I love iHeartRadio. Who doesn’t, right? Similar to Pandora, it’s a music and podcast application that allows you to create playlists from your favorite genre of music.
I had a habit of listening only to the songs I was familiar with. If a song came on that I never heard before, I would skip it immediately. I did this for years.
As I got older, I started to do things differently. My musical palate expanded while I was learning about mindfulness and philosophy. I started to look at the world with a different perspective. Being more open-minded about music was a byproduct of having this new world view. I started to lose interest in the familiar and became comfortable with the unknown.
For someone like me, who loves routine and familiarity, these micro-changes were macro. I’m glad I persisted.
I contemplate more often and notice the little details of things. This allows me to make sense of life and with my open-mindedness to music, I discovered something far more telling.
Don’t be so quick to change the song. Sometimes we want to skip ahead because we want to find what is familiar, but we run the risk of missing something that might be greater than we could have ever imagined.
I’ve taken this frame of thinking into almost every aspect of my life. I try different foods, read interesting books, and entertain views that are completely opposite of what I believe. All things considered, it has broadened my perspective.
I urge you to stick with the song. Take risks. Be bold. Get uncomfortable. You might find something interesting about yourself, and if you don’t at first, well I hope you have the courage to keep listening.
Check out my current iHeartRadio playlists below:
Tracy Chapman
Randy Travis
Katchafire
Darius Rucker
Odesza
Ryuichi Sakamoto
Kendrick Lamar
Common
Ornella Vanani
Logic
Zach Brown
Luciano Pavarotti
With Love,
Anand Swamy
Click the play arrow below for the audible version of this article