Mental Health Awareness Week is back upon us (14 to 20 May 2018), giving an opportunity and prompt for everyone to start talking about the unfortunately stigmatised subject of mental health.
This year's theme, from the Mental Health Foundation, is 'stress - are we coping?' Based on statistics from 2016/17, that 49 percent of all working days lost to ill health are due to stress, anxiety and depression, I'll take that as a rhetorical questions. Many people aren't coping. For the record, that's 12.5 million lost working days a year.
What's worse, is that stress is one of the key factors that can lead to or exacerbate mental health conditions - so the answer to that question really needs to change.
I recently finished an eight week mindfulness course which, in all honesty, gave me some great mechanisms to cope. While workload and general pressures have increased, I don't come home feeling any more stressed or overwhelmed - and I leave work exactly where it belongs, at work.
I appreciate that not everyone can take a course (though there are some good online mindfulness resources), but there are other things that can help. One of those that I find plays a great part in stress reduction is listening to music.
As part of the mindfulness course, one task was to do something kind to yourself. After reflecting that music is one of my main escapes and means of relaxing, I decided to spend some time in making the perfect stress-busting playlist.
The common theme with these songs is that I find it nearly impossible not to feel uplifted or calm after hearing them.
So without further ado, here are my top 30 stress-busting songs:
• Take It Easy - Eagles
• Gold on the Ceiling - The Black Keys
• Benediction - Hot Natured feat. Ali Love
• Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order
• Can't Leave You - Maceo Plex
• Count On Me - Chase & Status feat. Moko
• Endorphins - Sub Focus
• Everywhere - Fleetwood Mac
• Fool's Gold - The Stone Roses
• Master Blaster (Jammin') - Stevie Wonder
• Swoon - Chemical Brothers (Boys Noize Summer Mix)
• Going Gets Tuff - The Growlers
• Days - The Kinks
• Feels Just Like It Should - Jamiroquai
• Inspector Norse - Todd Terje
• Blue Jeans - Lana Del Rey
• Whatever - Oasis
• Dancing in the Moonlight - Toploader
• Jazz (We've Got) - A Tribe Called Quest
• Movin' Too Fast - Artful Dodger
• Electric Feel - MGMT
• The Day We Caught the Train - Ocean Colour Scene
• Afterglow - Wilkinson
• Still DRE - Dr. Dre
• New Person, Same Old Mistakes - Tame Impala
• Drop the Pressure - Mylo
• Road to Zion - Damien Marley
• Lifted - Lighthouse Family
• Fade to Black - Metallica
• I Remember - Deadmau5
While a list of songs hardly cures mental illness, I hope this post might spark a light bulb - or at least give you a means to talk and think about mental health to help break the stigma.
If you think I've missed the mark, let me know what you'd put on your playlist.
This year's theme, from the Mental Health Foundation, is 'stress - are we coping?' Based on statistics from 2016/17, that 49 percent of all working days lost to ill health are due to stress, anxiety and depression, I'll take that as a rhetorical questions. Many people aren't coping. For the record, that's 12.5 million lost working days a year.
What's worse, is that stress is one of the key factors that can lead to or exacerbate mental health conditions - so the answer to that question really needs to change.
I recently finished an eight week mindfulness course which, in all honesty, gave me some great mechanisms to cope. While workload and general pressures have increased, I don't come home feeling any more stressed or overwhelmed - and I leave work exactly where it belongs, at work.
I appreciate that not everyone can take a course (though there are some good online mindfulness resources), but there are other things that can help. One of those that I find plays a great part in stress reduction is listening to music.
As part of the mindfulness course, one task was to do something kind to yourself. After reflecting that music is one of my main escapes and means of relaxing, I decided to spend some time in making the perfect stress-busting playlist.
The common theme with these songs is that I find it nearly impossible not to feel uplifted or calm after hearing them.
So without further ado, here are my top 30 stress-busting songs:
• Take It Easy - Eagles
• Gold on the Ceiling - The Black Keys
• Benediction - Hot Natured feat. Ali Love
• Bizarre Love Triangle - New Order
• Can't Leave You - Maceo Plex
• Count On Me - Chase & Status feat. Moko
• Endorphins - Sub Focus
• Everywhere - Fleetwood Mac
• Fool's Gold - The Stone Roses
• Master Blaster (Jammin') - Stevie Wonder
• Swoon - Chemical Brothers (Boys Noize Summer Mix)
• Going Gets Tuff - The Growlers
• Days - The Kinks
• Feels Just Like It Should - Jamiroquai
• Inspector Norse - Todd Terje
• Blue Jeans - Lana Del Rey
• Whatever - Oasis
• Dancing in the Moonlight - Toploader
• Jazz (We've Got) - A Tribe Called Quest
• Movin' Too Fast - Artful Dodger
• Electric Feel - MGMT
• The Day We Caught the Train - Ocean Colour Scene
• Afterglow - Wilkinson
• Still DRE - Dr. Dre
• New Person, Same Old Mistakes - Tame Impala
• Drop the Pressure - Mylo
• Road to Zion - Damien Marley
• Lifted - Lighthouse Family
• Fade to Black - Metallica
• I Remember - Deadmau5
While a list of songs hardly cures mental illness, I hope this post might spark a light bulb - or at least give you a means to talk and think about mental health to help break the stigma.
If you think I've missed the mark, let me know what you'd put on your playlist.