Diamonds Self-Worth Playlist

Self-worth is something I have struggled with my entire life. From an early age, I faced difficult

circumstances and an unhealthy environment. Later on in life, this trauma followed me into my

relationships. I allowed myself to be blinded, I allowed others to gaslight me and warp my reality.

Through these many experiences, I learned, I grew, and I developed boundaries. Even now, I’m still in my

journey of healing. Part of that healing is redeveloping and learning my own self-worth. Even now,

I struggle with knowing and remembering how amazing I really am. I chase acceptance and love

from others when in reality I have to learn how to accept and love myself first. It sounds so cheesy.

It is such a true statement though, on so many levels. 

Survivor by Jack Black aka David Guetta hits number one on my playlist. This song ties into self worth

in so many different ways through the lyrical aspect. The major one being, “I’m a survivor!”. This in

itself can have so many connotations into different peoples lives. For me, it comes from a place of

reclaiming my self worth after so many traumatic experiences that crumbled my self worth into rubble. 

This piece has a house beat that is familiar to anyone that has listened to David Guetta before. David adds

in a bass line that builds to the climax of the song. Personally I feel this bass line paired with the

distorted vocals creates a beautiful consonance that drives you to want to dance.

Blow Your Mind (Mwah) by Dua Lipa definitely sits well on my playlist for self worth. It fits even more

as my past partners and I had very similar dynamics as Dua Lipa and her lover she is describing. The

dynamics of the music is inbetween a soft and medium softness all while Dua Lipa has a few lyrics where

the rhythm draws out slightly creating an almost trance like effect. She begins describing a sensual

love that turns into her lover calling her crazy and different than who she was before. Then Dua quickly

changes the theme and dynamics that scream power, self love, boundaries, and courage! The dynamics

quickly become louder and demand your attention. While the theme quickly changes from a passionate

and damaged love to her lover blindly loving her. Claiming her power and worth she says over and over

how she will “blow your mind”. Throughout the rest of the song this same pattern follows. 

Feeling Myself by Nicki Minaj has gotten me through a lot of breakups and helped me rediscover my inner bad bitch when lost. With that, I felt this song earned a spot on this playlist of self-worth. Through the entire song, Nicki raps about owning and knowing her worth. Essentially Nicki is hyping herself up, bragging in a sense about how she is a bad bitch. Nicki  raps about literally stopping the world as her music drops. When you listen you can hear a synthesizer creating the base of rhythm with the beat of drums throughout. The emotion of this piece really invokes a sense of self-worth in the fact of feeling confident in yourself. That euphoric feeling, like you're on top of the world. For three minutes and fifty-seven seconds, you can start your day by reminding yourself how bad of bitch you can be!

Self Esteem by Nelly is an oldie but a classic in self-worth! Nelly starts by rapping about “believing in yourself”, and not letting anybody tell you about your worth and who you can be. This song is a key player in my daily motivation. I felt a connection to this song as Nelly raps about a lack of parental figures, yet he still made it out okay. Growing up, I had to be self-sufficient to make it My mother abandoned our family, my father is a narcissistic, abusive, and homophobic individual that tore me down throughout my entire childhood and even into adulthood until I was able to find my own voice and stand up for myself. When driving down the highway I blast this song and sing it to the top of my lungs. In a sense, it's almost like doing daily affirmations. Every time I hear this song I dedicate it to my inner child, the little boy who to this day requires a gentle love from me. You can hear drums almost like a djembe drum being played throughout the song that creates a ground base. Nellys' vocals stay rather medium-toned throughout this piece with a bouncy almost jaggedy direction of the lyrics. During those bouncy and jaggedy lyrics you can hear cymbals that add emphasis to the beat and flow. 

Enough by Sarahbeth Taite felt so right on this playlist. From the beginning, the beat is slower and easy on the ears. The melody and way this song plays out bring a sense of comfort. In our world today we have a precedent in society that you have to look a certain way. Sarahbeth begins by touching on this. She sings about making sure you look dolled up before going out into public. Make sure everything on you and about you is just right. Then you can hear strums of a guitar come in and she shifts her voice from a softer tone to a strong sharp jump that grabs your attention with lyrics about rubbing the lipstick off. This lyric in particular brought me a sense of picking myself back up after being knocked down. Then you can hear cymbals come in with a jump in tone again with the lyrics “I’m enough no matter if he likes me, I’m enough no matter what they’re telling me. This piece had a surplus of consonance throughout with very little dissonance. Everything flowed very harmoniously between the different instruments and her range of vocals. 

The Voice Within by Christina Aguilera felt so right for my playlist due to the driving point of trusting yourself. To start the song you hear very soft melodic piano keys being played that lead to Christina’s beautifully soft and pleasing vocals. The range she reaches from soft and low to a higher-pitched tone really brought strong energy to this piece. Christina sings “when there is no one else, look inside yourself” & “Trust the voice within” throughout the piece which truly drives self-worth for me. As strong and confident as this song can be, it also makes me cry tears of healing. When someone gets stuck in a toxic relationship where your self-worth is destroyed it becomes one of the most liberating feelings to take back your power. I’ve been knocked down so many times in search of someone to love me with as much love as I give. Most times to an extent that negatively impacted my wellbeing all around. After each relationship, I would search for validation in others' love, when truly I needed to learn how to love myself.