Musical Time Travel

You know that feeling you get when you hear a song that reminds you of a special time or a particular person from your past?  This happened to me yesterday as I was driving in my car.  I was listening to Sirius XM’s “80s on 8” and Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without a Face” came on the radio.  Immediately I was taken back to the summer of 1984 and a club in Italy called Rainbow, where I spent many a Saturday night that summer.   “Eyes Without a Face” was always the first song the DJ started his set with.   Lots of laughs and good times were had in that club. Those summers I spent in Italy were some of the best years of my young adult life.  I made many friends, and connections that still endure some three decades later.   Every time I hear this song it’s as if I’m back at that club. 

It makes me smile every time.

How is it possible for a song to open floodgates of emotion and memories (both happy and sad)?   Is it random, or is there a science behind it? 

You’ll be happy to know it’s not random and there is actually a science to it – neuroscience.  

A study conducted in 2009 from the University of California, Davis mapped the brain while subjects listened to music.  What the study found was that specific brain regions linked to autobiographical memories (memories of specific personal events) and emotions are activated by familiar music. The UC Davis study titled, "The Neural Architecture of Music-Evoked Autobiographical Memories," was published in the journal Cerebral Cortex.

A Finnish study conducted in 2011 actually used MRI technology to observe the brain’s functions while participants listened to music.  What the study revealed was that music stimulates the areas of the brain that are associated with motor functions, emotions and creativity.

In December of 2013, the journal Neuropsychological Rehabilitation published a study conducted by Amee Baird and Séverine Samson, from the University of Newcastle in Australia.  Baird and Samson used popular music to help patients who had suffered severe brain injuries to recall personal memories. 

Music can help with memory recall, it can evoke strong emotions and can stimulate our creativity. In short, music is powerful.

For more on the studies mentioned here and other fascinating facts about the effects of music on the brain, click here.

In the meantime, here’s Billy and “Eyes Without a Face”.

Keep smiling and remember:

La vita e’ bella!

Life is beautiful!

Slacker

Hey everyone,

I'll admit it.  I've been slacking with my blog posts.  Being totally lazy.

You know when you have one of those days, and then one of those days turns into one of many days... and then it turns into a week... and then....   You get the picture.  

No excuse.  I promised I'd be back last week and I didn't follow through.   I'll own up to it.  

Here's the thing though - it's good to slack off every once in a while.  By that I mean take the time to recharge.  Find something that you love to do and go do that.   If that something is doing absolutely nothing, then do that.  My point is, whatever works for you is good.  

In the meantime, here's some slacker reading material to inspire you (or justify your laziness):

The Secret World of Doing Nothing

The Art of Doing Nothing: Simple Ways to Make Time for Yourself

Autopilot: The Art and Science of Doing Nothing

So don't punish yourself for slacking off every now and then.  You're allowed.  As for me, I have lots of blog posts to write.

Keep smiling and remember...

La vita e' bella! 
Life is beautiful!

Time Away

Hello to all my followers.

I've been away for a bit but will resume blogging next week.  In the meantime, I hope that you are all having a wonderful weekend.  

Sometimes we need to take a step back and recharge our batteries.   That is exactly what I have been doing.  I will share with you all what I've learned during this time in posts next week.  

Enjoy the day and remember.... 

La vita e' bella!

Life is beautiful!

Such an Exciting Journey, Life...

Such an exciting journey, life.   So many experiences to be had, people to meet, places to see and things to do.  Every day brings with it the promise of great things.  A clean page waiting to be filled, another page in your story.  Every journey has its fair share of encounters with bumpy roads, dead ends and wrong turns.  Despite these things we ultimately reach our destination, even if we're sometimes I bit late in getting there.  The important thing is to keep going until you find your way to your destination, to your purpose.  So it is with the journey of life.  We must never give up on our quest to find our calling.   While we are at it, let's remember to find the joy in every day.   Even when the day seems dark.  Even when the darkness stretches beyond a day, into a week, or a month.  Believe in your ability to persevere.  Believe in the journey, and see the good in every day.

Don't Just Believe in Miracles....

Inspiring Action

If you’re using email as the primary means of communication with your employees about your charitable giving program, it’s time to rethink your strategy.  One of the best ways to promote your program and volunteerism among your employees is via your company’s intranet.  Your intranet is a powerful way to connect with your employees and to connect your employees to each other, especially if you are a global company.  

Don’t just use text to communicate.  Instead, consider more creative ways to get your message across.   One of the most effective ways to communicate is via video.   The fact that Facebook has now added a video feature is a testament to how wildly popular video has become as a way of sharing content.

Record and upload videos of your volunteers in action.  One idea might be to record short video clips of your employees talking about their favorite community event that they participated in, or about a memorable moment as a volunteer.

In other words, you need to capture people’s hearts in order to keep their attention.  Here are some things to keep in mind when posting content about your program on your intranet:

• Make it inspiring
• Make it connect emotionally to your audience
• Post photos in addition to videos.  Photos are as popular as video when it comes to sharing content

For more information on how to post content that gets noticed and shared go here:

How to Go Viral

Make It Happen Monday

Rise and shine, people!  Positive mindset = positive outcome.

Let's get out there and make some AWESOME!

Giving Day

If you want to create an event that will unite your employees and raise a lot of money, consider doing one big fundraising drive across your locations.   This is a really great way to raise money if you are short on resources and don't have a staff to run monthly or quarterly fundraising events.

The idea is to choose 1 day out of the year and designate it as your company's "giving day".   You can select a special date, for example the anniversary of your company's founding. Or your founder's birthday.  Whatever date you choose, before you announce any plans, be sure to partner with your Finance department to ensure that you have the proper processes in place to support a program on this grand a scale.  It's important that you establish this up front because you never want to launch a campaign of this magnitude without the proper "checks and balances" in place form a finance and audit perspective.   Once you have all your financial "ducks in a row", partner with your Marketing and Communications department to promote the heck out of it.  You'll want to highlight the reason why you are doing this fundraiser, and which non-profits will be the beneficiaries of your giving.  Be sure to tie it back to your company's culture and values.  Create posters and a communications campaign around the event to keep employees informed and engaged before, during, and after the event.  Post information about the fundraiser on your company's intranet with a countdown to the big day.   Provide regular status updates on funds raised.  If you have it in your budget, have shirts or pins made up that you can distribute to all your employees in commemoration of the event.

You can set a fundraising goal, or you can make it a fun "competition" between departments, divisions, or locations.  It's a super way to engage your employees and raise money for our deserving non-profits.  

Everybody wins!