So for many, many years, whenever I would write, I'd have to restrict myself to listening to music with no words in it. Soundtracks, classical music, jazz, Spanish guitar music, you name it. This was because the words in the song would distract me from what I was writing and therefore make it much more difficult for me to write anything. However, that seems to have changed...

Lately at work I've been writing my tail off. Hundreds of articles on various topics for our websites (a lot of Search Engine Optimization is content generation), so I'd been listening to a ton of instrumental stuff. Now, as much as I love that stuff, a lot of it can be somber, and the other day it was putting me to sleep while I was writing, so I decided to try something new and radically different. I'd listen to rock music while I wrote, and would see if I could do it. I figured I've gone through so many positive mental changes in the last year or two that it wouldn't hurt to see if old belief's like this one just didn't apply anymore.

Imagine my delight and surprise, therefore, when putting in the normal music I listen to -- rock, pop rock, disco, etc -- that not only did I write just fine with no increase in difficulty, but I wrote FASTER. I mean I'm sure the music helped in getting the blood going a bit, but I was shocked as to how much more quickly I was writing stuff. It was definitely a noticeable difference.

So what happened? I have a feeling that, along the way from my changes from Brian 1.0 to my current 4.5 iteration (yeah, I use version numbers to describe the progress of my mental and emotional growth, what of it?), all the crap that was blocking up my brain before...anxiety, depression, fear, you name it, got in the way of me being able to do other stuff like write while listening to music that containing words.

Now I'm thinking, what ELSE has improved? ;) What other things should I try in order to see if there's been improvement? I'm not sure yet, but I'm sure I'll figure it all out as I go. I'm just thrilled about this, as it shows growth in areas I never even thought of, and it's damned exciting. :)

Anyway, that's my little rave for today. Hope y'all are having a wonderful day. :)