The Music Fast Challenge

In college, for a music appreciation class, my professor had us do a 24-hr music fast. I absolutely love music and enjoy singing more than anything. I will listen to music simply to listen to it; however, most of my listening is background, or passive listening. I’ll have music going when I’m getting ready for the day. When I’m cleaning or dancing—loud, fun music has to be playing. Whenever I'm driving, there must be music. This part of the challenge wasn’t so hard for me, however—because at the time, I was in class or at work almost non-stop, and therefore couldn't listen to music.

So I added an additional challenge for myself--which was to not sing the entire day either. This was the real challenge. I love breaking out into song all the time. I sing in the shower and I sing around the house. This was difficult because I sing sometimes not even realizing—it’s just a natural occurrence of subconscious thinking. My roommates helped me with this. I would accidentally start a couple notes and they would catch me. It was quite frustrating actually, because I wanted to sing so badly. I would start to sing or hum and not even realize it. Thankfully, I was involved in a musical at the time—so I had to sing, because we had rehearsal every night. So that was my exception. I'm glad the music fast was only 24 hrs. I can't imagine not being able to sing or listen to music for 10 days.

So what about music did I miss the most? I missed just the way it allows me to feel—how passionate I am about it in the way that I can express myself. It allows me to elicit certain emotions by either amplifying them or changing my mood. I missed not being able to sing. What I learned though, is that "silence is music". How do we keep perspective if we constantly have noise in our lives? When I was in the car with my boyfriend at the time, it was nice being able to just talk—no radio. It’s nice to have some peace and quiet every now and then—in contrast to the noisy, chaotic world that we live in.

When you make a sacrifice and go without something you love for a little while, it makes you appreciate what you have. For instance, I have been apart from my husband a lot in our marriage, due to his career--including a 1-year deployment overseas with the Army. It was so tough, but I grew a lot from that experience. If we don't taste the bitter, how can we appreciate the sweet?

Challenge yourself. Choose something to take a break from. Discover a new perspective. Think of all the things you are grateful for. We are so blessed!