How to Feel Light and Airy 🪭

Here are the most light and airy songs I've discovered so far in my life:

• Drip-dry waltz composed and conducted by Henry Mancini for the 1963 film Charade with Audrey Hepburn and Cary Grant
• One Day I'll Fly Away – Randy Crawford
• La Gioconda, Op.9, Act III, Scene 6: Danza delle ore (Amilcare Ponchielli)
  • My favorite recording of this on Spotify
  • The same recording of the full scene on Youtube

When I listen to them, I feel like I'm floating in the air.

They use the illusion of silence in a clever way.

Mancini's waltz really does feel very dry, because of how thin the orchestral weave is. Every second isn't filled to the brim. There's room left for comfortable silence.

That's why Randy Crawford flies away in the song too.

The song is a bit less silent because it has a background hum all the way through. But the hum is light enough that it lets your imagination fly.

"One day I'll fly away

Leave your love to yesterday

What more can your love do for me?

When will love be through with me?

Why live life from dream to dream and dread the day that dreaming ends?"

Overthinking

That last line is crucial.

I want to live life from dream to dream and not dread the day it ends.

Here's where I get stuck: I often spend too much time dreaming instead of taking action.

Then I spend too much time dreaming of the future when I'm already living the dream—either fantasizing about arriving at a goal or worrying about what could go wrong.

Focusing too much on what could go wrong is called catastrophizing in psychology.

Life is too unpredictable, which means most of the time we can't predict it at all—in the good or in the bad.

Predicting life based on worst-case scenarios or on the past is wasted energy we could spend enjoying the current moment fully.

Finding Lightness

Listening to a light and airy song for example when I’m walking somewhere helps me be more present.

Maybe this is a daft point I'm making. 😀

But I think the feeling of lightness is worth pursuing. And songs like these really help us reach that state more easily.

Music is extraordinary that way.

Got any suggestions for more light and airy songs?

Bisous,

Elle