My Unexpected Taylor Experience

I’m prone to cry when 28 primary school kids sing on the stage at assembly. No wonder I’m sitting here, one week after seeing Taylor Swift perform in Melbourne, watching a completely illegal YouTube video of the show and crying my eyes out. What could have possibly prepared me for being in the presence of 96,000 adorable humans, singing every single word to every single song, for three and a half hours? Nothing. It was immense.

Total nervous system overload

So the reality is, we need to train for these types of events, to be able to absorb, enjoy and be fully present for them. I was the opposite of prepared. I’ve lived in a country town for 11 of the last 12 years and deliberately created a low stimulation, nature-based lifestyle. Sure, there’s been overseas trips (2) and the occasional visit to Perth to see a musical, but really, it’s been a quiet and low-key decade or so. A ‘bush-walk-and-cup-of-tea-with-a-friend life’.

My daughter scored tickets ten days out and I got the call-up. It was a challenge for me to even get my head around saying yes and booking flights. Spontaneity and I are not friends. Thank gawd my darling friend in Melbourne agreed to accommodate us. That was a huge relief. Thanks for the millionth time Fleur. We were slightly nervous about the legitimacy of our tickets until we got them safely downloaded and even then, not fully convinced they were going to work. Hah! My nervous system was on high alert before we even left Perth. This was a huge dream come true for our girl, so there was a lot riding on us getting into the show. Eek!

Anyway, it all went to plan and we both did a little celebration jig when the high tech turnstile let us in. Oh my goodness, the relief. And then, we still had five and a half hours to get through, oh sorry, enjoy.

I actually really love Taylor Swift and know a few of her songs, but I’m definitely not Swifty material and large crowds and loud music are not so appealing for me these days. Boy was I in for an experience!

Joy quotient set-points

There’s this idea that’s been floating around for a while but I first read about it in Miranda Macpherson’s (formerly Holden) incredible book, “Boundless Love”, which is that we have a ‘joy quotient set-point’ established in our upbringing or dependent on our individual capacity to take in new experiences. What happens when we feel an amount of joy well above any prior experience, is that we experience a range of reactions. For me, as an Autistic person, it’s a feeling of going inwards and shutting down. For others, including many neurokin, it also might look like becoming irritable and nitpicky, argumentative, having an emotional outburst or a meltdown.

It seems that our brains and nervous systems can’t cope with high intensity joy, in a similar way to how we react when something is really scary or shocking. So weird, I know. Makes sense though doesn’t it? It’s an unfamiliar, extreme experience that feels overwhelming.

So even though my Taylor experience was overwhelmingly positive, it was still overwhelming and it challenged my joy set-point. Hence the crying a week later as I continued to process the incredible levels of joy my brain and body were immersed in that night.

New Earth frequencies and upgrades

And so, yep you guessed it, I have a spiritual perspective on the phenomenon that is Taylor Swift and this mega-tour she’s conducting around the planet. She brings people together in joyful celebration of feminine creativity, resilience, beauty, sexuality, power and compassion. She embodies all of this and inspires it in her fans. She is a freakin’ powerhouse of a 34 year-old woman. Head of a multi-billion-dollar enterprise and an incredibly well-rounded and real role model for women and girls around the world. She’s not perfect and doesn’t give a sh*t that we know it.

She’s heading up a movement of feminine power that is sensitive, vulnerable and soft, as well as confident, independent and strong but not a masculinised version of femininity. She’s a strong woman who knows her worth and is prepared to share her heart through her music.

I can’t help but feel optimistic that at each Eras Tour show, we’re receiving energetic upgrades of a high magnitude and that each individual gets to carry it away with them in their energy body. I definitely felt it. This is of course happening at other musical and arts events too, where people gather in joy, fun, connection, unrestrained self-expression and free-spirited celebration. May we make more opportunities for this to occur, that don’t require such large emotional or financial investments for quiet little people like me.

But seriously, what are you feeling right now? Are you noticing any internal shifts in how you’re experiencing life? What’s calling to you these days? I’d love to know.