If you require mental health crisis support, please contact your local mental health services, your GP, or telephone 111 or the emergency services.

Home > Information and resources > What can help > Music for Wellbeing > Playlists to help energise you – “I am feeling sluggish, ‘down’ or inactive”

Playlists to help energise you – “I am feeling sluggish, ‘down’ or inactive”

A playlist to help energise you.

Welcome. If you have chosen this page, then you are probably feeling lethargic or “low”, and would like to feel better.

The music will begin “where you are” and take you step by step to the point of enlivenment.

X-System selects tracks to meet you at a level of low activation, and lead you towards high activation and positive valence.

Colour circle showing progression from feelings of sluggishness towards feeling energised and excited

Please click on any playlist to begin.

  • Holst - into orbit with The Planets

    An activating playlist from Gustav Holst's The Planets. We move from the calm of Venus through the joy of Jupiter to the majestic energy of Mars

  • Swing and Jazz - get me swinging

    The greatest swing and jazz artists to get your feet tapping and your mood flying, including Louis Armstrong, Nat King Cole and Cab Calloway, and a not-so- hidden Christmas theme good for any time of the year

  • Vivaldi - an enlivening journey with The Seasons through the ages

    Here is an enlivenment programme moving from relaxed to activated, progessing in zig-sag fashion through different interpretations of Vivaldi's Seasons, ordered by increasing arousal, from authentic Baroque to Romantic arrangements to Nigel Kennedy with the Berlin Philharmonic

  • The Musicals 1 - getting moving

    an uplifting list from Edelweis to The Rum Rum Tugger, with Julie Andrews, Judy Garland and others

  • Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Rimsky Korsakov - liven up with Russian dance and romance

    Russian ballets and tone poems from Mussorgsky, Rimsky Korsakov and Tchaikovsky

  • The musicals 2 - activation list

    a step-by-step activation list from Memory to Moon River to Macavity and the Wizard of Oz

  • Queen - turn up the radio

    A list that proves that Freddie Mercury and Queen could do it all: from wistful, heart-rending ballads like Love Of My Life to the irresistible anthems Another One Bites The Dust and I Want To Break Free.

  • The Smiths - Johnny Marr's uplifting guitars

    A playlist that showcases the razor sharp lyrics and heavenly, jangling guitars that made the Smiths' sound like nobody else before, through songs like Girlfriend In A Coma, Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now and This Charming Man.

  • Paul Simon - strum me happy

    A playlist revealing the many shades of Paul Simon: from the sublime acoustic mood of Rene and Georgette Magritte With Their Dog After The War, via the one of music's finest snare drum parts in 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover, to the upbeat horns and percussion of You Can Call Me Al.

  • Daft Punk - beam me up

    Beam yourself up with the outer space funk of Daft Punk

  • Monty Python - pick me up

    This playlist takes us from the most subdued of the Pythons (a rare thing) in Galaxy Song through honky-tonk classics like Always Look On The Bright Side Of Life to the red-faced Disco beats of His Name Is Launcelot. But please be ready for strong language and fearless humour.

  • The Beatles - getting going

    increasingly enlivening songs from the early-, mid- and late Beatles

  • Coldplay - propel me with plagal harmony

    Follow Coldplay's plagal harmonies from dreamy added note chords to upbeat Rock/Ballad riffs

  • Elton John - energise with Elton

    Gently energise with a sanguine and serendipitous senior songsmith

  • Earth Wind & Fire - energise me

    Earth Wind & Fire energise us with an uplifting trip around Soul, Funk, R&B and Disco

  • Kylie Minogue - crescendo playlist

    Kylie Minogue evolved from the girl-next door in Neighbours into a Pop star.... but then suddenly morphed quite wonderfully into a big-hearted music goddess. Here she crescendos from the gentle syncopations of Flower to the almost Dance-like beats of Come Into My World

  • Dionne Warwick - wake me up

    Dionne Warwick wakes us up with a crossover from gentle Jazz ballads to Disco beats

  • James Brown - re-generate

    Liven up and re-generate with the generous great grandfather of Funk

  • Marvin Gaye - get me going

    The great Marvin Gaye begins with sweet orchestral sounds in I Won't Cry Anymore, then gets us going with Lucky Lucky Me, to prepare us for the hardest core of Motown in This Love Starved Heart Of Mine

  • Frank Sinatra - get swinging with Swoonatra

    A Frank Sinatra playlist moving from the most mellow of moments, like Autumn Leaves or Night and Day, to upbeat numbers such as I've Got You Under My Skin or Castle Rock

  • Maroon 5 - fire up with the five

    The popular all-American boys begin in almost ecclesiastic mode with Secret, then fire us up with tracks like Harder To Breathe and and Get Back In My Life