4 tips for listening to a playlist + a mixtape: january 2016 // intention

it’s time for the first playlist of the year! i am so very excited about this playlist. i’ve been listening to it this morning as i prepare + write this post. so far, i’m feeling inspired, motivated, empowered, moved, and filled with an amazing energy that even my love said that she could feel when she woke up + joined me on the sofa.

i take these playlists very seriously, as i always have, searching the whole month before their reveal for songs that fit just perfectly with the theme of the month. i listen to them all, but perhaps not the entire song, and i go with my gut when selecting which ones make it into each month’s mixtape. however, i do not put them in any special order, actually. in fact, i almost always hit “shuffle” just to mix it up.

// tip 1: i encourage you to really reflect on the theme for each month, and listen to the lyrics, the rhythms, and feel the feelings that come with each song. there is a reason that i included it. don’t waste your time trying to figure out my reason, though. seek out your own reason, your own connection, between the song + the theme.

// tip 2: have a “song of the day”. each morning at some point,open up the playlist and hit shuffle. let whatever song begins to play become your song for that day. perhaps there is a message that the universe is sending you through it. perhaps it is just what you need to here to get your day started. i did that this morning, as i have done many mornings, and it never fails to amaze me how magical this ritual can be.

// tip 3: take a photo. for each song, snap a photo every day that captures your interpretation or feelings inspired by a song. share your photo on instagram + use the hashtag #jan16intention (or whatever month it is + the theme = month16theme). FYI // i will be creating photo challenges to go with some playlists. it won’t be every single month (as there is not one for this month), but some months lend themselves to being perfect photo challenge months. stay tuned!

// tip 4: write a blog post about the playlist or your song of the day. make it short or long. reflect daily, weekly, or in one post for the whole month. share how the playlist inspires you, makes you feel. or create your own playlist with the theme.

now. for this month’s theme. intention.

i am no believer in making resolutions. they are just a way to set myself up to fail.

instead of focusing on goals and what i want to do in 2016, i plan to create a vision and how i want to be.

it accomplishes the same thing as making resolutions + setting goals, but allows for much more fluidity and flexibility. in this sense, it is so much more about evolving than accomplishing. and by evolving, we are accomplishing. get my drift?

and i intend to create a vision and become more of who i am by living out my word of the year: evolve.

so, i am beginning with the theme of intention. because that’s just what i said in the sentence above. it is my understanding that we need an intention in order to begin anything. in order to evolve at all. this is my focus, my “goal”, if you will. much, much more on this month’s theme of intention coming tomorrow. so, check back!

anyway, for this playlist, i gathered a bunch of songs that helped me to set a vision, an intention, for 2016. songs that may speak to us about how we may feel at the beginning of the year + how we may want our 2016 to be. adventurous, slow, exciting. inspirational. filled with love, peace, dance, rest, and even tough times. a journey. some songs are all about kicking us in the ass + motivating us. some songs are about slowing down + living in the moment.

but, all of them are perfect in one way or another, in my little humble opinion, for that amazing clean slate, celebratory, new beginnings feeling that we often feel as we enter a new year.

so, here you go, my friends. january’s playlist! let it inspire you to settle in, dig deep, and discover those intentions that you have for your life as your begin a new revolution around the sun, as you begin your own evolution of becoming even more of who you are truly meant to be.

click → here or on the photo above to go to the playlist.

enjoy, my friends!

• Breathe – Elephant Revival
• This Will Be Our Year – Ben Sollee
• Down The Road – Eilen Jewell
• Be Set Free – Langhorne Slim
• Winter Song – The Head and the Heart
• I Will Rise – Cattle & Cane
• Roots – The Melodic
• The Spark – Pokey LaFarge
• All In – Samantha Crain
• This Is The Life – Amy Macdonald
• All As It Should Be – Holly Williams
• Go On – Elephant Revival
• Every Age – José González
• Cosmic Pulse – Elephant Revival
• For A Better Day – Avicii
• Lagom – Darin
• Just One Day – Mighty Oaks
• Different Days – Jason Isbell
• The Cave – Mumford & Sons
• New Year’s Day – Pentatonix
• This Year – Bowerbirds
• Any Day – Down Like Silver
• Rest of My Life – Nickel Creek
• Get Up – Caitlin Canty
• From Now On – Mandolin Orange
• Second Chances – Gregory Alan Isakov
• Very Day I’m Gone (Rambling Woman) – Anna & Elizabeth
• What We Become – Horse Feathers
• Bronze – The Woodlands
• On My Way – The Melodic
• Season After Season – Frazey Ford
• I Am Mine – Beta Radio
• As Soon as Winter Comes – The Bird and the Bear
• Happy – Holly Williams
• Wild Girl – Amy Helm
• Magic Hour – Aoife O’Donovan
• Dancing In The Dark – Ruth Moody
• Take the World – Johnnyswim
• Silver Light – Trampled By Turtles
• Dreamer – Isbells
• Brave World – Bowerbirds
• The Wind – Alela Diane
• Tomorrow is My Turn – Rhiannon Giddens
• Circle Around The Sun – The Pines
• First Began – Beta Radio
• Shine On – Seth Bernard, Daisy May
• Open Ended Life – The Avett Brothers
• Ballad Of Fuck All – Malcolm Middleton
• Like the Dawn – The Oh Hellos
• Winter Eclipse – Beta Radio
• Long Journey – Sarah Jarosz
• Walk Unafraid – First Aid Kit
• A Year in the Wilderness – T E Morris
• Wake Me – Message To Bears
• A Little Bit Of Everything – Dawes
• Slow Life – Of Monsters and Men
• You Are the Branches – Jordan Klassen
• Mvmt II, “Begin and Never Cease” – The Oh Hellos
• Promise – Ben Howard
• Pilgrim (You Can’t Go Home) – Dave Rawlings Machine

It’s not some message written in the dark
Or some truth that no one’s seen
It’s a little bit of everything

// Dawes, A Little Bit of Everything //

earth • soul • spirit