My Hype Song is Giving Me Hives!

I've experienced and observed many positive interactions with music.  A song bringing a happy memory to mind and a smile to my face.  Everyone in the car spontaneously breaking out into song at the exact same time when a favorite one comes on the radio.  A person with advanced dementia who is non-verbal joining in when you sing her one of her favorite songs.  Setting my playlist just right so that a heart-pumping song comes on as I turn the bend and can see the Finish Line of a 5K.  My entire family laughing and dancing and singing in my parent's living room to the songs they danced to when they first met.  I know that music is powerful and easily attaches itself to a memory or emotion - happy, sad, angry.

My stress level hit an all time high this past winter.  Between work and family and finances and health I felt like I was balancing on the edge of completing losing my mind.  In January, I began breaking out in itchy hives at work.  They would start on my neck and spread up my cheeks and down onto my chest.  

I examined my life from top to bottom - no new lotions, detergents, soaps, foods.  The cause of the hives was finally determined to be stress.  Really?  I've been stressed out before, but never to the point that I had a physical reaction like this.  I began to take a daily allergy medication which kept the hives at bay.

I also looked at other non-medicinal ways to combat my stress.  One thing that I did was create a "Hype Play List" to listen to on my way to work every morning to get myself mentally pumped up to tackle the day.  I've been listening to these songs every morning for the past two months - singing my heart out, pounding on the steering wheel, clapping my hands (for those of you who pass the crazy woman singing and dancing in her Toyota on Pittsburgh's Parkway East, you now know that that is me!).  I arrive at work ready to go.

This past week was exceptionally stressful.  My hives started breaking through the medicated barrier.  Saturday, finally, was a good day.  I was driving home after a full day at my second job (which I absolutely LOVE and am so thankful for!) and I put on my Hype Play List thinking I would sing and dance on my drive home to celebrate a stress-free day.  Sitting at a red light, I realized that I was scratching at my neck.  I pulled down the visor to look at myself in the mirror.  There they were!  Red, streaky hives growing on my neck. What in the world?  My day had been relatively easy.  I hadn't thought about job number one or bills or family or health . . . I had focused on the simple task at hand and had an enjoyable day.  Why was I breaking out into hives now?

Then it dawned on me.  My Hype Play List!  Hearing those songs I'd been listening to every morning put my body into fight mode.  My brain had attached those songs to stress and it was reacting against it.  Instead of joy or a smile or motivation, I was getting hives.  Isn't that interesting?  The power of music is amazing.

Needless to say, I made some changes to that playlist because I love those songs and don't want them to be permanently associated with stressful memories.  I'm trying a new musical strategy this week and am listing to the "Piano Chill" playlist to start my day.

No earth shattering life lesson - just a few interesting observations about life.  A solution to a problem that is working may need to be tweaked every now and then.  Music is absolutely amazing.  Our body will be sure to get our attention when it is struggling (hives?  really?)

Wishing you a great week.  Keep setting goals and planning how you'll get there!  If one path doesn't work, try another.