Blog by: Lata Advani Viseu

If you believe in magic don’t bother to choose
If it’s jug band music or rhythm and blues
Just go and listen it all starts with a smile
You won’t wipe off your face no matter how hard you try
Your feet start tapping and you can’t seem to find
How you got there, it all blows your mind

If you believe in magic, come along with me
And we’ll dance until morning baby just you and me
And maybe, if the music is right
I’ll see you tomorrow, late at night
And we’ll go dancing, baby, then you’ll see
How the magic’s in the music and the music’s in me
Do You Believe In Magic – John Cougar Mellencamp

“Music is all you really need. Love and music is all we need” – Eric Clapton, 2000 Induction. This is the quote that stood out for me the last time we visited the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland.

Music lifts you up or brings you down depending on what you are listening to and, how you are feeling. A song comes on the radio or the DJ plays a song and it takes you back to good times or sad times.

Music can transport you to your teenage years, to another time, to another country, to your darkest days or your happiest ones. Music can instantly bring a smile to your face or it can bring tears in your eyes. Music and especially words are powerful!

I cannot imagine a life without music. I need music in the morning, during the day when possible and, soothing music at night as I fall asleep. I love the lyrics, the rhythm and all those talented folks that can write and make music.

In times of sorrow or tough decisions that I need to make, I find a song will come on the radio and the lyrics will speak to me as if giving me the answer to what I need to do. A message I need to hear, maybe something that gives me hope or lifts me up from sadness.

There are no coincidences, there is a reason for everything. If you pay attention, maybe it is something you need to hear and the message in the lyrics is for you.

If we listen to our heart and ask ourselves what we need to do, the message will show up, either in a song or in a book or in something someone says or a whisper.

When you are ready to hear the message, it will show up somewhere. All you need to do is ask yourself and then listen and act on it. We always have a choice what we want to take from it.

In my darkest days, I would listen to sad music and feel even more depressed and wish the world or at least my world would end. Now, I am a different person and know that life will always bring joys and sorrow and even the bad days will come to an end. How I choose to respond to it, is my choice. I choose music that lifts me up and makes me dance.

If the lyrics speak to you and make sense to you, you have the choice to do what you want with it. They are just little whispers nudging you because in your heart you already know what you want.

What you listen to constantly, what you read, what you think, how you talk to yourself and to others, is what you are attracting into your life. Careful what you hear and absorb because that is what becomes your life.

Make sure that most of the time, you are listening to upbeat music with lyrics that make you smile and happy. Tap your feet to the music, think of all those songwriters pouring their heart out in a song and dance when you can. Why walk when you can dance!

“Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent” – Victor Hugo

“If I were not a physicist, I would probably be a musician. I often think in music. I live my daydreams in music. I see my life in terms of music.” – Albert Einstein

“After silence, that which comes nearest to expressing the inexpressible is music.” – Aldous Huxley

“When words fail music speaks.” – Irena Huang

“He took his pain and turned it into something beautiful. Into something that people connect to. And that’s what good music does. It speaks to you. It changes you.” – Hannah Harrington

“Without music, life would be a mistake.” – Friedrich Nietzsche