Music has been and always will be powerful. It has the ability to make us dance, cry, laugh, find peace, and feel loved.
With Valentine’s Day upon us, love is undoubtedly in the air. Whether it be romantic love, friendly love, or familial love, one factor reigns true: music has the ability to provide us with all kinds of love. Along with different feelings of love, however, a lot of the time, one specific type of love is pushed to the background–self-love.
Self-love is one of the most important types of love in my opinion. Before being able to truly love and appreciate others, you need to find that love within yourself. As we all know, self-love can take a lifetime to perfect, but it requires continuous practice on our end. That’s why I’ve turned to music to help me engage in self-love and find peace within myself and my conscience.
From a young age, music always helped me discover new things, feel new feelings, and now it helps me learn to appreciate and care for myself.
Humans have the grand ability and capacity to respond to music on a deep and fundamental level because music is a human invention. It was created by humans, for humans. With this knowledge, it becomes much clearer to me how songs for self-care can affect the body and mind in such a way that they inevitably makes us want to love and care for ourselves, an ability that couldn’t be found in any other hobbies or interests that I tried to pursue.
In terms of music utilized for self-love and self-care, this can be anything from calming, melodic beats to rap songs that make you feel on top of the world. The range of music used to help you heal and love yourself is fully up to you, and that’s what makes it so much more personal and important.
Personally, when I use music for self-care I enjoy listening to songs that speak about allowing fate to take its course with messages like “everything happens for a reason,” as well as RnB and pop songs that uplift and work to empower women.
This type of music has helped me and will also help you to work on your journey of achieving self-love, something that all of us are deserving of having in our lives. All aspects of love are important, but self-love is one that we must make sure not to take for granted.
Below are ten of my favorite songs that showcase the importance of self-love in all aspects of life. Everyone deserves the chance to love themselves, and these songs will give you the boost you need to care for and appreciate yourself for who you are.
- “girl no more” – Jae Stephens
- “I Wish you Roses” – Kali Uchis
- “i” – Kendrick Lamar
- “Give Yourself A Try” – The 1975
- “Low” – SZA
- “Let It Happen” – Tame Impala
- “Maneater” – Nelly Furtado
- “renee” – SALES
- “Self Care” – Mac Miller
- “SNOWCONE” – REI AMI