Effects of Music

In the cold months, it's hard trying to stay active. It's easy to set goals yet somehow be convinced that it's just not the best day to start the new diet, exercise program, or whatever.

Over the past few months, I've been targeting different areas in my life that I need changing. It's been a few weeks since I've begun cleaning up my diet; time has come to start incorporating some kind of exercise. I've managed to hop on the treadmill for a few minutes a day. A great aid in this goal has been music. I plop the headphones over my ears, plug them into my phone and press play. It seems that music makes my heart rate increase just as much as walking does. Oh wouldn't that be so nice to sit down, play some music and watch yourself get into shape? If only.

Quick digression: headphones are the BEST medium to listen to music. They are suctioned to your ears, cutting out all outside noises and encompass you with music. You not only feel the music, but you feel the instrument, the beat, the notes, the strings, the percussion, the vocals--all of it. It's quite emotional. In fact, it's a little dangerous being on the treadmill at the same time--enactment of the music can't help but come out through your arms and legs flying this way and that, pulling in close to your heart and flinging outward as you lip sink "I give my ALLLLL, to youuu!"



I can't tell you how many times this has happened!

But even when I sit down at the computer to blog or email, I might get a hankering for music. The tv is always on, so adding another noise in the mix is never soothing, only more chaotic. Solution: headphones! I slide them over my ears and get lost in some Kevin Kern, Celtic Thunder, or the like. And most times, I forget that they're up there....

But, back to music. When listening to a new song, I almost always hear the words before the melody. Determining whether I like a song or not, Lyrics trump Melody. It hasn't always been that way, but as I age and the story of the song actually begins to mean something to me, I find I like the song even more because of the words (or not, if I don't like them).

So there I was the other morning, on the treadmill, headphones on, when there came a familiar tune. I almost skipped the song because it's one of those that you wouldn't think you could really "jam" to on a treadmill. It's one of those "inspirationals" that I used to hear all the time--so for me, it's kinda gotten old. But, I hadn't heard it in a while, and it was a different rendition, so I let it play. I forced the original version out of my head and listened to this new one. The soft lyrics began pouring into my ears:

When I am down

and, oh

my soul, so weary;

(At this early moment, my eyes began welling up)

When troubles come

and

my heart burdened be;

(Bawling)

Then, I am still

and

wait here in the silence

 Until you come

and

sit a while with me.

You raise me up,

(My enactment begins!)

so I can stand on mountains;

 You raise me up, to walk on stormy seas;

 I am strong, when I am on your shoulders;

You raise me up

To more than I can be.

With headphones, you can hear everything so clearly. You can hear the quiet moments, you feel the building crescendo; the soft and almost silent "s" on the end of words tugs on my heart strings and pushes out of my skin through the hairs on my arm, leaving me with goosebumps. The drums set the beat for my heart while I passionately stomp one foot after the other, truly feeling that I am being raised to more than I really am; that I am standing on mountains seeing this life for what it really is; that I am sitting atop shoulders, raised to see from Another's perspective the little specks we are in the grand scheme of things. And I am no longer feeling weary; no longer burdened, but comforted.  

As the song ended with a blast, a new one began. Engines starting. Engines revving. Suddenly, the keyboard blasts: "bah bu-bah buh!...ba-buh bah bah buh!" The Final Countdown. I could not have planned the sequence any better myself!