Impetus to move

There's many things that moves a human being to feeling, and there's many feelings people experience: Hate, love, fear, happiness, sadness, desperation, courage, boredom, desire, love, pity, shame, disgust, honour, anxiety, envy, contempt, amusement, loneliness, compassion, greed and hubris, sorrow, depression, pride, awe, offended...you get the idea I think. Events and situations in life, thoughts and attitudes and, of course, other people, lead us to feel such things and through them we are led to thought, decisions and action and so the cycle begins again.

One of the things that moves most humans is music, and thanks to the limbic system in our brains, a system that helps process emotion and memory, hearing music moves us to think and feel things.

Imagine hearing this song at a moment in your life when you've just experienced a major disappointment and were already feeling lost, doubtful and a little fragile when it came to your sense of self. Would it improve your mood, emotions and thoughts, or would it magnify them leaving you feeling worse?

Now imagine yourself heading to a friends place on Saturday evening for some food and drinks and to hang out with some great friends to farewell one of them before they take an extended working holiday overseas for a year. You're in the Uber car listening to your playlist and this track comes on. Do you think it'd make you feel happy or sad, put you in a good mood to spend a fun evening with your friends or leave you feeling depressed and unwilling to even go and hang out?

I once listened to this music all day driving around in my car doing my job prior to going go-kart racing. I used to race go-karts years earlier and was always focused and very intent upon the goal of winning at the time. I took no prisoners out on track and whilst I raced cleanly was committed and didn't need much to get me in the mood. How do you think listening to this music would have made me feel all day and especially when I was sitting in the go-kart with my visor down? I can tell you, hyped up! Racing around at over 100kph in a go-kart that sits an inch off the ground with this track running through my head...well, let's just say there was carnage...visited upon other racers.

Music is one of those extraordinary things that moves us to feelings and emotions and also away from them and towards better thoughts and actions. I've turned to it in the past for inspiration, not just through listening to it but through creating it as I played my piano, or the bass guitar and trumpet in a jazz band back in the day. I'm not in a band these days, but I play my piano still, and listen to music every single day of my life. I'd feel quite lost without it.

Do you have a particular track that moves you? Maybe you've got a track you think I might like to hear? Feel free to comment below and drop the links, or just comment in general if you'd like.