Titanic…. Lord of the Rings… Gone with the Wind… Sweeping, epic stories with sweeping epic music swelling, crashing and trickling in the background.
That music cajoles us, leads us forward, amplifies our emotional response. It engages us; teases us; draws us in.
All we have to do is hear the beginning notes of “scary” music to feel the increased beating of our hearts. It’s not long before our breathing shallows; we know something terrifying is about to happen.
Think of the music from the climax of The Shining. Oh, how I wish I’d never seen that movie! Decades ago and still it lurks in my psyche. Play the music from “that” scene and it all comes pouring back.
Imagine As Time Goes By plucked out of Casablanca.
Or think of a silent backdrop to the heart lifting music of Life Is Beautiful.
And who doesn’t respond to the music of Jaws? It’s powerful. It amplifies experience. Punctuates it. Embeds it in the very fiber of our beings.
Hollywood directors spend millions of dollars on it because they know unequivocally that the right music makes the movie. It’s that powerful. Music can even carry a less than ideal script.
For the most part, we probably don’t pay too much attention to our sound tracks. Oh yes, here and there we may create a workout playlist or maybe even put together a massive collection of songs for a road trip but day to day, hour to hour, not so much.
What if, though, we started paying attention to it. What if we started using soundtracks that lifted us and carried us across finish lines like the music swells in Chariots of Fire.
We are human beings and we are exquisitely sensitive to the textured layers of our existence. What if we intentionally set the tone? Set the music? Consciously chose the soundtrack of our lives?
What if we carefully orchestrated our emotional responses? Intended to help ourselves stay as inspired and engaged as possible? What if we literally became the directors of our lives—the leaders; thought creators; emotional directors?
Music and sound tracks are an emotional shortcut. We’re wired to respond. So why not take advantage of it?
There is constant noise and sound in the background of our lives—cars, radios, blog talks, televisions, news reports, opera, rock and roll, laughing babies, crying babies…. That’s a given. And we respond, whether consciously or unconsciously to the mood and tone of those sound tracks. We react to the lyrics and timbre.
We can use those reactions to massive advantage. They’re literally an emotional hack—a shortcut to how we want to feel. We can sound sculpt our moods.
Imagine a day with Psycho or The Shining or Jaws playing through your mind. Imagine your poor heart rate after just an hour of this, let alone a full day.
And some days are like that. We have scary, tense, stressful soundtracks looping through our minds.
You can consciously change the channel. You can click to a different CD, mindfully choose the playlist and break the cycle of reaction and set yourself squarely in the domain of creation.
The movie that is Your Life is most certainly worth the million dollar effort. It is your Opus Magnum and it deserves a soundtrack that wraps around your heart and soothes and inspires and uplifts.
What will you choose to play today?
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© Rhegina Sinozich
