Learning to Dance in the Rain...

So, if anyone has been following my blog or Facebook page, you might have noticed that my updates have been far and few between.  Let me put it to you straight—life came crashing in!  Yeah, yeah, it’s all part of “growing up.”  I’ve been fortunate enough to live relatively close to my parents and am able to rely on them for watching my kids occasionally… until recently.  Don’t want to scare anyone, my parents are okay.  They’re just out of town.  Which means that all the childcare I normally had for school time, field work, working, subbing, and band practice… well, it’s just not there.  Rick and I have been combining our forces, but being a working parent is hard!  It doesn’t help that I’m a habitual multi-tasker.  But what are you going to do?  Life goes on!

It has been a challenge to stay on course over the last three weeks.  I believe that this is the toughest hurdle I have encountered.  What I have come to realize though, is that I can do it.  And one of the things that helps me barrel through the chaos and overcome the challenge is MUSIC.  Don’t neglect that power of a good beat!

Have you ever had those times when you’re doing something so mundane, like washing the dishes, and five minutes feels like an eternity?  But then you put on some good tunes, and suddenly, not only has time sped by, but your dishes got done too? 

There actually is something to this “magic.”  It’s called an “ergogenic aid.”  “An ergogenic aid is anything outside you body that boosts physical or mental performance, either by increasing your capacity to perform, removing psychological constraints to performance, or speeding your recovery after exertion,” explains Dr. Wayne Scott Andersen in his book Dr. A’s Habits of Health.  He goes on further to explain how music actually helps distract from any discomfort and enhances performance.  That would probably explain why I feel like I can pretty much do anything whenever I’m blasting Eye of the Tiger by Survivor.

I never realized that within my own brain I was setting up “psychological constraints,” but it’s true!  When I put on a rockin’ beat or a smooth, calming instrumental (for my studies) I’m distracted from those barriers and pass them before I realize I’m through.

So my encouragement this week, as I sit here, blogging after making a birthday cake for my daughter’s 4^th birthday tomorrow, and listening to my “writing” playlist--- when life gets crazy, take a moment, breathe, put on a good tune, and get back at it.  As Vivian Greene so famously said, “Life isn’t about waiting for the storms to pass.  It’s about learning to dance in the rain.”  Why not add music to help the process?