There are many cumbersome ways to kill a man...I mean, heal a broken heart

Let's say I know someone who found herself deep in the throes of an little bit of an unrequited love situation for, oh let's say the greater part of the year. This mostly bitter and only occasionally tantalizingly sweet ordeal was punctuated by melodrama and much, much agonizing (because we all know love is the purest form of agony) with friends, family, colleagues and strangers in strange places, and eventually culminated in a resolute declaration that the smithereens that her heart had broken into would never be reconstituted again. Well, it is my pleasure to write that this hapless young woman's heart has in fact reconstituted itself and is well and truly recovered from what can only be described as a highly emotionally taxing situation no human being deserves to endure. There are so many reasons why she has recovered and so many contributory factors to her arrival at the place of sanity and wellness that it would easily take me months to chronicle them all. I can however, quite confidently say that a very large role was played by the music industry, for it was in music that she came to the realisation of the (rather obvious) fact that hers was not the first situation of this type and if simple, ordinary people like multi-platinum recording artists could seemingly experience and overcome these things to the extent that they could even use them to earn a living, well then surely, a bright young fox like me (I mean, this young woman) could do likewise and come out on top? The following is a taste, a mere sample, of the soundtrack of an eclectic muso's journey out of the mire of ill-fated love. You could also think of it as a five step algorithm to getting over a broken heart. If you get stuck on any step go back to the one before. The fact that I can blog about this without being reduced to a heap of incoherent, jumbled up emotions is proof that it works!

Lesson 1: Hey, it happens to the best of us...


Daniel Bedingfield: If you're not the one.

Angie Stone: Snowflakes.

Dela: Lucy's and Loose Leafs.

Gabrielle: Out of reach

Juanes and Nelly Furtado: Fotografia

Lea Salonga - On my own (Les Miserables)

Diam's: SOS

Love is coming undone and hearts are breaking all over the world in different ways, for different reasons and in different languages. Who are you but a mere mortal to expect to be exempt from these things?

Lesson 2: Shake it off, champ. Just keep walking...


Madonna: Power of goodbye

Dido: Hunter

Maxwell: Pretty Wings:

Lupe Fiasco: The show goes on

Coolio: See you when you get there

Joss Stone: Could have been you

Coldplay: Paradise

Tough break, Johnny; just keep walking ..


Lesson 3: Don't just walk around in circles. You need to be walking AWAY from the object of your unrequited limerence and TOWARDS the person you used to be before you lost yourself. The old you was doing just fine before this whole debacle; the old you was aces...Even better if you can walk towards an even better version of yourself the world has never seen: wiser, stronger, better, more sympathetic with your audience, as it were..:-)

Enigma: Return to innocence
...if you want, then start to laugh, if you must then start to cry...

Lupe Fiasco: Beautiful lasers (2 ways)
...find a reason...simplest things, you really like summer, you really like music, you really like reading...

R. Kelly: The storm is over now
... I can see the sunshine (somewhere beyond the clouds)...

Oren Lavie: Her morning elegance
...and she fights for her life...

Common: Blue sky
...this is my Inception, I'm writing my dreams...immortal view of a star doing what I'm born to do...

U2 - Walk on So go on then. Time to do all those things you failed to do because you were busy wallowing in the sea of cathexis!

Lesson 4: if the darkness tries to creep up on you again assault it with positive self talk and think happy thoughts. The following music never fails to put a smile on my face.


Bobby McFerrin: Don't worry be happy
...don't bring everybody down!

Lupe Fiasco: Just might be OK
...affirmative, no further furnishing is needed...I believe we are completed...

OMC: How bizarre
...ooh baby, it's making me crazy...

Cornershop: Brimful of Asha
...she's the one that keeps the dream alive, from the morning, past the evening, til the end of the night...

Jimmy Cliff: I can see clearly now
...all of the bad feelings have disappeared, here is the rainbow I've been praying for, it's gonna be a bright, sunshiney day...

Queen: We are the champions

We are the champions, 

we are the champions, 

no time for losers,

 cause we are the champions... of the world! 

That's right. Not the room, office, city or country. We are the champions of the WORLD!

Don't be choosy. Take your happy fix however you can get it: a funny joke, a funny friend, an uplifting book, song or activity. Lap it up! And don't be afraid to exaggerate your self efficacy and play up your awesomeness. If you're feeling down and out then chances are you're underestimating it already so you'll just about hit the mark if you go a little overboard with the positive self talk. 

Lesson 5: Keep hope alive! No one likes a bitter, jaded, sourpuss so expect better, expect more and be ready for it. 

Rachel's: Water from the same source

Just pure instrumental genius that inspires and reinvigorates me!

I for one, am an insatiable optimist and fully expect this fantastic young lady to look back on this past year one day and throw her head back in laughter as she rides into the sunset with James Franco/ Michael Ealy/ Thierry Henry/ John Legend/ Jared Leto/ Common/ Ryan Reynolds/ Columbus Short/ Lupe Fiasco... the possibilities are without end!

SOMALIA: Al-Shabab awards children with weapons and bombs [PHOTOS]

How is this story supposed to end? What kind of adults will these young people grow up to be ? Who gave these people the right to steal these children's innocence? It's criminal!

SOMALIA: Al-Shabab awards children with weapons and bombs [PHOTOS]

Emancipator Music

I sure love me some music and music loves me. It tracks me down and sucks me in to discover its magical power to transform the brain and alter the way it functions. Like, for real. Another recent discovery and the reason why my productivity at work has climbed steeply is Emancipator. I have been playing his album Soon It Will Be Cold Enough all day every day for days and I love it! I discovered Emancipator on a blog with some incredibly refreshing mixes and mashups where I came upon a mind freezing blend by DJ De-Pho of an Emancipator beat with Trouble in the Water by De La Soul. I should say mind blowing but really that's not what happened. My mind didn't explode from the awesomeness I heard; it froze. There was something about that backtrack. Everything came to a standstill; everything fell away and all that remained was me. I found myself in a place of absolute peace, beauty, clarity and focus.

My dear Uncle Google led me to Emancipator's website where tracks like Soon It Will Be Cold Enough to Build Fires, Anthem, First Snow, Lionheart and Wolf Drawn just beamed me up out of the mire and drudgery of everyday life to the intersection of my mind with the path of infinite possibility. Friends, I was "in the zone" - banging on all cylinders, powering my way through the work I get paid to do and having time and energy left over to get things done on the personal development side that I had been procrastinating to do all year long.

Emancipator is a psychology graduate from Portland, Oregon, who is classically trained in music and is adept at violin, guitar, mandolin, drums, banjo and a whole lot of stringed instruments. He released Soon It Will Be Cold Enough in 2006 when he was 19 years old - feel like an underachiever much, Sandii? Then he released the album Safe in the Steep Cliffs in 2010 and this year he has done an album of Emancipator Remixes which I will be purchasing and adding to my music collection. His music is very strongly inspired by and reminiscent of nature. That's probably why I am spirited away to "the zone" when I listen to it. So apparently Emancipator music is classified as trip hop or electronica or downtempo hip hop or chill music or lounge music and there is a growing collective of highly talented similar artists making serious waves in this genre. Nujabes is one highly respected artist from Japan who unfortunately passed away.

I very much like the fact that DJs like DJ De-Pho (who actually isn't even a real turn table-type DJ) are taking these organic instrumentals and making super cool mashups of underground hip hop and classic rap songs from artists like Tu Pac, Jay-Z, Outkast, Mobb Deep and De La Soul. Below is an Emancipator blend of Kick, Push by Lupe Fiasco - clicking anywhere in the screen opens a new tab. De-Pho has taken an already excellent track and given it a new emotional energy. I love it!

I urge you to check out and share the awesome and inspiring music from Emancipator on http://emancipator.bandcamp.com. Enjoy the free downloads and buy his albums. The man's got massive talent. I love Shook (Sigur ros vs Mobb Deep) which you can listen to below.  I also urge you to check out DJ De-Pho's myspace page where this incredibly talented dj has made his music free to download. Believe me, you want to listen to this guy's work, it's fantastic.