We live in a world surrounded by music - even when the radio isn’t on. In a quiet house, the soft squeak of the easy chair as you rock back and forth, the soft purr of the cat laying nearby, the quiet hum of appliances that are barely noticeable as white noise.

As entertaining as music can be, it’s also a great force for inspiration, change and healing. How many of us have used a certain song to inspire the feeling we need for specific moments?  Perhaps summoning up a song like the theme from Rocky when we’re in need of courage or fortitude? The obvious love ballads or soft jazz music when we’re trying to set up a romantic mood? Of course, we’re doing this on a smaller, personal level in our own lives but the power of music really is highlighted by the fact that no television show or movie would dream of excluding music from their program. I can already hear you all mentally humming as I say the names of these movies: Jaws, Star Wars, Jurassic Park or television shows like Star Trek or The Dukes of Hazzard.

I’ve always been a lover of music, even from a young age. Somewhat territorial in that love. I still laugh at the young girl who was so possessive of the song Mr. Roboto by Styx that she would allow no one else to sing along with her when it played. Since I have a virtual nonstop concert going on in my head day and night, I strongly relate to how my aunt described my uncle as a “walking jukebox” which is the thing we share most in common.  That’s probably why the dynamic between Rowan and Lyra in The Echoed Mind was an absolute must for me.  It’s a reflection of my own relationship with my uncle.

For many years I have been happy to simply listen to music others created. It was enough to enjoy a karaoke night with friends without having to actually learn how to play an instrument so I could create my own music. However, something in my life changed and I was drawn into a dark place for awhile.  After receiving the help I needed from dear friends to escape that dark place, I still had to process the trauma.  In the course of processing, I was in a classroom one evening and a friend made a comment about how there was a scientific basis for verbalizing your thoughts about something that happened to you helping to decrease the emotional load. Her comment, made in the course of the classroom discussion, was not aimed at me. In fact, she had no idea of what I had gone through, but what she said really stuck with me. I’m a person who likes to think and who is very curious, so I made a point of finding out the name of the scientific term and as much more information as possible about Affect Labeling.

I had already been using Affect Labeling in a small way without realizing it when I wrote my only serious book Breaking Free: How Scammers Manipulate and How to Fight Back and then appeared on my first ever podcast interviews as a guest of several podcasts.  It was extremely helpful to talk about my experiences and I was already living the proof that Affect Labeling does help.  

The next part came as a surprise to me.  I did not consciously choose to use music as a form of therapy.  It came about entirely by accident.  After many positive experiences as a podcast guest, I had decided to create my own podcast and had in mind that I would need a theme song and due to copyright laws and other issues it would have to be something original.  Lacking the talent to actually write music for an instrument, let alone play the instrument and searching fruitlessly for someone to collaborate - I finally settled on using an AI music generator.  I wrote the lyrics and then used the music generator to help me find the right sound.

In particular I used the app AI Music as it seemed to have the best quality from the various apps that I explored but the fee was for 20 songs at a time.  I didn’t want to waste money so I decided I would let my creativity take flight.  I wrote about a variety of things.  Among these were thoughts about my family home on Chocolate Drop Mountain and the editorial article that my Dad had written about our Butterscotch Pond. Some thoughts about The Unsinkable Molly Brown, and a fair amount of thoughts about being resilient and reflections around the idea of how metal is purified by the heat of fire. Since I had settled on the title of The Molten Truth for my podcast I wrote a number of songs centered around that theme.  

During this time period I was also dealing with some irrational anger, particularly with people who felt the need to spell their name when they called me at work. Ironically, it was always people who had simple names like J-O-H-N S-M-I-T-H, meanwhile people with difficult names would simply state their name and give the additional information I needed.  The name spelling was really annoying me and I was working hard to try not to feel angry at these people.  On the plus side, reflections of this source of annoyance were the initial spark that led to writing The Echoed Mind.  Sometimes negative things in our lives really can be turned into positives.

As it happens, I had attended an online meeting with JT Foxx where he was giving people an opportunity to meet Gabe Karp, introduced to us as the world’s foremost expert of conflict resolution and the author of Don’t Get Mad at a Penguin.  

Around this same time I had been thinking about computer programming languages and wondering if music could be viewed as a programming language for the human brain. Hearing Gabe speak about his book and his thoughts on conflict were very helpful to me. However, I was in such a tight position financially that I could not afford to buy his book so I asked ChatGPT to give me a summary of his book with the key points and from that I formulated a song.  

I thought, maybe if I play this song whenever I feel angry, then maybe I can program myself to feel less angry.  Amazingly, it worked.  It became one of my favorite songs, along with all the other songs I had written about my feelings from the trauma and within a few months I was not even thinking of anything from the trauma anymore and I was also not feeling angry when people assumed I needed them to spell their names. I reached a point where I didn’t even need to hear the songs anymore.

Although I have retired most of the songs I wrote that were specific to my trauma, I still have retained the ones that focus on resilience, growth, and coming through stronger.  The song inspired by Gabe Karp’s book is still a special favorite of mine.  I don’t listen to this playlist everyday anymore, but I do listen to it often because the songs I wrote have become some of my most favorite songs.

Don’t underestimate the power of music.  It can reinforce what you’re already thinking but it can also help you mold your thoughts to where you want them to be.  Music could be the key to strengthening or healing your emotional immune system.