Infuse your life with Music

Music is an incredibly powerful tool! It is a universal language that can definitively change your mood for the better! 

       Think about the following situation: you’re driving home from work, tired, exhausted, stuck in traffic, when suddenly a familiar, upbeat song starts playing. Instantly you feel uplifted, excited, and happy! One reason for this mood elevation may be that certain songs trigger happy memories in the hippocampus. Another explanation may be that the arrangement of sounds in certain melodies are especially pleasing to the brain. Research also shows that among the many benefits, listening to music enhances your special-temporal reasoning called the “Mozart Effect”. The bottom line: music is a means to happier moods and faster information processing!

How to infuse your life with happy, mood-lifting music! 

Start creating a list of songs that make you feel happy. Songs that bring up pleasant memories and that instantly brighten your mood. Keep the list with you on your phone or on a post-it in your purse or car. You’ll be surprised how quick and easy it is to come up with enough songs for a CD (or two or three!). Compile the list into a playlist for your ipod and make a copy for your car. Then, anytime you’re in need of a quick mood lifter, plug in to your custom happy-list! Warning: It’s hard not to dance and sing along!

       If you need help getting started, check out this article written by Beth Shapouri of Glamour Magazine about songs that “make you feel pretty”. Also, utilize websites like youtube to listen to compile information (like song title, artist, and album title) to make downloading the music even easier!

       And if you’re really stuck, here is a list of songs from my playlist simply titled “Songs that make me Happy”.

 **REMEMBER! This works best when you make the playlist of songs that evoke your own happy memories and are especially pleasing to your ears. Trust me, it’s worth the effort!

"Songs that make me Happy"

1. “Video” - India.Arie
2. “Stand By Me” - Playing for Change
3. “Chanda Mama” - Playing for Change
4. “Esta Noche” - Pedro Capó
5. “In These Shoes” - Kristy Maccoll
6. “Love and happiness” - Al Green
7. “A Deus Eu Peço” - Alexandre Pires
8. “She’s So High” - Tal Bachman
9. “Tu es Foutu” - In-Grid
10. “Rie y Llora” - Celia Cruz
11. “Someday We’ll Know” - Jonathan Foreman & Mandy More
12. “Never Let You Go” - Third Eye Blind
13. “Boogie Shoes” - KC Sunshine Band
14. “Suddenly I see” - KT Tunstall
15. “Garota Nacional” - Skank
16. “Maria” - Ricky Martin
17. “Ruby Blue” - Roisin Murphy
18. “Morenamia” - Miguel Bose con Julieta Venegas

Embrace yourself!

~Jessica

Operation Beautiful

 Operation Beautiful is a blog dedicated to ending negative self talk by encouraging women to place "You are beautiful!" post-its on mirrors around the world!  Their mission is to end negative self-talk, which has been proven to be especially damaging to self-esteem.


 What is negative self talk?
      Negative self-talk is the negative language we think or say aloud to ourselves. Negative self-talk is often very harsh - something we would never say to our friends or family! For example, someone might think, "I really shouldn't even bother going out with my friends. I'm just too fat. I'll just be an annoyance." Would you ever say that to a friend? Of course not! Yet we continually say it to ourselves!
     A close friend of mine refers negative-self talk as the "Itty-Bitty-Shitty-Committee". She notes that as we get older, the committee is increasingly critical, that negative self-talk increases in volume and severity. Yet many women assume this negativity to be valid, allowing the committee to overpower their inner voice, and, perhaps, confuse the committee for their actual inner voice.


     Operation Beautiful is a fabulous way to intervene! A little post-it reminder that "You're gorgeous" or "Lookin' Fine" may seem trivial, but it really is a definitive step to change the way we think. The more positive self-talk we have, the happier we are! Here is a link to Operation Beautiful's video and information about how to spread the message.


If you chose to participate in spreading the love, make sure you start by putting a post-it on your own mirror! You are worthy of love, too!


Embrace yourself!
~ Jessica

Welcome to Tall Plus Beautiful!

Hello!

Welcome to Tall Plus Beautiful! This blog is dedicated to women everywhere who are in need of a little self-esteem boost! I’ll be posting about everything and anything that promotes self-esteem, a positive body image, and general happiness such as artwork, social movements, articles, fashion, entertainment, etc... Hopefully, the euphoria will spread!

~ Jessica