P.G. Snacks Personal Growth in bitesize chunks

Using music to get into your desired state of mind.

Do you remember the last time a piece of music gave you goosebumps? Was it a great soundtrack while watching a movie or some lyrics that sounded almost as they had been written just for you? Countless styles of music have emerged these days, something you might say. But one thing that all of them share is that they seem to be able to touch the people that listen to them on a far deeper -almost primal- level. You may be brought to tears, feel like you are in love, get inspired, get fired up to make a change or even compelled to destroy the next thing that gets in your way. Somehow music is able to tap into our being on a much deeper level then words can.

Getting in a state of mind

So now that I just told you something you already knew, let’s start working with it. What does a specific genre of music put you up to? Would you wake up better to a smooth jazz record or some hardrock tunes? I guess most of you would prefer waking up to some slower, softer sounds. But how about tearing down a wall in your house or a tree in your garden?
I’m not sure if you have been following the 2010 olympics or not, but one thing I noticed (especially with this post growing in my mind) was how those athletes were preparing for their events. Pretty much all of them were wearing headphones and using visualization to get into the state of mind that would allow them to perform record-breaking feats of strength and agility. They were trying to condition themselves so that they would surpass themselves in the hope of that being enough to surpass their competitors.

What are you preparing for?

Are you feeling slow when you actually want to go fast? Or are you nervously twitching when you actually wish you could slow down? Do you want to construct or destroy things?
Go find a piece of music that matches your desired state of mind and put it on, on your stereo or your mp3 player. I remember Steve Pavlina talking about “if you want to become something, you have to radiate the energy of the thing you want to become”. This is closely related to a Zen saying I heard from Wan Qi Kim some years back: “Ever thing is what it is because it has the energy to be that thing”. Music is a tool that can help you to start radiating that desired energy faster and thus becoming the thing you desire to be.

Feel what works

There’s no one genre that works for something. Maybe a reggae record wants you to chill out and smoke some pot or maybe it makes you want to cause havoc with a sledgehammer. It’s completely unimportant what piece of music it is, as long as it gets you in the state of mind you want to be in.

On a personal note;
I love to listen to John Mayer records when I want to slow down and relax for a quiet dinner. But highly contrasting I can enjoy the super-fast, energetic tunes from a Power Metal album to get my ass moving when I’m feeling slow. I enjoy some classic Japanese pan-flute tunes to quiet my mind for my meditations. I’ve given classical music a try for studying purposes but it never really did it for me. I enjoy late summer nights in my hammock with some reggae music and get shivers listening to heroic adventure movie soundtracks. Owh, and if I flip on an Enya record I’m sleeping like a baby in less than 15 minutes, lol

I hope these short examples show you that there’s no right and no wrong way to go. No matter how diverse your “tastes” in music may be, what’s important is that it works for YOU.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you next time you’re craving for a P.G. Snack