Music is my way of meditation. Let me explain:

It was during a boring school assembly I discovered that if I quiet down and concentrate, I can pick out all the choir harmonies of the Taiwanese national anthem recording. From the lowest bass to the highest soprano, it was a game I played with myself as I switched through filtering out harmonies, trying to experience the flavors from the individual layers.

As time went on, it became a habit. Everytime I listen to a song, I will myself to quiet down and listen intently. First, I listen to the harmonies added to a singer’s voice, then the drums, and so on. As I listen, it’s as if the volume of life decreases, as if what’s left of the world is just me and my headphones, matching the beat of the song with the guitar and the slight bass in the background.

Through these years, I have gotten better at differentiating the tones of instruments and voices and started on more “advanced” materials: from concentrating in loud classrooms to eavesdropping at rowdy assemblies and finally, my own mind. “Why shouldn’t I try something new? What’s stopping me from entering the math competition?” Past the noise of all my thoughts, the good and the bad, the encouraging and the disapproving, I have learned to listen to myself, beyond all my endless doubts and needless worrying.