why spotify is a form of self care for me

I’m not sure about you, but I love organisation. I enjoy having a routine, so much so that I have a Word document with a colour coded weekly schedule that is separated into 90 minute increments. Obviously, I’m not perfect so I want to clarify that it’s not always followed religiously, but the fact that it’s there (in all it’s glory) is quite enough. Also, I have two planners, one of which is a customised planner where I track my daily tasks.

I realise, I’m beginning to sound insane but bare with me.

Lately I have been very reflective on myself and the past few months in general, and I’ve come to the realisation that I may be this way because I like the control. The realisation that I’m controlling was no surprise to me, because it’s something I’ve been trying to work on. But the fact that this was linked to all my wild habits was a huge ‘OH DAMN’ moment. The current climate of my life means that I’m not always able to have the control that I want. So did I resort to meticulous patterns of organisation to make myself feel in charge of my own life? Perhaps. Because having that sense of liberation was so fulfilling, and it kept me off the path of destruction that I have often landed on in recent years.

But what does this have to do with Spotify?

Wanting to have authority over my life when it felt like it was in a million pieces was hard to do, because I didn’t know where to start. But one of the first steps I took was creating playlists on Spotify, because it was my small way of being in charge. I already had some iTunes playlists but I decided to set myself on a mission to create playlists for as many moods as possible. At first it was just for pure amusement, but soon it became this avenue of possibility. Yes, I’m aware that I’m talking about playlists and not the Elder Wand but it was pretty cool, ya feel me?! Soon they had fun titles with related emojis, aesthetically pleasing pictures and cute ass descriptions. Biiittcchh, it was fire. As ridiculous as this may sound, it was a way for me to organise my thoughts and neatly put them somewhere. It’s not conventional, it’s quite stupid. - but it lifted some of the weight from my shoulders. Finally, I had found a new way to take charge, whilst also letting go of other aspects of my life. And paying £4.99 for Spotify (student discount) probably makes it the cheapest therapy money can buy.

Quick clarification:

I just wanted to say that I don’t think that making a playlist or keeping organised is by any means a whole solution to solving any mental health issues/home situations. Its just a nice, little self care habit that fills me with the same satisfaction as colour coding my planners.

Give it a go, or better yet - check mine out! https://open.spotify.com/user/itsmaariyah