The magic of waking up with a song playing in my head

Any song.

Photo by Rod Long on Unsplash

I wake up and hear a song playing in my head.

Sometimes it’s a song I haven’t heard, or thought about, in decades. Seriously. Those are my favourite occurrences; they are such a gift because these songs are my subconscious speaking to me. This is how I’ve come to see it.

I take care of morning business and open up my computer to listen to The Song. (And what a miraculous era it is when I queue up any song ever recorded!)

I might dance or sing along but most importantly I listen to it and feel it out. I’ll pull up the lyrics. I might even listen to it a few times, get right into it, and reacquaint myself newly.

This is the thing: I’ve discovered that the song I wake up hearing in my head — outside of my conscious mind, nothing that I’ve thought about and chosen— offers me a message about something going on within me that I’m unaware of. Something in the lyrics typically but it could also be the feeling or memories the song inspires.

I didn’t always know this was the case but came around to see it affirmed again and again and again. It might have started with this particular morning — I woke up to the lyrics ‘Miss the one that I love a lot’ from a Bush song from a long time ago. I hadn’t heard it in forever. But this…