Coach Bennett’s Pearls of Wisdom 7 – Music is Your Assistant Coach

In this blog series, I am going to share with you some of Coach Bennett’s pearls of wisdom and how they apply to my art practice.

This post is about music and how it can make your runs easier or harder, and how can help with your art practice.

For the most part, I like to work in silence. As an introvert and a mother, I cherish the quiet moments I can get. But when running, I like listening to the Nike Run Club app runs, since they tell me what to do and I don’t have to think about it. 🙂

In one of these runs, Coach Bennett mentioned that music can be your assistant coach. So when you start running, and you should start slow, your music should not be a dance like nobody is watching, all out jam. You should save those songs for when you need to go fast, or need a boost. For all of my races, I created playlists being careful to find cool but slower songs for the beginning (Florence and the Machine), and songs that would give me a boost at certain points of the race, like a Blood is Pumping when I know I will be approaching HeartBreak Hill. It feels great when a song you love comes on!

When I am painting, there are times when I like the silence. But there are also times when music can quiet the voices in my head and allow me focus. In those days, I would rather have focus music, like the Focus Playlists in the Headspace App. It allows my hands to just flow on the page without distracting thoughts about how good or bad I am at painting.

What do you listen to?