Finding Motivation through Music
Exercising more often, it’s a common goal and a lot of people struggle to pull it off. There are various things that can trip a person up in successfully showing up for exercise on a regular basis. One of those things is strategy, i.e. how much set up time does it require? Another hurdle is motivation.
You have to want to exercise. Or you have to learn that once you drag yourself through the first few minutes of your session you’ll enjoy yourself and you’ll be rewarded with the feeling of success that comes from showing up in support of your goal.
I found for myself that the hardest part of an exercise session is starting. There seems to be something about shifting my state from sedentary to warmed up and sweating that makes it a tough hurdle to get over.
I want to share what I’m finding works for me.
I noticed that there are some pieces of music that just make me want to move.
Whether I’m in the car or cooking dinner, when one of these songs comes on it either fills me with energy or makes me want to start stepping to the beat.
It’s the perfect psychology hack. If you can think of a bit of music that makes you want to move you can start to listen to it while warming your body up for exercise. You can even make a playlist for your whole exercise session. Whether it’s Strauss’s Blue Danube or Alice in Chains “Man in the Box”, there is no accounting for taste. We all like what we like and feel what we feel.
It’s worth noticing next time you’re listening to music if you hear something that energizes you.
Which brings me to my next point about fitness, music and motivation.
What’s it all for?
Why do we want to have bodies that can do both amazing and mundane things with ease and grace? Obviously it’s so that we can look great in a bathing suit and be judged as worthy by our fellow humans, right?
But seriously, why be fit? Why be mobile and strong, with power and endurance?
It’s not about how we look.
Movement is part of our expression as living beings in a material world. The purpose of fitness is so that we have more options for how we bring our expression into this world.
Dancing feels better than limping.
The greater capacity we have for movement the greater the range of options we have for our expression.
The more rigid and immobile we are the fewer pathways we have for our expression.
Dancing, either figuratively or literally, is us sharing our essence, through our work, through our art and through our movement and how we live our lives.
The dance itself is how our inner life manifests in an embodied way in the environment that we are embedded in.
So, the next time you are struggling to start your exercise session, put on one of those special songs, and just start dancing.
And although I feel a little vulnerable sharing, here is a link to my personal exercise playlist. These are the songs that either fill me with energy or make me want to move. Like I said, there’s no accounting for taste. 🙂
