OK, so it is Monday morning and I am back in front of my computer and I am trying to get my mind in the mood to write to you. I do the usual, check my social media, check Q4fit social posts, email, and then, get down to writing.
Nope, the computer needs to be restarted. As it restarts, I push myself to do the other things that will help me focus. I light a great smelling candle, I close the door to lessen the outside noises and then I put on some music.
Now, I have truly done all the procrastinating I can do, time to type and yet I still get distracted. This time it’s my music. I chose playlist that I actually love. I tend to sing along. Not normally a bad thing, but when I am writing, I need to get my creative brain to focus on just those thoughts and I have learned over the time that I have been writing that if the music has too many words, I actually tend to listen to them and lose focus on what I am writing.
So, as my mind wanders, I think about music itself. I love music. I have it on all the time. I change it according to my moods and the only time that I am not listening is when I am out hiking, that's when I like to listen to the birds. What is it about music that draws me in. I did a little research.
Although music is not essential to surviving, it can have the same response in our brains as food, gambling, drugs, and even sex. Oh, my! That explains a lot. There have been several studies done lately that all come to the same conclusion. As they have studied music and the brain they have actually been able to see the chemical changes and have seen the release of dopamine and elevations in serotonin.
Studies have even gone so far as to show that at the base of this phenomenon is rhythm and tone. When we listen to a rhythm, our heart actually begins to synch with it. A slow heartbeat with a strong diastolic pressure tells our brain that something sad or depressing is occurring. Cool. Plus if upbeat music produces a psychological response that stimulates the sympathetic nervous system, then they predict that the mental and physical connection in the body will cause upbeat music to increase our heart rate and blood pressure, and calm music will decrease our heart rate and blood pressure.
This all makes so much sense. We can associate music with our youth, with movies, people, and moods we had while listening to music. So after learning all that, what are you listening to?
- When I am at my most creative, I need music without words.
- When I am baking, I want high energy, fun music.
- When it’s house cleaning day, again, high energy, sometimes some music from my kids' childhood, or movies that I love, or my high school rock.
- When I am editing, or otherwise working in my office it needs to be soft, but easy to listen to. Sometimes it needs to remind me of places we have traveled to, so background music you will find in a hotel.
- Then there are the times that I need to feel like I am in the tropics, so fun, Caribbean tunes.
- But in the gym, it needs to be loud and high energy. Now I know why I need that. Sometimes, it’s the music that makes me want to continue working out.
So my advice to you is to find your music that makes you the most happy, crank it and get your heart rate up. Get a great set of headphones, or speakers, but get the tunes cranked.
Once I am finished my tasks today, I think I will make a new playlist on my spotify to get me charged up again.
Music is therapy. Music moves people. It connects people in ways that no other medium can. It pulls heart strings. It acts as medicine. – Macklemore
