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Students and Staff team up to create the ultimate stress relief playlist

Friday, 25 April, 2025

Bath Spa University students and staff have teamed up to create the ultimate chillout playlist for World Mental Health Day, combining song suggestions from across the university community.

Music is a powerful tool that can be used to combat feelings of stress and anxiety, making this playlist an important collaboration at a key time in the university calendar. April also marks Stress Awareness Month and the BSU Student Wellbeing Services team quickly came up with the idea of creating a Spotify playlist that all students and staff can access in order to relax, discover new tracks and simply lift their mood.

The playlist, available to listen to on Spotify, is a combination of suggestions by students and staff and includes classics songs from a range of artists including Rhianna, Hozier and Coldplay.

Speaking about the playlist, Bath Spa University Mental Health Advisor Tracie Walsh said:

“I think music is a really great way to lift each other up so it's great that we're doing this. I find that music is helpful in one of the main fundamentals of mental health: connection. It's connecting with self and connecting with others. If we push down our emotions, they can pop up in negative ways, so the more we're in touch with what's happening within ourselves, the better our mental health is.”

Swedish sensations ABBA are featured the most times on the playlist, with students referencing the band as the provider of ultimate feel-good tracks. 

Music is proven to have a positive influence on mood and, with final assessments and dissertations deadlines coming up, the playlist aims to provide a relaxing break from the stresses of life, both inside and out of university.

Touching on the practical benefits of music on mental health, Tracie continued:

“Music can release endorphins, but it can also help with pain, elevating your mood and lowering cortisol, which is our stress hormone. Physically, music can really help whether you're listening or creating music.”

The BSU Spotify playlist is available to listen to now!

Looking for more song recommendations? The BSU Instagram account recently asked staff what they would pick as their ultimate stress relief song.