By Andres Ruiz
I don’t need to tell you that life is short. Our usual day-to-day activities will make up most of it. It becomes easy to let the weeks slip into months and the months into years, only to look back and realize the amount of time that has passed without appreciating the beauty of everyday life. It is for this reason I find it essential to appreciate every minuscule moment that we can.
This is what it means to romanticize life. Everything from walking to class, meeting with friends and even sitting in your room doing homework can be a beautiful experience, because it is yours.
Something that I’ve been working on myself is learning to be more intentional and present within my life. I have found that the most powerful way to practice this is through music. If you’re anything like me, you use music to soundtrack your day, events and gatherings. Your choice of music is more than just what you think sounds good. It’s a reflection of your thoughts, feelings, hardships and personality. The right song can change the way you see the world.
Shout out to my family—and Fleetwood Mac
I was recently able to reunite with my siblings and parents for the first time in years. We were sprawled across the kitchen and living room making food, playing games and chatting away. Then, “Landslide” by Fleetwood Mac started to play through our television. I took a moment to be present.
To my left, my sister sang along on our kiddie karaoke machine as her daughter—her mini-me both in face and in spirit—tried to snatch the microphone. In the kitchen, my mom and oldest sister stood making tamales for everyone, each of them representing a pillar of strength that I strive for. The gray markers of time in my parents’ hair grow a little more each time I’m away, yet they remain as radiant as ever. My brother and I sat at the table catching up with my older sister. It felt like our entire lives happened in between seeing each other again. So much had changed, yet it was all so familiar.
As Stevie Nicks sang of the changing seasons, the moment blossomed in front of my eyes. It wasn’t just background noise, but rather a realization that we are all moving through life in different stages, living our own truths and feelings. We were all getting older and changing, yet one thing remained: love. Now, when those first strings play, I don’t just hear the melody—I hear their voices, see their faces and feel their love.
To romanticize means to see the world from an unfamiliar perspective—one that favors depth over scale. By not interpreting things directly, you start noticing the context and the minute details that evoke emotion. It is taking the monotony of life and turning it into something of value or feeling. Something as simple as your walk to class becomes an opportunity to peacefully acknowledge yourself. I believe that music specifically plays a key role in enhancing this feeling and it’s benefits.
Music’s Relationship With the Brain
According to a study by the National Library of Medicine, “Emotional music we have heard at specific periods of our life is strongly linked to our autobiographical memory and thus is closely involved in forming our view about our own self.”
The study contains several individual experiments, but one of the most powerful is an experiment on patients recovering from a stroke. “Besides the improvement in cognitive functions, there was also a substantial mood improvement in the patients who listened to music (they were less depressed and less confused) compared with the control group,” said Lutz Jäncke, neuropsychologist and cognitive neuroscientist.
Jäncke’s research solidifies music as a powerful tool for improving emotion, memory, imagery and attention. By stimulating the overlapping brain networks responsible for these functions, music that evokes a strong emotional “valence” actually enhances our ability to formulate and retrieve autobiographical memories. This shows that music has tangible benefits both for our emotional well-being and our practical cognitive functions.
You can utilize these findings to transform your daily routine into a curated experience. Whether you are using calm rhythms to anchor your attention during a study session or building a high-energy playlist to boost your well-being, you are actively rewiring your brain’s response to stress. By choosing your soundtrack with intention, you are fighting against monotony and using music as a cognitive “reset button” to enhance your memory and reclaim your presence.
If you don’t know where to start, here are some recommendations that will hopefully provide a space of reflection for you:
A somber reflection that crescendos into a modern jazz chamber. Blood Orange does not miss.
An essential house party track. The lively drums and droning synth make this a unique and fun addition to your hangout playlist.
A tear-jerking indie-folk gem, this song serves as the defining homesick ballad. So much emotion packed into a voice and a guitar. This sounds like the weight of leaving your hometown, leaving pieces of yourself behind despite it being for the better.
References
Jäncke, L. (2008). Music, memory and emotion. Journal of Biology, 7(6), 21. https://doi.org/10.1186/jbiol82
