Reflections and Images

I am not sure why, but lately I have been feeling quite down. The pervasive air of pessimism and sadness envelopes me. I no longer feel motivated to go to class or write my college essays. This awful mood went away when my parents told me to bike and go outside. At first, I was annoyed because that would take away an hour of my life. As I biked, however, I realized I forgot how beautiful the world was beyond my neighborhood court. I enjoyed the sunlight and the warm weather. I found joy in the simple things in life, whether it was the sunlight that shone through the yellow leaves or the quiet countryside road. I breathed in fresh air and felt the gentle winds caressing me as I biked. After biking for 15 minutes, I immersed myself in my own world that was detached from the incessant noise of technology. I let my thoughts wander and daydream about the future or hypothetical situations as I went down the hill or changing directions. I noticed that I was experiencing solitude deprivation f...

I was kind of annoyed that I would search up random songs, read random lyrics, and then listen to random music the past week. I decided to go back to my old life of blocking YouTube. Let me tell you that it made my life so much productive. I do have that itch to search up a random song humming in my head, but I am a lot less distracted by google searches than say recommended videos on YouTube. After spending more time thinking about my conflicting feelings, I have come to some conclusion regarding why I didn't really like what I was doing. The main reason was that listening to music is a form of passive consumption. Don't get me wrong, I play classical music in the background before I sleep. The problem is that I was spending a lot more time listening instead of taking action and playing music. Playing music is a type of activity that promotes flow, which is a state optimal happiness (READ MIHALY CSIKZENTMIHALYI'S BOOK!!!). By improving on a skill through deliberate practic...