Yesterday I found myself at the Teignmouth fair watching my son and daughter spinning around on a machine that made me dizzy just looking at it.

Although I had no desire to join them in the spinning part of things, I did find myself jigging up and down and singing along to the music that was playing in the background.

I couldn’t even remember the name of the track at the time – but I was immediately transported back to happy days of clubbing when most of the troubles and challenges of today seemed very far away.

As the children came off the ride and we walked away, I noticed how my mood had suddenly lifted and I couldn’t stop smiling. The music had taken me back to happy memories from my youth.

When I first left school, my first proper job was as a disk jockey. I spent several years before going to university djing in both clubs and on the radio. The bosses of one of the radio stations I worked on said that when putting our playlists together, we should think first about the audience we were aiming at and then base most of the playlist on what would have been playing when they were about fifteen to eighteen. The choice of that age was no coincidence. If you think about it, for most of us, our late teenage years were times when everything was still possible. Arguments with parents and concerns about passing exams were still usually outweighed by our first crushes, starting to flirt with adulthood, dreaming about the future and not accepting no as a valid answer to anything. We were still connected to the natural creativity and spontaneity of our childhoods but didn’t yet have the responsibility that comes once you embark on a seriously adult life.

I spoke to a DJ just the other day who said that when he plays music at a wedding, anything new barely gets any response on the dancefloor. However as soon as he gets the old classics out, the dancefloor fills up immediately. Of course that doesn’t mean that no one is making good music anymore – quite the opposite. But what it does mean, is that hearing music from our past is not just about connecting to the music, it is about connecting to the feeling that goes with it.

When I was consumed with angst whilst studying for my exams as a teenager, I would play two records over and over again. They were Breakout by Swing out Sister and I won’t let the sun go down on me by Nik Kershaw, both of which I found uplifting and full of hope. (Apologies to anyone who hasn’t got a clue who I am talking about!) Nowadays, when I need to convince myself that I am capable of achieving something – I will often still put on those two same tracks and it’s almost as if my worry has lessened in an instant.

Music can be used in many ways to improve our mental health. I will often give clients the “homework” of compiling a list of the songs they find most uplifting – and even this simple exercise can have dramatic results in terms of lifting a person’s mood and connecting them once more to a feeling of positivity and hope. These tracks can be from specific times in life, ones that remind you of holidays, achievements, getting through challenges, special people or just make you feel good for no discernible reason at all.

One thing you might like to consider is compiling your own list of music that inspires or lifts you. If you have Spotify or a similar tool then it can be really helpful to have a ready list of uplifting music for the moments when you are feeling troubled and are finding it hard to think about positive things.

It’s a good idea to update your list regularly and add new tracks to it as they come to mind. This is not only a fun exercise but you will find that your mood lifts automatically as you do it.

Almost everyone has at least some music that they feel a special connection with and are inspired by.

Once you have found yours, try making a conscious decision to play it from time to time and see what happens to your mood.

A list of personal powertracks can be a great way to remind yourself that you can achieve anything you set your mind to – and that the hope you had in your younger days is still very much alive.