Losing ourselves in the music:

Losing ourselves in the music:

It began with a soul cover of Eminem's Lose Yourself and ended in a late-night conversation about why music makes us feel the way it does.

When my boyfriend's cousin came to visit, I didn't expect us to talk much.

But then guitars came up.

Alex recently started playing in a jazz band and of course, I lit up when he told me. I love blues, jazz and soul and, apart from my mother, who introduced me to it, everyone I tell looks at me like I've gone mad when I tell them.

I shared the cover and he immediately loved it.

He introduced me to Marcin.

I shared a song.

He shared one back.

And so it went.

A song for a song.

All the while dissecting them, talking about why exactly these songs make us feel the way they do.

"I really love how this artist uses rhythm to make you feel like you're running…"

"Notice how this song makes you feel safe, but don't let your guard down…"

"Oh, this makes me feel weightless!"

And so on.

Before we knew it, it was nearly 23:00 and everyone else had long since gone to bed, so we said goodnight.

But what I took away from this conversation, apart from discovering a lot of new artists and songs that I might not otherwise have come across, is how easily we take the music we listen to for granted.

Most of the time, music sits in the background of my life, filling the silence when I'm driving, washing dishes or working. I love listening to it, often singing along or tapping a foot, but I hardly ever stop to ask myself why a particular melody gives me goosebumps or why some rhythms make me anxious while others make me feel alive.

But this was different.

As we talked, music theory came up a few times (which Alex knows a lot more about than I do), but it wasn't the technical points in our conversation that stayed with me.

It was the opportunity to sit with someone and go beyond the usual, "Oh, this is a cool song" and dive into, "This harmony, right here… I feel it in my gut."

The best conversations aren't necessarily about agreeing. They're about discovery and opening ourselves up to connection.

We lost ourselves in the music.

And found a little more of ourselves in talking about it.