Mindful Music Tuesdays: Songs of Hope

(air whooshes) (cursor clicks) (gentle music) Headspace Studios. (light music) Hey there, welcome to "Radio Headspace." It's Kessonga here, and it's Tuesday. Let's get right into it. So this week, I thought it'd be fun to revisit my segment called "Mindful Music." Remembering the "Mindful Music" segment is where I give a very small portion of lyrics from a song and then discuss the mindful, inspirational meaning behind my choice. All right, today's lyrics go like this. "You're broken down and tired of living life on a merry-go-round, and you can't find the fighter, but I see it in you, so we're gonna walk it out." So the theme of hopefulness during stressful times immediately comes up for me when I read these lyrics. The first two lines, "You're broken and tired of living life on a merry-go-round," speaks to the inevitable stress and the trials and tribulations that we all endure at some point in our lives. And it's an ever-present cycle as a merry-go-round. The image of my ancestors and what they had to endure in this country comes to mind here, from slavery to Jim Crow to the civil rights movement, having to face that brutality day in and day out, generation after generation. And through it all, a sense of faith and hopefulness was maintained. That's just so amazing to me, and that's what comes up for me. As I said, stress means something different for everyone. (gentle music) It may be your present-day work situation that you hate, but have to face it day in and day out. Or perhaps it's a horrible relationship you're trying to hang in there with. Or maybe a stressful era in history that your ancestors have endured. It's all relative. So let's take a look at the lyrics once again. "You're broken down and tired of living life on a merry-go-round, and you can't find the fighter, but I see it in you, so we're gonna walk it out." And so it can be really difficult to maintain a sense of hope during these moments when stress is repeatedly happening over and over again. The third line says, "And you can't find the fighter," implying that sense of hopelessness that can easily creep up on us during these moments of high stress. But then the last line says, "But I see it in you, so we're gonna walk it out." They see what in you though? For me, this speaks to the resilience that resides within all of us. It's so easy to lose touch with it during moments of high stress, and that's where our consistent mindfulness and meditation practice comes into play. It restores our sense of hopefulness. I like to think that the part that says, "So we're gonna walk it out," pertains to our practice, perhaps a walking meditation. I don't know, that might be a stretch, but I think you get my meaning here. It's like when we tell each other to walk it off....