Bring Me Back To Life

Day 139

When a run gets hard and I'm just trying to push through it, there's one song that never lets me down. I don't know that I'd call it "my jam," but it perks me up and makes me push harder and longer.

"Bring Me Back to Life" by Evanescence is definitely harder than anything else I will listen to both vocally and rhythmically, but something about it spoke to me when I first started running. The words spoke to me about depression and desire to wake up from emptiness.

Looking back now, I realize I obviously had some depression that I didn't recognize as depression because I was complacent, but not truly alive. Now I feel more alive than I have in years, but the song still pumps me up and keeps me going.

Why?

Well, Dr. Daniel Levitin - neuroscientist and author of "This is Your Brain on Music" - told the Huffington Post that it's likely one of two reasons:

1) Music acts as a distractor, which modulates our pain levels
2) Music releases endogenous mu-opiods and other mood-enhancing chemicals, which raises the pain threshold

What I found most interesting though, was that our brain's neurons can synchronize with the tempo of the music to help us increase the pace of repetitive motions, like running.

So, the way I see it, this particular song is a double whammy. First I related to the song on a personal level, likely releasing dopamine and other chemicals into my system and lifting my mood. Second, it has the hard/fast beat that helps with those repetitive motions.

Now I want to read the book!