab driver from the movie Short Circuit 2 said (I promise this will be the last obscure movie reference), what I listen to ranges from “ABBA to ZZ-Top.” I listen to one or two songs in the morning, usually something fast or angry to get me fired up. The video below of Arcade Fire is an example of something that I play in the morning.

Awake yet? For you classic rock folks, songs from The Who or Led Zeppelin are a perfect substitute to give that “kick” you need in the morning.

During lunch, I’ll tone it down a bit to relax. I’m a sucker for great female singers so I absolutely love this next song from Adele:

In the afternoon, my music choice depends on what I had for lunch. With a big lunch, I need another up-beat song or I’ll listen to something that grooves and makes me want to move in my chair. The song Transformer from the group Gnarls Barkley is something you may hear blasting from my headphones in the afternoon.

Country/folk fans may love this live version of Mumford and Sons’ The Cave.

Notice that all these clips are from live performances. I find that these are often the best recordings because the music feels more raw and alive, unlike their sometimes over-produced and mundane studio counterparts. Do you use music to motivate you or to relieve stress? Please share your favorite songs in the comments section.

Image from Flickr Creative Commons user asgw. Shared under the permissions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic license.