Feeling anxious can be a debilitating and day-consuming thing. It’s avoiding calls, constantly questioning yourself and your actions and living in a state of unrest, where nothing you do seems to make you feel happy or comfortable.
It’s also completely normal, and unfortunately, completely common to experience throughout our lives.
Maybe there’s a big work presentation that you’re nervous about. Or an event with your family that you’ve been dreading. Or it could even be a harsh conversation you need to have to break up with a partner.
Anxiety isn’t something you can avoid, but it hits us like a wave of emotion at different points in our lives.
There’s not typically one action or solution that can make your feelings go away – if there was, we doubt anxiety would exist in the first place.
However, there are some things which can help ease your pain and help to turn down the negative thoughts buzzing around in your brain. Unsurprisingly, music may be the answer.
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Research has found that music between 60 – 80 Beats Per Minute (BPM) can help us to feel in control, calmer and help to regulate our breathing to a relaxed pace.
If you’re not sure what that means, imagine clapping once a second for a minute. Across a minute, each of those claps would be one beat of a 60 BPM song. BPM is how we understand the tempo and pacing of different music.
When we’re anxious, our breathing quickens. It’s how our brain signals to the rest of our body that we’re entering fight or flight mode and that we need to prepare ourselves for something challenging ahead.
When we try to focus on listening to a piece of music, our breathing mimics the tempo of a song. That means when we’re listening to a slower BPM, our body is telling our brains to be calmer in the face of danger.
It may not help your clammy hands or lingering headache, but it’s a good breathing exercise to help you remember that everything is going to be okay.
The next time you feel that wave of anxiety approaching you, plug in your headphones and play one of these songs to help you swim through to the other side:
1. Ain’t No Sunshine by Otis Redding (78 BPM)
Bill Withers is, for lack of better phrasing, sunshine in a bottle. His music is comforting and nostalgic, taking your mind back to a time away from the anxious environment you feel engulfed by.
Ain’t No Sunshine is one of those tracks that you can imagine hearing on your radio on a sunny afternoon in the park – give it a play and let your mind soak up the sun.
2. Dirty Work by Steely Dan (73 BPM)
Get in your car, put the volume on high and close your eyes. Dirty Work is the road trip hit that you’ll be singing along to without even realising before you know it.
It’s 70s rock that your mind can get lost in, making the day feel more manageable by the second.
3. One Love by Bob Marley & The Wailers (76 BPM)
Reggae is a genre that radiates joy and peace in every note. It’s hard to choose just one track that should be listened to if you need to feel more peaceful, but One Love feels like the right song.
It’s jam-packed with affirmations of love, family, and community, which are all the messages we want to be sending to your brain during a rough patch.
4. Cool Cat by Queen (74 BPM)
When you think of Queen, headbanging and enthusiastic air guitar playing may be what first comes to mind. We don’t blame you!
They’ve got some great records, but Cool Cat has a slowed-down, funky bassline that you can’t help but nod along to.
If you need to do something to focus your mind, play this track and try to tap your foot to each of the beats, helping your body switch into that slow tempo that it needs.
5. Halo by Beyoncé (80 BPM)
Beyoncé has so many iconic tracks that get you on the dancefloor that we often forget her slower songs have helped carry us through every heartbreak and rough time in the past.
Even if you’ve not queued Halo on your playlist for a few years, playing it will transport you straight back to hearing it on the radio for the first time in 2008.
6. Come Away With Me by Norah Jones (77 BPM)
Relaxing, unwinding, untangling your brain from the knots it’s built for itself; Come Away With Me will do it all.
For this track, we recommend watching the music video and soaking up the softness of the soul singer’s voice.
Have a look at the sunbathed road trip the singer travels on in the video and think of all the exciting adventures you have ahead, knowing too that you can leave your worries behind.
7. Here With Me by Dido (83 BPM)
Here With Me was probably the music video you remember watching on TV from the early 00s, with Dido singing straight to the camera, as if her words were meant directly for you.
It’s a classic track that encourages you to sway to the lyrics, making you think of films like Love Actually, where characters walk in the rain listening to the track.
Listening to the song will help you feel like a main character, but without the added drama or stress.
8. Nothing Can Change This Love by Sam Cooke (65 BPM)
Sam Cooke is an artist whose music was written to help people feel in control of their own lives, fuelling much of the soundtrack of change across the United States in the 1960s.
It’s why listening to his music can feel like medicine for the soul. We dare for this track to not make you feel glowing from the inside in less than three minutes.
9. Son of a Preacher Man by Aretha Franklin (78 BPM)
This Dusty Springfield track is one that everyone in your family will know, helping to get even your grandma dancing along to the rhythm.
We recommend listening to the slower version of Son of a Preacher Man that’s performed by Aretha Franklin.
Focus on regulating your breathing, and Arthea will do the rest of the work.
10. Make You Feel My Love by Adele (65 BPM)
When Adele covered this Bob Dylan track, it was so good that we very nearly forgot that it wasn’t the original. Make You Feel My Love is heartfelt, sincere and soul-bearing in all the right places.
This live performance captures that raw beauty that a great song can have, sharing it with you when you need it most.
11. Leather And Lace by Stevie Nicks and Don Henley (76 BPM)
Stevie Nicks has sung so many tracks, whether as a solo artist or in Fleetwood Mac, that listening to any of them can have a meditative feeling.
Leather And Lace is no different, resting on a slow tempo that almost feels like a lullaby. It’s hard to believe that the song can hold just as much power over 40 years later, but this performance does!
12. Pastime Paradise by Stevie Wonder (79 BPM)
This track is 50 years old this year, but it feels like something you’d still buy at a record shop today.
Pastime Paradise is the original inspiration for Coolio’s reimagination of Gangsta’s Paradise, which may explain the swagger already added to your step.
It’s fun, funky, and just exactly what you need to pace your breathing.
13. I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston (68 BPM)
The Bodyguard had all of us weeping when it was released in 1992, before it had us immediately running out to buy the soundtrack.
I Will Always Love You is likely a song you may have shed a tear to, but when your headphones are on, there’s no shame in having a little cry.
This track will touch your heart and slowly put it back together again.
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