At the risk of jinxing my progress, here goes… I’ve been better about my exercise routine in the past few weeks (there, I said it). A number of things came together to enable this, chief among them the fact that the baby has been better about sleeping through the night (HALLELUJAH!!!)
But today’s post is not about that. It’s about a simple switch that I made to my exercise routine to make it feel less like a chore and more like a luxurious self-care activity where I get to focus on myself. The difference is MUSIC.
Instead of listening to a podcast and “improving” myself, to keep myself abreast of the days’ news or new product management podcast, I’ve just been chilling out to vintage 90s and 00s tamil music during my runs. It’s been such a simple switch but quite magical – I hardly ever get to listen to music uninterrupted and my daily run now feels like a real treat. Needless to say the endorphins from the run + music put me in a better mood than listening to Trump’s tariff plans…
Sometimes, when building a new habit, it helps to lean into the parts that make you enjoy the activity the most.
If you’re in an exercise rut, try this out and let me know if it helped!
Shweta Padmanaban 