DJ Your Active Life
Shira Engel is a yoga teacher, youth wellness specialist and author. She writes the lifestyle blog GrowingUpOnOM.wordpress.com and can be found at www.shiraengel.com. She is proud to be a LÄRABAR Ambassador living, working, and enjoying in Portland(ia), Oregon.
Pretend your life is a movie.
(Stay with me here.)
Everything, from what you wear in the morning, to the restaurants you choose for dinner with friends, to the LÄRABAR flavor you take along, is chosen with intention, precision, and integrity. Now, close your eyes, open your ears, and imagine what music plays in the background for each part of your day to reflect the multiple intentions each day possesses. Done with that silent meditation? Good! Now, open up whatever playlist-making software you like and let's get to business!
1. Look at the day ahead. What do you have going on? What is the "theme" of your day? Romance? Love songs. Lots of work? Rock can be motivating.
2. Think of the mood (in Sanskrit, this is called the bhava) you want to cultivate. Happiness? Mellow? Calm? Energized? Productive? Choose music with beats and tempos that match those moods best.
3. Who is in your day? Family? Friends? Lovers? What songs remind you of them? What do they like to listen to and how does their music, in turn, inspire yours?
4. Sequence the tunes based on times of day: slower as you wake up, faster as you prepare for the day, even faster as you power through that mid-afternoon slump, and mellow before bed. As active people, we are high-energy beings with a constant need to find a balance between going with our current energy and countering it. Choose music to reflect that balance. But you know where your energy lies at different parts of the day best… so follow that!
5. If you're feeling super savvy, create the playlist online and power up/pranify (energize) your practice with it for the rest of the day. And don’t forget to come up with a fabulous title for it that reflects your intention for the day!
