{"id":54341,"date":"2021-09-09T07:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T11:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/?p=54341"},"modified":"2021-09-09T12:14:14","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T16:14:14","slug":"songs-bruno-mars-rihanna-more-covid19-pandemic-listening","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thestoryexchange.org\/songs-bruno-mars-rihanna-more-covid19-pandemic-listening\/","title":{"rendered":"10 Happy Songs For Feeling Positive"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Okay, maybe your at-home dance routine is slightly less refined. What matters is, our happy music playlist will get you into some necessary grooving. (Credit: PXHere<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t imagine anyone will look back on the pandemic<\/a> as a positive<\/em> time in their lives. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure, there have been sparks of joy and silver linings amid the fear and loss — but conversely, there have been moments where optimism felt like an unreachable goal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For me, one of the roughest patches<\/a> came toward the beginning of everything — last April, when lockdowns were our new life, with no end in sight. I remember one especially late night when I allowed the fear and isolation to consume me. So much of what I\u2019ve enjoyed about life — laughing with loved ones, harmonizing with others, long walks outdoors — had been ripped away.  It was now forbidden, and dangerous. I didn\u2019t know how to make peace with that loss, or with any of the loss we were experiencing.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Related<\/h4>\n <\/div>\n \n
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\n \n 16 Songs to Fit Your Mellow Winter Mood\n <\/a>\n <\/h3>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n\n\n

With my family asleep in bed, I found myself having a cry while shuffling through the entirety of my music library, in search of solace and distraction. For a long while, I tapped \u201cnext\u201d repeatedly — until something soft and simple broke through: a tune called \u201cOld Familiar Song<\/a>\u201d by a thoughtful, lovely singer-songwriter named Dan Mills<\/a>. I didn\u2019t realize, until it came on, that what I was actually looking for was a reminder that all of those things I love, that felt so far away \u2026 I\u2019d have them once again. This sweet little song and its mellow, flirty happiness grounded me in a way nothing else could.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After that point, of course, I\u2019d find those aforementioned flashes of light. I\u2019d adjust to our new reality as best I could, the way we all did. I\u2019d figure out how to find connection through distance. I\u2019d work — with renewed purpose, and sing, and play the ukulele, and play with my son, and cook more than I ever have in my life. The time would pass, as it continues to now. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But I\u2019d also listen to \u201cOld Familiar Song,\u201d as well as the EP it came from<\/a>, until it became, well, old and familiar to me, the way genuinely comforting things do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of this to say, music can pull us away from everything that\u2019s going on and into a brighter, lighter space — and we wanted to offer that to you. So below are 10 songs that feel, at least to me, as though they were engineered in a lab to provoke big smiles and hip wiggles. And yes, some are what one could call \u201cguilty pleasures.\u201d (I\u2019m formally petitioning for the eradication of that phrase from our shared lexicon, however — no one should feel shame over anything that brings them harmless happiness in these times.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n

This playlist should  make you feel a little better, at least for a little while. And who doesn\u2019t want that?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. \u201cThe Remedy\u201d – Jason Mraz<\/strong><\/h5>\n\n\n\n
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