Years ago, I stumbled upon a beautiful passage on the subject of melancholy, by way of a Swedish website that sells raincoats (go figure). Shared below, it's an empowering statement on a complex emotion that's too often confused or dismissed as a simple sadness. This isolation playlist features some of my favorite artists who allow me to fully sink into this state of mind. I invite you to listen through with your first cup of coffee in the morning. Hopefully the songs tug on your heart strings just the right amount.

"Feeling blue inspires creativity. Being melancholic is an essential part of being a human being. If we try too hard to get rid of melancholy it’s almost like we’re settling for a half-life. To embrace melancholy is ultimately to embrace joy.

Melancholy shouldn’t be confused with depression. Melancholy is an active state. When we’re melancholic, we feel uneasy with the way things are, the status quo, the conventions of our society. We yearn for a deeper, richer relationship with the world. And in that yearning, we’re forced to explore the potential within ourselves – a potential we might not have explored if we were simply content.

Through our melancholy we come up with new ways of seeing the world and new ways of being in the world. Melancholy and creativity go together like ebony and ivory on a piano."

-via Stutterheim