The last few weeks I have given more thought to my diet and have started to prioritize getting good exercise at least a few times a week. As everyone knows by now, committing to a healthy diet and to regular exercise is good for your overall health, but I was more curious to explore how it could help my mental/emotional/physical state when playing and approaching the cello. Growing up I was always very active and spent much more time focusing on sport than I did music. It wasn't until I was much older that I started to pursue music in a serious manner. Lately I have been reflecting on my time being an athlete and searching for similarities between cello and sport. I came to the realization that musicians could learn a lot from athletes in regards to their preparation and how they treat their body and mind. Let's take a hockey player for example. Not only is he/she going to be practicing on ice and off ice specific hockey drills, but they will also do gym workouts. They will supplement those workouts with a balanced diet to sustain their physical exertion. Most top class hockey players will also do some sort of visualization away from the ice. When analyzing how I use my time with the cello, I felt I was unbalanced in my diet/work out regiment and in my visualization away from the instrument. I thought I should start supporting my cello practice with the same ideas as an athlete would support their sport. After these past few weeks I have noticed that adequate exercise and a consistent healthy diet has improved my practicing; my mind and body feels better balanced with each other. I also feel that my musical/technical ideas are much clearer because of the visualization I've implemented away from the cello. Something that has helped me is writing and meditating before I go to bed. I will visualize a few areas in my playing that I want to work on for the next day, in a sense I am trying to plant the ideas into my head and give them space to develop in my subconscious while I am sleeping. I feel it helps me wake up with a clearer sense of purpose for my practice. Emotionally I feel much more centered as well, which has improved my ability to focus while practicing. As musicians we exert a remarkable amount of mental and emotional effort into our craft, taking a break and exerting that same effort into my body is a refreshing break from the analytical music mind. The most important take away for me has been the discipline it takes to force myself to stick with these changes and ideas. If I skip a work out or end a work out early, what will stop me from doing that while practicing? However, if I keep powering through a work out and finish, I can use that same mental energy and determination and apply it to my practicing when I start getting discouraged or want to give up. I am still early into these changes but am feeling confident these new habits will help continue to help me grow with the cello.
If you're intimidated to make such drastic changes in your approach but want to begin building better habits, I suggest making small changes and building from there slowly. For example, if you're looking to start exercising more frequently, begin by doing 2-3 days a week. A 10-15 min walk on a nice day is a great way to give your mind a rest form practicing and also a great way to get your heart rate up a bit. If you try to jump into an intense work out program or an intense change in diet too quickly, there is a possibility you are asking too much of yourself and ultimately can get discouraged.
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