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It’s funny how certain songs can really strike a chord (excuse the pun!) and I find it amazing how listening to music can transform the way you feel…or even the way you think about things.

Here is a list with some of my favourite ‘mindful’ songs:

1. That’s Life – Frank Sinatra

I just can’t let it…get me down

’cause this fine old world,

it keeps spinnin’ around.

Life is full of ups and downs, good things and bad….and that’s just the way it is. We can’t change that no matter how much we try but we can learn to accept it. In the end it’s all about perspective and how we view things.

‘We can complain because rose bushes have thorns or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses’. Abraham Lincoln

2. Let it Be – The Beatles

There will be an answer, let it be.

‘You don’t always need a plan. Sometimes you just need to breathe, trust, let go and see what happens’.  Mandy Hale

3. Man in the Mirror – Michael Jackson

If you wanna make the world a better place

Take a look at yourself and then make a change.

‘Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself’. Rumi

4. Bad Day – Daniel Powter

You had a bad day

You’re taking one down

You sing a sad song just to turn it around.

Having a bad day doesn’t automatically mean that you have a bad life. Tomorrow is a new day.

5. Shake it Off – Taylor Swift

..the haters gonna hate, hate, hate, hate, hate

..the fakers gonna fake, fake, fake, fake, fake

..I’m just gonna shake, shake, shake, shake, shake

shake it off.

There will always be people we don’t agree or see eye to eye with and situations we don’t understand but, often, the best thing to do is just take a deep breath and let these things go so that they don’t disrupt our moods/ lives.

6. Windmills of Your Mind – Sting

Like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel

Never ending or beginning on an ever spinning reel

As the images unwind, like the circles that you find

In the windmills of your mind.

This song always reminds me how busy our minds can get with the all those thoughts constantly swirling around but I think we tend to forget that we have the power to slow those windmills down.

7. You can’t always get what you want – The Rolling Stones

You can’t always get what you want

But if you try sometime you find

You get what you need.

Though it can be really disappointing, as the Dalai Lama XIV said, ‘remember that sometimes not getting what you want is a wonderful stroke of luck’.

8. Don’t Worry Be Happy – Bob Marley

In your life expect some trouble

But when you worry you make it double

Don’t worry, be happy.

Worrying won’t stop the bad stuff from happening, it just stops you from enjoying the good.

9. Born This Way – Lady Gaga

Don’t hide yourself in regret

Just love yourself and you’re set

I’m on the right track baby

I was born this way.

Be authentic. Don’t spend your life caught up between who you are and who you want to be.

‘It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are’. E.E. Cummings

10. What a wonderful world – Louis Armstrong

I see trees of green, red roses too.

I see them bloom, for me and you.

And I think to myself, what a wonderful world.

Once in a while we need to lift our heads up and open our eyes and ears because ‘the Earth has music for those who listen’. George Santayana

I have added this playlist to Youtube and you can access it below:

*Copyright: <a href=’http://www.123rf.com/profile_igorrita’>igorrita / 123RF Stock Photo</a>