Singing In The Car Is All The Therapy You Need

Do you know how much better I feel after an overly-involved session of singing in my car? Seriously. It’s my go to for an instant recharge after a long day.  Get in the car, and that one great song plays and you can’t stop yourself from letting loose. You start humming/half singing along and then the chorus comes and BAM! You’re belting out the words like there’s no tomorrow. It’s balls to the wall now. Good thing it’s dark and the innocent passerby can’t glance to their left and witness what you imagine to be a world wide tour at the peak of your musical career but actually just looks like a very obnoxious twenty something female, blissfully unaware of how she appears.  Side note: the above situation happened to a friend (cough me cough cough) while driving home from work tonight. It was dark (Heyyyo! thanks daylight savings time!) and “Sweet Disposition” came on the local college station and before I know it, I think I’m Celine Dion providing the soundtrack to Titanic. I’m also fairly confident no one saw, except maybe at that one red light…

Alright. Back to what matters, the meat of this post; which is beginning to reflect the rambling thought process that is mine.  I really do think a twenty minute drive singing completely unreserved can do wonders for one’s mindset.  When I’m singing in my car, albeit off key and generally displeasing to the ear, I get a huge rush of adrenaline. All this excitement swells up in me, and before I know it I’ve got way too many feelings. And then I try and harmonize and do all these nifty things with my voice that just end up not working.  At all.  But thats okay because during the twenty minute drive that I’m singing horribly, I am so happy. I start thinking of the great moments I’ve had–great moments in the last year, last month, last week. Moments big and small. The small and oft overlooked act of singing along with a song in the car has, for me, one of the strongest abilities to remind me of the good in my life.  Something about letting loose behind the steering wheel (complete with whatever dance moves the seat belt allows) has the power to flood my brain with positivity. A natural high, or whatever. Like a roller coaster or something.  Sometimes I get too happy and into it that tears actually well up and I get this weird lump in my throat, but they are good tears and a good lump because I JUST HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS and YES SHE DOES GO HERE.  As if my singing/dancing/concert by myself doesn’t make me a distracted enough driver, let’s add some watering eyes! But it’s okay, it’s all okay.  Because after this, the day to day worries don’t seem as life threatening. I’m relaxed and most certainly in a better mood than I was before.  I’m sporting this dumbass grin on my face like that time that cute boy gave me a good morning text and then my mom asked what was wrong with me to be smiling so much at 8 am on a Saturday.

Maybe I’m (definitely) overreacting. But the point is, I found a simple act that recharges me. For whatever odd reason, singing along in the car helps me refocus and re-prioritize. It helps me to understand that it is okay that I sometimes feel like I’m standing at the tip of the iceberg of my life ready to fall off into the icy waters of the unknown at any second, or that the over analyzing of multiple aspects of my life that are out of my control is a useless and depressing activity.  It is important to put all the worries on hold and just let go for a few minutes.  I am provided with clarity when things get a little too foggy and I start losing grasp of my generally positive mindset. I still haven’t a clue as to why pretending I’m a rockstar as I drive down I-480 does this to me, but hey, I’ll take it.