October started with monsters. Not the kind hiding under the bed or wandering around in old horror movies. The more ordinary kind. Jealousy. Resentment. Anger. Pettiness. Envy. Selfishness. Judgment. Need. The desire to be noticed. The desire to be right. The thoughts and reactions that make us stop and think, “Well… THAT wasn’t my finest moment.”
The theme this month was Making Peace With Your Shadow, and the question underneath it was simple: What parts of ourselves have we decided are ugly, frightening or unacceptable, and what happens when we dare to look at them?
We explored the idea that we need to start with the masks we wear and the ways we edit ourselves for other people. Then turn inward and start recognizing the things we would rather not admit are there. Recognition isn’t the end of the story, though. Once something is out in the light, we should get curious about it. Maybe anger is pointing toward a boundary. Maybe resentment is telling us something has become unbalanced. Maybe jealousy is revealing a desire we haven’t wanted to admit. Maybe something we have condemned deserves a second look.
Sometimes we really are just being petty. 😂 That absolutely belongs in the conversation, too.
The songs considered for October’s Magnolia Morning Radio Reflections approached these ideas from very different directions. Some look at the versions of ourselves we show the world. Some stare directly at the uncomfortable things we recognize in ourselves. Others ask what might happen if we stop immediately condemning whatever we find.
As always, these aren’t meant to be the only interpretations of these songs. Absolutely feel free to bring your own.
Listen for the one that makes you uncomfortable. The one that reminds you of somebody you used to be. The one that makes you recognize something you’d rather not. The one that suddenly means something different because of where it sits beside another song.
Mostly, just listen. See what finds you.
Listen to the full Perspective Playlist on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1tTqBTUwcDbkZbh3cvDOkJ
Prefer YouTube? Listen to the full playlist here:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdDXonmF4myY
👉 Want to add your own song to the conversation? 👈
Here’s something new and I think could be super fun! I also created an October Perspective Playlist mixtape on LinkTapes. This one is a little different. You can listen to the songs already there, read the short notes about why each one belongs, and add a song of your own that speaks to you somewhere inside this month’s conversation! 😍 Maybe it’s a song about the mask you wear. Maybe it brings up something uncomfortable. Maybe it helps you look at part of yourself differently. Whatever it is, add it to the tape and tell us why it belongs.
📼 Join The Perspective Playlist: October 2026 on LinkTapes
The playlist doesn’t have to end with just the songs I chose! I’m excited to see what y’all add!
Side Note: All titles that follow the 🎧 emoji were actually used in that week’s Magnolia Morning Radio Reflection post. You’ll find the link to the original reflection before the official video/audio link.
🎧 Messy — Lola Young
When the definition of “acceptable” changes depending on who is looking, trying to become the version of ourselves everyone will approve of can leave us hiding more and more of who we actually are.
You can find the original MMR Reflection inspired by this song here:
https://mentalmagnolia.com/is-that-not-allowed/
Official video: https://youtu.be/k-k2_Liofy8
Through Glass — Stone Sour
What we see from the outside is never the whole person, and the image we present to the world can become another surface people look through without ever seeing what is underneath.
Official video: https://youtu.be/GIzDsGyxsQM
You’re Somebody Else — flora cash
Sometimes the distance between who we are and who we have learned to present becomes large enough that even we begin to wonder which version is real.
Official video: https://youtu.be/AzjMmwki1Fs
Secrets — OneRepublic
There can be relief in setting down the carefully managed version of ourselves and admitting that being known requires allowing at least some of the unpolished truth to be seen.
Official video: https://youtu.be/qHm9MG9xw1o
Second Chance — Shinedown
Becoming more fully ourselves can mean disappointing expectations that were built around an earlier version of us and accepting that choosing our own direction may not make sense to everyone else.
Official video: https://youtu.be/WbsDPbr8qoM
From Down Here — Lola Young
How we see ourselves can change dramatically from the place we happen to be standing, particularly when insecurity, comparison or somebody else’s perspective has distorted the view.
Official video: https://youtu.be/N46TwoQjvAw
Jealousy — Lori McKenna
Jealousy, resentment, anger, judgment and other uncomfortable emotions become easier to understand only after we are willing to admit that they belong to us in the first place.
Official video: https://youtu.be/Yu2n38foUuQ
Anti-Hero — Taylor Swift
Self-awareness can require recognizing motives, impulses and contradictions we would rather assign to somebody else, but seeing our flaws clearly does not have to become a permanent indictment of who we are.
Official video: https://youtu.be/b1kbLwvqugk
jealousy, jealousy — Olivia Rodrigo
Comparison can bring out envy and resentment we may not be proud of, while also revealing just how easily somebody else’s life can become a measuring stick for our own.
Official video: https://youtu.be/EWXIOlmms84
Half a Man — Dean Lewis
Sometimes the parts of ourselves we struggle to accept become entangled with the belief that we are somehow incomplete, inadequate or less worthy because those parts exist.
Official audio: https://youtu.be/Kua2dDhqzZw
🎧 A Symptom of Being Human — Shinedown
Maybe some of the thoughts, feelings and contradictions we work so hard to hide aren’t evidence that something is wrong with us at all.
Maybe they’re evidence that we’re human.
You can find the original MMR Reflection inspired by this song here:
https://mentalmagnolia.com/symptom-of-being-human/
Official video: https://youtu.be/tmMOMK5c4EY
Dancing With Your Shadows — Phillip Phillips
Not everything within us needs to be conquered or erased; sometimes living more honestly means recognizing that light and shadow have always occupied the same person.
Official video: https://youtu.be/s0yhCqdbA0Y
🎧 Wish You Pain — Andy Grammer
Pain can bring out jealousy, resentment, anger, bitterness and other reactions we would rather bury, but looking at them with curiosity may reveal something we would have missed if shame made us look away too quickly.
You can find the original MMR Reflection inspired by this song here:
https://mentalmagnolia.com/maybe-it-goes-by-a-different-name/
Official video: https://youtu.be/BYjP85DQtqE
Maybe — Sick Puppies
“Maybe” leaves room between recognition and judgment, giving us permission to admit that our first explanation for why we feel or behave a certain way might not be the whole story.
Official video: https://youtu.be/oFhRowkNrTM
What It’s Like — Everlast
We know how incomplete our judgments of other people can be when we don’t know what they have lived through, yet we don’t always extend that same curiosity to ourselves.
Official video: https://youtu.be/nsAUZXiPYCM
Try — P!nk
When so much energy goes into becoming what we believe we are supposed to be, we can lose sight of the person underneath all that effort and the parts of ourselves that never needed permission to exist.
Official video: https://youtu.be/yTCDVfMz15M
Scars — Papa Roach
The things that have hurt us can become woven into how we see ourselves, but acknowledging the scars does not mean allowing them to define the entire person carrying them.
Official video: https://youtu.be/eHbNU9WuVgw
Living With the Whole Haunted House
October won’t end with an exorcism. We’re not dragging all the uncomfortable parts of ourselves into the light, eliminating them one by one and emerging as perfectly healed human beings with spotless emotional résumés. That was never the point.
Some things we discover about ourselves may need changing. Some may need managing. Some may need forgiving. Some may need accepting. Some may simply need understanding. And some may eventually become things we can laugh about.
Making peace with the whole of who we are doesn’t mean giving every feeling, impulse or personality trait permission to run the house. It simply means recognizing that they are already rooms in it.
We can acknowledge jealousy without letting it make our decisions. We can admit resentment without treating it as justification for cruelty. We can recognize anger and still choose what we do with it. We can discover selfishness, insecurity, judgment or pettiness without deciding that their existence cancels every generous, loving or compassionate thing about us. And maybe that’s where the monster metaphor finally falls apart. Because when we turn on the light and look closely enough, what we find usually isn’t a monster.
It’s just a person.
Complicated. Contradictory. Sometimes generous and sometimes selfish. Brave in one room and terrified in another. Capable of wisdom and spectacularly questionable judgment, occasionally within the same afternoon. 😂
We find the whole person.
Maybe making peace with our shadows isn’t about learning to love every single thing we find there.
Maybe it’s simply being able to say:
Yep. That’s in here too.
Now that I can see it…
what do I want to do with it?
🎧🌿
The Perspective Playlist: October 2026
A Magnolia Morning Radio Reflection
Listen to The Perspective Playlist on Spotify:
https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1tTqBTUwcDbkZbh3cvDOkJ
Official YouTube Playlist:
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLdDXonmF4myY
