Pandemic Playlist: A Song for Every Mood

Pandemics are not easy. This is the worst medical disaster in the past hundred years. It’s a time that we are all just trying to get through. Get to the other side. Stay well, alive.

Humans are pack animals. We are not meant to shelter in place. It’s called “hunting AND gathering” and that took place over miles and miles of wide expanses of earth. Even the stodgiest introvert needs to make eye contact with someone else every now and then. Isolation has been used as a punishment for hundreds of years for a reason- it’s punishing. But right now sheltering in place is keeping people alive. As is hand washing, covering coughs and wiping door knobs and cell phones. (I’ve been struggling to not touch my face. I touch my face so much during the course of a day- I practically suck my thumb.)

We are all experiencing a shared trauma. What frightens me about the pandemic and its repercussions is the same thing that is scaring you. The thinking and emotional parts of our brains are under activated. Our fear centers are over activated. This makes functioning anything but normal. Two parts of our brain are half asleep and the other part that we work so hard to keep under control is hyper vigilant. It’s harder to handle emotions, harder to let things go, harder to sleep (or harder to stay energetic), hard to stay calm. We are designed to process trauma later, when the threat subsides. Until then, we are all on red alert.

Last night, there was a zoinks moment in a show that we were watching. I jumped two feet off the couch and it took forever for my heart to stop racing. Definitely a “nervous” system on high alert.

Liquor sales are up 40% in Canada. (Makes you wonder about Wisconsin?!) People seem to be done hoarding food but are still hoarding toilet paper. As the death toll rises, my sense of humor becomes more macabre. I miss concerts terribly. I’m trying to focus on the fact that we have food, still have jobs and currently we are all healthy. It feels like we are all waiting to get sick.

“This too shall pass” is a great mantra. But for those moments when you want to scream, cry, bury your head in the sand or laugh….anything but walk around repeating a mantra–here’s a playlist that I made just for you- my friends. So, if you’re tired of making cookies, hunting online for hand sanitizer/thermometers and binging dude dad on ig- listen to some music. Music soothes and it’s healthier than embracing your inner alcoholic.

It’s a collaborative playlist. Please follow first and then add whatever you think belongs. It’s for all of us. (Only rules are to stay away from being cloyingly cheerful or relentlessly apocalyptic.)