I was driving the sweeping curves of a long dark road last night, on the way back from my parents’ house where I and my family had been celebrating my mum’s birthday.

I love driving this empty road late at night. Sometimes, an owl swoops across the road in front of me. Sometimes there is one of those swirling mists that are typical of the Vale of York where I live.

Last night, there was simply a wet shining road and the trees breathing.

I turned up the music on my car radio. It was a really cheesy Joe Cocker song:

Love lifts us up where we belong,
Where the eagles cry
On a mountain high.
Love lifts us up where we belong,
Far from the world below,
Up where the clear winds blow.

Some hang on to “used to be,”
Live their lives looking behind.
All we have is here and now,
All our life, out there to find.
The road is long, there are mountains in our way,
But we climb a step every day

Love lifts us up where we belong,
Where the eagles cry
On a mountain high.
Love lift us up where we belong,
Far from the world we know,
Where the clear winds blow.

My goodness, it was fantastic! I felt a huge surge of happiness and well being as I drove that road, singing at the top of my lungs.

You know that feeling?

They are such cheesy lyrics but, in that moment, they just felt so, so true. I felt them resonating through my entire body.

‘All we have is here and now..’

Oh, YES!

‘The road is long, there are mountains in our way,
But we climb a step every day..‘

Yes! I was up there at the very top of those mountains in my mind.

As I kept driving, Marvin Gaye’s ‘Let’s Get It On’ and Tina Turner’s ‘I Don’t Want To Fight No More’ just enhanced the feelings in various ways.

I read a great book about this very phenomenon recently: ‘This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession’ by Daniel Levitin, Director of the Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition and Expertise at McGill University.

You may like to check out the book’s website here. There are lots of fun interactive tools to play with, including music of course.

You can also download a copy of Levitin’s Life Soundtracks Study, which concludes:

‘Music has been shown to have specific effects on the  body’s physiology, including heart rate, respiration, sweating, and mental activity.  Music  is effective at moderating arousal levels, concentration, and helping to regulate mood through its action on the brain’s natural chemistry.  People who can have music follow them around during their daily lives can use these properties of music effectively – to form a soundtrack for their day and their lives, one that effectively provides comfort, arousal, and both mental and physical fitness.’

David Lawrie and I put lots of thought and care into the originally composed music we use on my audio programmes for this very reason.

I’m wishing you a fabulous weekend with an even more fabulous soundtrack! Mine’s right here.