Music makes you feel happy you’re alive

“If music be the food of love, play on.”

– William Shakespeare, Twelfth Night –

In my humble opinion, Matt Corby is a living legend. He is also the closest thing I have ever heard the legendary Mr Jeff Buckley, who immortalised Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah with his own very special version.

I was lucky enough to be introduced to Matt by a very good friend of mine (Mr Ben Levy) one day when we were driving together. He was giving me a lift to a place where I would be cat sitting in Manly for a friend of theirs for a week or so over the Christmas period (Dec 2011). We were listening to Triple J (an awesome alternative radio station in Australia) and just as we pulled up to the house, Matt Corby’s ‘Brother’ came on. He told me that I needed to listen to him, so we sat in the stationary, parked car and listened to the entire song all the way through. I was blown away, and that was the day that I fell in love with his voice and his music. Captivating, mesmerizing and very beautiful.

I then started to read up a little about him and realised that he had taken the number 3 spot (behind Gotye’s Somebody That I Used To Know at 1 and The Black Key’s ‘Lonely Boy’ at 2) of Triple J’s hottest 100 in 2011 for Brother. Later in 2012 I went to see him play at the Metro in Sydney with Ben’s girlfriend’s sister, Sabrina. We had a blast and both drooled over him and his music all night. A month or so later I was lucky enough to score tickets to see him play at Cockatoo Island in Sydney and took another girlfriend. It was an electric night and his music electrified the island. Truly fantastic.

Which brings me to now. Darren and I went to see him at the iconic and eponymous Enmore Theatre on Friday night and he kicked ass. His voice sounded as stunning as usual, at times so smooth it could melt butter and others so raw you could feel the emotion that was in him when he wrote the song.

His music is (in my humble opinion) a blend of Jeff Buckley’s voice, with the earthy rawness of Mumford & Sons and I just stumbled across a recording of the last song that he played (My False) to demonstrate, just how brilliant he is live. The entire venue lit up when he played this, and it was just the most perfect way to end his set.

He recently spent a while in the UK with Mumford & Sons, and he is also signed to Ben Lovett’s record label, Communion, so you can see that there is a definite influence from them in this song.

Today’s post is about how music can make you feel happy you’re alive, and Matt’s music makes me feel happy that I am alive to listen to it and witness it live. Is there music that makes you feel like that in your life? If so, fill it with more of it!

Inspiration for this post

Matt Corby live at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney – My False

Matt Corby – Brother

Jeff Buckley – Hallelujah

Life’s better with good vibrations

“If you want to find the secrets of the universe, think in terms of energy, frequency and vibration.” 

– Nikola Tesla –

I read a blog post a few months ago about how to raise your vibrations and found it so useful that I thought I would write one of my own.

It’s easy to let things get on top of us, feel overwhelmed or unnecessarily sad or frustrated about life. However it is just as easy to raise our vibrations and start to feel good about things.

And it’s important that we are vibrating at a high frequency, because when that happens, we radiate this positive energy to other people and other things, and then it comes straight back to us karmically.

So, here are my top 10 things to do in order to raise your vibrations:

1. Think positively – think about someone or something you love, visualise it, feel it, fill your entire body with these thoughts and feelings

2. Listen to happy music (and better still, sing along with it) – create a playlist on your iPhone or Android phone full of upbeat music with positive lyrics. I have lots of these and tend to play them full blast in the morning when I’m in the shower and have a good singalong. Among my favourite’s are Florence and the Machine’s ‘Shake it Out’, Ellie Goulding’s ‘Anything Could Happen‘, Mumford & Sons ‘The Cave’, Birds of Tokyo’s ‘Lanterns’ and Coldplay’s ‘Charlie Brown‘.

3. Watch comedy – again, it doesn’t matter what it is. It could be a film, a TV show, a funny clip on You Tube. Anything that will make you laugh and get positive energy flowing around your body.

4. Surround yourself with positive people – Give someone you love a call or meet up with someone for a coffee or a drink who you know will make you feel good. It’s impossible to feel negative when you’re around someone who is vibrating at a high frequency.

5. Exercise – Just 15 minutes of cardiovascular exercise like a brisk walk, bike ride, swim or run will raise your vibrations and have you feeling happier and more positive.

6. Do something nice for someone else – it could be as simple as writing them a nice email to say hello and see how they are, helping someone with a chore, or a random act of kindness towards a stranger. By karmically doing something nice for someone else, it will in turn make you feel happier inside.

7. Have an attitude of gratitude – Write a list of all the things that you are grateful in life, until you can’t write anything else down. Just the act of scanning your life for the things you appreciate in your life will make you feel better and you will naturally start to attract even more wonderful things into your life.

8. Cook and eat something you love that is healthy – When we eat good food that has been made with love we release oxytocin, which is what many refer to as the ‘love’ hormone and naturally makes us feel more positive. Also, the food we eat reflects our mood. So if we are eating organic, healthy food, then we will feel happy and healthy on the inside and out.

9. Tell someone that you love them – Words have power. And the words we think in our head and then say out loud create our reality. In order to have more positivity, happiness and love in our lives we need to fill our heads, thoughts and mouths with these words. The simple act of calling someone or messaging someone that you love them, will naturally fill your body and mind with happiness and love.

10. Do something that you love to do – It doesn’t matter what it is. It could be reading, writing, swimming, yoga, fishing, having a bath, having a massage, dancing, painting, photography, rock climbing, driving, cycling, meditating (the list goes on), but if it is something that you truly love to do, you will naturally raise your vibrations, your heart will fill up with positive energy and you will emit this to The Universe and it will reflect it straight back to you through the energy of the people and things you interact with.

There are many, many more things that you can do to raise your vibrations, but here are just 10 for now. I’m sure I’ll follow this post up with another in due course.

Have fun raising your vibrations my darlings. X x x

Inspiration for this post

Music that makes me feel good –

Video for Florence and the Machine – Shake It Out

Video for Ellie Goulding – Anything Could Happen

Video for Mumford & Sons – The Cave

Video for Birds of Tokyo – Lanterns

Video for Coldplay – Charlie Brown