Music has a deeper meaning

The very first thing you hear in your life is a heart beat. When you’re laying there in your mothers womb, you can hear her heart beat. Some soon to be parents will put head phones to the mothers stomach and play classics in hopes that it helps their child’s brain development. From such an early age (in some cultures before you’re even born) you’re hearing and feeling a beat. Music isn’t just something we enjoy and listen to it is something that we can’t live without. Even in the most simple sense of the word, it surrounds us and it fills our lives. Disagree with me all you’d like, but I just want to ask a few questions…

First, describe music…  Webster’s dictionary says, “The science or art of ordering tones or sounds in succession, in combination, and in temporal relationships to produce a composition having unity and continuity.” I’d like to challenge this thought though. In life, think of where you hear a recurring beat, or series of different notes that sounds beautiful. More than likely, you woke up to this sound this morning. Birds chirping is such a common occurrence, and that sound can be recalled across the world over more than likely. Birds singing a song just outside your window is one of the sweetest sounding things to wake up to. Their music is sweet and lovely and falls softly on awakening ears. On the other end of that spectrum, your alarm clock makes music, now, I know everyone might agree it’s horrible sounding music, but it is still music. As simple as it may be, one repetitive note hammered continuously until your still asleep body slaps the clock until it falls back to sleep as well. 

So there you have it, almost immediately in your day you’re introduced to song/music/rhythm or whatever you wish to call it. It surrounds you and you can’t escape music.

Why did I bring this up? It’s fairly simple really, and I’d love to explain it here in the following paragraphs. Many people hate or are disgusted with life. They fail to find beauty in the simplest places and they struggle to enjoy what happy moments they have. Now, everyone should have their favorite genre of music. And speaking from a psychological stand point, that genre of music more than likely have a direct correlation to how you live. Take myself for example, I listen to basically all indie/acoustic music. Many people say I’m a down to earth rooted kind of guy. Through the issues I’ve had I find the lyrical content and the emotion expressed through it soothing. I get lost in thought with some songs as they really express the feelings that I had failed to describe earlier in life. My favorite music really influences me in life as I’m “chill” and I just go with what happens generally. (I’m anything but hipster, I’m just going to put that out there. I’m not cool enough to be a hipster.) Now let me tell you about an old high school “friend” all he did with his life was drink monster, and would listen to heavy metal and basically scream-o music. Now, don’t get me wrong, I see absolutely no issues with liking that music and chugging monster (I drink Red Bull a lot), but I’m using them as an example to display how music influences your life. Now when I say they listen to that kind of music, I mean that’s all they listened to, and it showed. They were a fairly aggressive and violent person. Their persona, being a big tough person, came from the music they listened to, they couldn’t let basic things roll off them, they’d just get pissed and want to fight you. 

Some time ago, I was in the car with my parents listening to my phone as a normal teen would do, and my dad made the comment of “You should listen to this, it’ll cure what ails ya” talking about the radio station he was turning up (Smile Fm, a Christian radio station). Now, I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with Christian music, but it doesn’t do much for me, just reminds me not of how holy but it reminds me of how hole-y I am. I’m a sinner, I’m a broken person and that music doesn’t help me with my emotions, where as Indie does, it helps me but what I feel into words because I fail with words. What I’m getting at is this though, music will cure what ails you. Whether you listen to emo-punk, goth, indie, rap, country, christian, R&B, or classical, or anything else for the matter, it will help you. You were born to the sound of a beat, a rhythm. You wake up to one as well, and you’re surrounded daily by music. So take some time, listen to music that really touches you. Lay in a field with some headphones in and just get lost in the sound, or get lost in the music nature has supplied. No matter what, music is around you and it is a necessity in life. In history you see music was used as a way to preserve stories for later generations. Now, with so many different instruments, and genres, and musicians, and ways to listen, you should have no problem finding some music that you like. I also think it’s interesting, and would like to see you pay attention to it, how does the music you listen to influence our life? How you act and respond to people. I’d love to know if the music you listen to actually effects you. So try a new genre, you listen to rap all the time? Listen to some classical and see how you feel, see how you begin to think. 

That’s it, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoy some music today, whether it is the birds singing, the rhythm your car makes as you go down the free way, or from the radio in your car. Enjoy life “little” things, like music.

Presence Of Purpose

Sorry for the delay, life really sweeps you off your feet and keeps you busy sometimes. Well, here it is though, the latest installment of my thoughts onto a page. I hope you enjoy and find my thoughts riveting and provoking, and I hope they get you thinking about some things yourself.

The presence of purpose is often absent. Many people at a young age are called to what they want to be, and honestly it scares me. There are kids that at the age of 15 know exactly what they want to do with their life's. Now, after my minimal studies of the human brain, the brain isn't fully developed until 25. So kids, 10 years before their brain is developed has made up their ever changing mind on what they want to be... Now, I'm certainly not saying it is impossible, I'm just saying it's unlikely they'll enjoy what they do as much as they thought would. So why is it that we put so much pressure on "children" (in mental development 18 year olds could very well be considered a child). Within in a few years, these adolescents will go from having to ask to use the restroom to deciding what they want to do with their lives. With those types of expectations it's no wonder that many college kids seem to burn out and get swept away in the party scene rather than the education scene.

So, what is the purpose of this post? Well, it's actually to help people understand the purpose of life... Or, honestly, the lack there of. I've struggled constantly with the idea of purpose. "What am I here for?" "What am I good at?" "What will I ever do with my life?" as I'm sure many of you reading have experienced as well. I'm just going to put it out there now, this is absolutely not an answer to possibly the number one issue that people my age face. This, is simply my testimony as to the things I found as I searched for a purpose to my life. Here goes nothing;

I ponder the questions of my mind constantly, and often times my thought process is more just a fix to a problem or an reason for an action rather than a conversation, even with myself. Well, I had the question of purpose get smashed to the front of my brain, and I had no choice but to think about it. What caught me off guard was the fact I had a conversation in my mind rather than my mind just giving me an answer... You know what I realized? I had no clue what I wanted to do with my life. After just coming out of some hard times, I felt like I had so many doors in front of me but every single one was shut and locked. Even now, I constantly stand before doors with a sign hanging on it saying what I could do if I had the key to this door, and in my hand was a key chain chocked full of keys.

The idea that I'm getting at is this, even though I have no clue what I want with my life, I went with my feelings or thoughts at the time. Previously I'd been involved greatly with the financial field so I pursued a career in finance. Now, I'm pursuing a PhD in Psychology. Massive difference, but as my brain developed I understood better what impacted me on a more personal level. When thinking about Econ, all I see are dollar signs. When I think about Psychology I see something greater. I see potential to grow a field through research of ideas that people previously thought inconceivable. What led me to pursue this dream in Psychology was actually my girlfriend. She pointed out to me how much I seemed to enjoy reading Psych books, and how excited I got when given the chance to talk about them. Now, I'm proof that the mind changes, just a couple years ago I'd been this devoted to Econ as I am now to Psych. Well, I wasn't 25 yet. Honestly though, I don't think that number really matters. There's always new things being revealed and you're learning new things.

You see the point I'm getting to? Like I talked about previously, learning massive amounts about a subject that most people wouldn't bat an eyelash at is something that I constantly do. As I learned more about certain things, I found that I enjoyed certain things more than others. Well, I try not to fret about the future too much, I try to enjoy the process of getting to that point. Honestly, I haven't got the slightest clue as to what I really will be doing with my life, but I know that where ever this winding road takes me, I'll be happy. It may seem sometimes I'm going aimlessly about, but trust me, there is a method to my madness, and that madness is actually enjoying the journey more than wondering about the destination. That is what I think is key to life. Life's purpose is to enjoy it. So like those burnt out college students who don't have a clue what they are doing (or where they are when they wake up the morning after big party) enjoy the process of finding where you're headed to. Some of you may be headed to a big office high in a skyscraper, others may be headed to a simple desk job, and others may be headed to a life in the manual labor force building the buildings that business people will work in. No matter what you end up being or doing with life, all of our lives have the same destination, and sadly that's death. Your job? Is going to just be a part of the journey, so why not enjoy the journey, cause in reality we all know where we are headed.

Enjoy life, do what you love to do and I promise you will not be disappointed with the way things turn out. I'm reminded of a funny movie that I love to go back and watch, "Accepted". It's about Bartleby who creates a college after getting denied from every college he applied to. He has no clue what he wants to be, but through the journey he figures out his place. He's a pioneer of a university and a new way of learning. There are some parts of the movie that are off but over all it's a funny and good movie to see.

So there, sorry for babbling on, I hope this all made sense. So, if you're like me and unsure what you really will be doing or achieving in your life, I pray you find a way to enjoy the journey.