Energize Voice and Mind with Rap!

More and more, folks realize to keep their brain operating at optimum it needs to be primed, much like the country pump. To push their minds many take on Brain Age, Sodoku, or crosswords. My suggestion to help energize yet different parts of your noodle...is to chant and tap rap. Rap draws from your wellspring of intelligences. Here's a snapshot of how it works and why it makes a difference...

During Save The Last Dance, the male lead said, Rap gives you voice...And the female lead found that improvising new steps in rap took her beyond ballets' boundaries. Could you use the "I am here" confidence or presence of mind, rap helps develop, to walk into the midst of a hectic and sometimes hostile office environment to begin your day? Don Campbell, author of The Mozart Effect shows how this works...

While commuting to and from work, imagine putting your thoughts into rhythm. Begin to tap with your hand in groups of four beats, accenting the first, and talk as you tap. Within a few minutes, you may notice how easy it is to speak to the beat--in other words, rap! Unwrap your thoughts, then let them be spoken in rhythm. For example:

TODAY I WAS TIRED.
TODAY I WAS BORED.
TODAY I WAS STUCK
AND FEELING LIKE MUCK.
I STARTED TO RAP
I STARTED TO MOVE
IN ONLY FIVE SECONDS
I WAS IN A NEW GROOVE.

To start, just talk and babble. If you aren't sure what to say simply use nonsense words but let your heart and tongue express what you're feeling. Rap cleanses the mental palate, and you don't need to blare your sub-woofer in the process!

Why does chanting your own rap energize your brain? You draw from several intelligences as you create--intrapersonal, musical-rhythmical, logical-mathematical and verbal-linguistic. Recent research shows the brain needs challenges to be vibrant. You'll be building new dendrite brain cells, especially on the right or creative side of your brain. And at the same time you fire up the left side as it talks to your body, especially the deeper systems that govern instinctual response and survival.

Ready to rap on your commute? Rap'll prime your pump!

Let us know about your experiment...

*Link to Right Brain, Left Brain Flickr image.

[Caution: if you cannot focus on driving, try rapping at other convenient places!]