Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. My Instagram feed seems to be full of advice on how to triple your followers by baiting big hooks and reeling people in. I don’t know what I opened to trigger the avalanche of advice, but using titles that include small numbers and big promises is apparently the best way to go.
That said, I actually do want to write about remixing your life like a DJ. That’s for real. And you really can do it in an hour if you set your mind to it. So, no false promises from me.
When I was a university student, my friends and I would often go out ‘clubbing’. What usually happened was someone would fall in love with a particular DJ, who was ‘simply the best’, and we’d all go to whatever club they were at and dance the night away. I wasn’t overly committed to these ‘raves’. I’ve always been nerdy and sensitive to light and sound. Whilst I wasn’t as ‘triggered’ by flashing strobes and boom-box-booming as I am now, I was always less enthusiastic than everyone else. On the other hand, I enjoyed a dance as much as the next person, so everything in moderation I suppose…
The point is (sorry) that DJs don’t always write their own music. What they do, is they take a collection of old and new songs, and they notice ‘similarities’ between songs that they can turn into ‘synergies’. It might be the back-beat, or the theme of the songs, or the tone of the signers’ voices. Whatever it is, they recognize the compatibility of the two songs and overlap them, so that one song seamlessly blends into the other.
I’m showing my age now, but in the 1990s I remember being a super-fan of a club that used to remix all the Jackson 5 numbers with contemporary Michael Jackson songs that were on the radio, and then layer them with other popular pop songs. That way, we got our fill of ‘fav’ songs, without being bored by too much repetition. In other words, the DJ bought more to the turn-table than just playing one record after the other – the whole became greater than the parts, as it were. (Thinking back, I’m pretty sure it was on one of these ‘blame it on the boogie’ nights that I first got chatting to a friend about going to Mt Everest.)
What I meant in my title, is that you can remix the basics of your life by taking a look at what you NEED to do in your week’s routine and what you WANT to do (old and new songs if you like), then – boof-boof-doof-doof – mix things up a bit until you find synergies that make the whole week sing.
An example from my life includes a list of what needs to get done (washing, shopping, ironing, blog posts) and what I would like to get done if there was enough time (listen to podcasts about migraines, meditate, read other people’s blogs). Then you look for the synergies, look for potential overlaps, move things around a bit. That’s when I realized I could listen to podcasts while I ironed, or do a moving meditation as I hung up the washing or was putting dishes away (you really can!). Shopping might be shifted from instore to online, and while you’re waiting for the delivery to arrive in the two-hour window, you can use that as your time to prepare blog posts and read other blogs – you can’t leave home until the shopping arrives, so hey, you might as well enjoy it!
I don’t know any DJs personally, so I might be going out on a limb of make-believe here, but I’m guessing that they learn on the job. As they play their tracks, they watch how the audience responds. Which songs got everyone up and on the floor, and, which ones seemed to become the unofficial announcement for ‘toilet time’? And then they re-mix their remixes, so that next time they play their tunes there’s more dancing and less bathroom breaks. It’s responsive and it’s adaptive.
The same can be true of your life remixed. If it turns out the washing-line-moving-meditation wasn’t what you were hoping for, find another way to slide meditation into your weekly routine. Ironing-podcasts seems like the perfect synergy? Make it a regular Sunday afternoon routine. And so on and so on… mix it baby – mix it.
Find the boogie-beats that make you move, make you smile, keep you motivated. Then make them into the soundtrack of your life and love it.
Take care, Linda x
The Mindful Migraine 
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