Rock out to the song and read the ROCK THERAPY notes below...

Voice-over: When problems overwhelm us and sadness smothers us, where do we find the will and the courage to continue? Well, the answer may come in the caring voice of a friend, a chance encounter with a book, or from a personal faith. For Janet, her help came from her faith but it also came from a squirrel. Shortly after her divorce, Janet lost her father, then she lost her job, she had mounting money problems. But Janet not only survived, she worked her way out of despondency and now she says life is good again. She told me that late one autumn day when she was at her lowest, she saw a squirrel storing up nuts for the winter. One at a time, he would take them to the nest. And she thought, if that squirrel can take care of himself with a harsh winter coming on, so can I. Once I broke my problems into small pieces, I was able to carry them, just like those acorns, one at a time.

Take all your problems
And rip 'em apart
Carry them off
In a shopping cart

Another thing
You should've known from the start
The problems in hand
Are lighter than at heart

Be like the squirrel, girl
Be like the squirrel
Give it a whirl, girl
Be like the squirrel

And another thing
You have to know in this world
Cut up your hair
Straighten your curls
Well, your problems
Hide in your curls

Cool Song Trivia: Jack White had this to say about this song: "My brother, who works at a radio commercial distribution place, had been bringing around tapes for me to record on. I was recording a piano melody, and when I played it back, it had this guy speaking on the other track. Totally accidental. I based a song around his story." "It was perfectly in-time. How you're hearing it on the album is just how I heard it when it first happened, this accident. I wrote the rest of the song based around that story because I love that story. These sort of morality tales." "He's actually a famous news anchorman in Detroit, Mort Crim." "I found him and went to his office. I played it for him to get permission, to see if we could put it on the record, thinking he was gonna hate it. But he really liked it, so we were glad." "I thought he'd hate it. He loved it." —Source: http://editthis.info/stripespedia/Little_Acorns

Rock Therapy Lessons from This Song

Let the heavy riffs knock you out of being stuck and get moving on tackling your problems! This is one fantastic hard-rocking song with some great mindsets from one of my all-time fav bands.

Chunking It Down:"Take all your problems and rip 'em apart" Break big problems down into manageable parts. Carry them off and be done with them.

Take Action:"The problems in hand are lighter than at heart" To me this line means that while the problem is heavy on one's heart, it is much lighter when action is taken. Thus put the problem in your hand and do something about it. We do tend to feel better when we get past the fear, procrastination, avoidance, obsessing, despairing and take those first steps towards a solution. Letting it stay heavy on your heart leads to procrastination, which prolongs the problem and this the heaviness.

You can do it:"Be like the squirrel" The little squirrel one acorn at a time prepared for the big task of a long winter. You can, too. "Be like the squirrel, girl. Be like the squirrel."

See more resiliency-based songs of all genres at my "Musical First Aid Kit" collection: