the 10 minute habit that improves mental health (for DJs)

Electronic music culture glorifies constant output. But at what cost? Here’s the 10-minute practice helping Producers and DJs regulate their nervous system so they can feel better, focus longer and create music from clarity instead of chaos.

The Industry No One Talks About: Hustle, Hype & The Cost Of Never Stopping.

In the electronic music world, slowing down feels rebellious.

The culture celebrates output: tracks, edits, mixes, gigs, socials, branding, momentum, consistency. We’re praised for how much we can push, how much we can make, how long we can stay awake, how fast we can bounce back.

But here’s the uncomfortable question most artists avoid:

When is your work ever actually “done”?

Perhaps more important, when do you, the human behind the decks, ever truly rest?

The short answer: you don’t. Not in the way your nervous system actually needs.

Late nights bleed into late mornings and gigs blur into studio sessions. Release cycles collapse on top of each other while regular sleep schedules are forgotten. Creativity and pressure get tangled together and the body just keeps up… until it doesn’t.

This article isn’t here to guilt you. It’s here to show you the flaw in the lifestyle our industry normalized, and the simple 10-minute practice that helps re-calibrate everything.

The Moment That Woke Me Up

For the last year, I’ve been spending more time in the park across the road. Even though this has been enormously beneficial for me, I was often treating it like a “fit in some nature time” like it’s a task on a checklist.

Usually, I would take a book or some headphones, or just use the time to stretch and ‘do something’.

While the desire to spend more time in nature has been present all year, I was treating it the same way most artists treat rest: “I’ll get to it when I can.”

Some weeks I’d go three times then not at all for a month. Like, I'd gain momentum, then life would get busy, and eventually, I'd 'jump back on the wagon'.

Perhaps you’re familiar with this kind of cycle in some other area of your life… 👀😜

But two days ago, something shifted.

I went with no book, no phone, no headphones or blanket. I didn't stretch. I didn't task this as productivity.

Just me sitting with myself. And I was reminded of a hard truth I'd first learned years ago.

My so-called “rest” had become another form of doing.

It was another way to keep my mind occupied and avoid sitting with myself. It was another way to stay busy without looking busy.

Sound familiar?

DJs and producers are some of the busiest ‘resters’ on the planet. We don’t decompress, we distract. We recover, but we don’t regulate. We tap out, but we don’t actually settle. We numb, but do we listen?

And stillness? True, eyes-open, grounded, present stillness?

That’s the state no one taught us to access, and it’s the exact state our nervous system is searching for.

The Mind Of A DJ NEVER Shuts Up! (And It’s Not Your Fault).

Here’s what happened when I sat in the park with nothing to do:

My mind began firing:

“What should I be doing?”
“What needs to be done today?”
“What time am I training?”
“What am I cooking later?”
“Shouldn’t I be producing right now?”

Classic artist brain 🙄🤣: Output addiction disguised as “normal life.”

But as I stayed still, something interesting happened.

The thoughts slowed down, my breath deepened and my body relaxed. Not because I made myself calm, but because I stopped giving my body and mind something to do.

The truth that many artists don't know: your mind is self-cleaning if you stop overstimulating it.

The Pool Of Water

(The ‘not-so-scientific’ explanation about how your mind works!)

Imagine your mind is a pool of water.

If you constantly disrupt the water by stirring it, or trying to flatten it out with your hand, ripples appear. But if you simply stop disrupting the water, it naturally becomes still—with zero effort.

Your mind works the same way. But modern life (especially electronic music life) means your mind NEVER stops being touched:

Phones, DMs, Music Projects, Mixing, Learning. Creative pressure, deadlines, schedules, obligations. Maybe even alcohol, drugs, caffeine and/or 'energy' drinks. They’re all things that ‘disrupt’ the water, so to speak.

It's all stimulation and noise awash with an undertone of expectation because you’ve been taught you need to do more.

You’re constantly disturbing the water, and then when you 'rest', you turn on Netflix, scroll Instagram, grab a drink, a vape, a joint, or put on a podcast. It looks like downtime, but your mind is still active and the water (aka your mind) doesn’t really get a chance to truly rest.

This is one of the main reasons why someone’s mental health doesn’t improve long-term. It’s not because they’re broken, but rather because they’re overstimulated. Overstimulated because rest is often seen as unproductive, and even true rest can feel like death to a brain that is so used to being on from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep.

The Uncomfortable Truth (that I Had To Learn The Hard Way)!

A decade ago, my mental health was a plummeting: addicted to drugs and alcohol, bouts of depression, panic attacks most days and a steady hum of anxiety playing in the background. It was overwhelm and total inner chaos, and I couldn’t sit still.

Today, my mental health is excellent. Not because my life is perfect, but because I stopped outsourcing my peace to productivity, achievement or hustle.

I learned something many electronic artists desperately need to hear:

You can’t create sustainably from a dysregulated nervous system.

Not long-term anyway. Not without sacrificing pieces of yourself.

Creativity is harder to access when you're fighting an internal battle. And your internal world? It is not separate from your body, which isn't separate from your nervous system.

This is all one instrument. It’s you.

And if you don’t maintain it… you (or your music) will eventually suffer.

Your joy will dim, your spark will dull, your life force will drain. Suddenly you’ll realise you’re living behind the mask of ‘the DJ’ or ‘the producer,’ not as yourself. Essentially, you’re performing, with an undercurrent of not knowing how long you can keep up this charade. Pretending like you’re killing it (on stage and online) yet suffering IRL. Sound familiar?

So, What’s Next?

You might be thinking:

“You don't understand! I can’t sit still and my mind races all the time. My schedule is insane! I have gigs, deadlines and responsibilities. If I don’t keep up, I fall behind, and if I stop or slow down, I won't make it."

I hear you. Because I’ve lived it.

And that’s exactly why you need this:

The 10 Minute Practice That Changes EVERYTHING.

Every morning (before your phone, before messages, before the world touches you) sit down somewhere quiet.

No music or book or podcasts or journals. No emails or laptop or phone. Just sit the fuck down and breathe. Let the 'water' (your mind!) settle.

This isn't meditation per se. It's more nervous system decompression. It's more about learning how to be with yourself.

Here’s what will happen if you stick with it:

• Your thoughts lose their chaos.
• Your emotional baseline (or is it bassline 😉) becomes calmer.
• Your decisions get clearer.
• Your productivity skyrockets.
• Your creativity deepens.
• Your sleep improves.
• Your sense of self stabilizes.
• Your relationship with the industry changes.

This is what mentally healthy creatives do, and this is how you build longevity in the high-pressure music world.

Not by grinding harder, but by first finding alignment and inner peace first, before taking action. N.B. This isn’t a magical hack that will change things overnight. This takes consistent commitment each and every single day, and it won’t always feel like you’re doing something positive.

However, what you are essentially teaching yourself to do is how to be with yourself without needing something to do, or hold, or smoke, or drink… This is quite literally the practise that subconsciously teaches yourself that “I’m OK. It’s OK. I can get through this.” Do this often enough, and you have a tactic that rewires your brain to operate differently. Panic can subside because you’re teaching your nervous system how to just sit and actually be. Your thoughts will lose their hold over you. You’ll still have thoughts, but you won’t be held hostage by them. Welcome to being in control of your own mind.

You may (almost definitely will) find that you’ll want to do more than 10 minutes. Expand your time if it feels good, or stick with the 10 minutes, or even five if 10 feels too hard initially.

The Real Secret Of Productive Artists.

They’re not the ones who necessarily push the hardest. They’re the ones who have a calm(er!) nervous system so they can produce better results with less effort.

Yes, there are plenty of successful artists without habits like this. But being successful in electronic music doesn’t necessarily equal being happy or healthy or at peace. And what’s the point of that if the rest of your life is holding on by a thread? Imagine a thriving career that’s holding on by a thread with a pressure to continue performing even when your mind, body and soul are screaming out for a break? That’s a problem I wouldn’t wish on anyone.

The fact remains: the less you’re at war with your mind, the more you’re in harmony with yourself and therefore the better your output in music.

Ten minutes a day.

That’s all it takes to start.

You starting with this is the biggest nod to your own self saying, “I deserve this.”

Yes, this is a rebellion against the hustle culture of the electronic music industry. Yet it's also restoration and what we've all been secretly craving.

It’s you returning to yourself and finally listening to your body, your mind, and what you actually need.

And it’s the foundation for everything you get to create next.