When We Learn to Listen Differently: What a Season of Change Taught Me

Music has always been a big part of my life.

It has been there for me through thick and thin; happy times, difficult moments and anything in between. But especially those moments when I had a hard time finding the right words to express what was going on inside of me.

For me, music has always been my best friend, not just some background noise. It is memories, emotions and also connection. It is a place I can return to and feel safe.

So, when I went through a tough season and music started to feel different, it stopped me in my tracks, and I started to notice it.

Honestly, it felt strange. Really strange. I couldn’t fully make sense what was happening.

The one thing I could always turn to for comfort and safety did not feel like that anymore.

Songs I loved did not feel like that anymore. I turned to silence more and more. In the end, I didn’t want to listen to music at all.

I almost panicked a little, wondered what was going on here.

Had I lost my connection with music? Had something changed in me?

After some time, I started to realise something that helped me look at it differently: Maybe it wasn’t about losing something. Maybe it was about moving through a different season of life.

I think we often expect ourselves, and our world, to remain the same. Day in, day out. We believe that what helped us so far will keep helping us in the same way it always has.

Yet, life changes. And so do we.

The same goes for our energy and needs. And the way we experience things changes, too. That doesn’t mean anything is wrong. It just means we are a little different to who were before.

I thought I needed to get back to the old me

For a while, I felt I needed to get back to who I was before the challenging season happened. To that version of ‘B’ who could put a song on and instantly feel better.

But I found out that that wasn’t what I needed. I realised that I needed to meet the version of me that was here, right now, in this season.

This version of me needed: more quiet; to slow down and something different to be able to move through it all.

The biggest lesson for me through it all

We can, and will, change who we are without losing the essence of who we are. Perhaps the things we love change or the way we with connect with them, or the way we take care of ourselves changes.

All that is totally okay.

That’s where I believe our Elegant Rebel® comes in.

For me, being an Elegant Rebel® isn’t about refusing to change. It is about being willing to accept where we are, even when it looks different from where we have been and where we hope we would be.

It is about giving ourselves the grace to move through different seasons without constantly trying to get back to who we were.

My thing is music. Perhaps it is yours, too. Or it could be creativity, nature, writing, movement, relationships or something else.

Whatever it is, there may be times when your relationship with it changes. And maybe that doesn’t mean you have lost it. Maybe it means you are being invited to experience it differently.

Music came back to me differently

The amazing thing is that music did come back into my life. But it came back differently.

I enjoy it again. I find meaning in it again. But I no longer expect it to carry everything for me.

Music is still my best friend, but I knew we needed some time apart. And now I understand that sometimes the most important lessons don’t come from the music itself.

Sometimes they come from the quiet moments in between. The moments where we listen to ourselves.

Through Living on the B Side, I explore how music, reflection and personal stories can help us reconnect with what matters.

And through my Music Momentum Sessions, I support people who want to use music as a starting

point for reflection, clarity and understanding themselves better.

Because sometimes we don’t need to find ourselves again. Sometimes we simply need to listen to where life is taking us next.