Perception is Everything

Ever heard of the old adage, "Life is 20% of what happens to us and 80% of how we view it"? Then this blog post is dedicated to you!

I've been exercising a bit more heartily lately (read: I've taken up jogging, again) and I've realized that listening to the same songs on my MP3 player over and over again is taking a toll on my morale. Frankly, if I can't lose myself in the music, then I start wondering why I'm moving a muscle at all and I start thinking about how I could be watching a movie or surfing the web, etc... You get the picture.

So, it's no surprise that ScienceDaily.com had an article for my perusing -- on the subject of how music changes our way of thinking. In fact, the study they carried out had participants seeing smiley faces where there were none. Click on the link for the details on the study. In a nutshell, participants perceived positive emotions in their environment simply by listening to upbeat music. Actually, this doesn't surprise me a great deal, but it still speaks volumes for why I want to update my playlist. If I can get into the groove of jogging simply by making my music experience more upbeat, then I'm on it! Excuse me, I've got work to do...