Beyond Meditation and Ice Baths: A dj’s Guide to Mental Clarity
Ever wonder why meditation and ice baths only calm your mind for a little while? For DJs and Electronic Music Producers, there’s a deeper root to mental clutter. This post uncovers the three areas you must tackle to finally clear up your headspace (for good!)
Whether you’re prepping a set, in the studio, or waking up after a late-night gig, your mind never stops.
So you’ve explored things like meditation, ice baths and breath work in the hope they will make a difference. And they do. But here’s the truth: they’re often temporary fixes for a much bigger problem.
In this blog, I’ll share the three things you must address if you want to clear your headspace for good, without relying on medication or meditation.
my mental health problems
Before we get into it, you should know something about me. I know depression intimately. I know what it’s like to consider ending my own life. I know the weight of almost-daily panic attacks and the constant hum of anxiety. I know the feeling of not wanting to get out of bed at all, of hating myself so much that ending it all seemed like the best option.
I know what it’s like to depend on alcohol every single day, whether to de-stress, relax, or release the pressure valve on my existence. I know the spiral of comparing myself to other artists online, judging myself for what I had or hadn’t done, or where I should be in my career, and drowning in shame and guilt over past decisions. That mental barrage pulled me further into a pit of despair, one I once believed I’d never escape.
Fortunately, my rock-bottom moments: heartbreak, losing it all, contemplating suicide, heavy drug and alcohol addiction, brutal comedowns to name but a few, were gifts in disguise. They hurt like hell, but they became the launchpad for the life I’m blessed to live today.
I’ve tried most of the world’s recommended solutions for an overactive mind and shitty mental health: breath work, meditation, yoga, plant medicine, coaching, motivational books, self-help seminars, podcasts, nature walks, men’s work, light language, kinesiology, reiki, intense physical training, morning routines... You name it, I tried it.
Every single one helped in some way. They’re powerful tools, and they can (and do!) absolutely play a role in finding peace and a calm mind.
But none of them alone fixed the problem at its root.
What follows are the things that finally cleared my headspace for good without relying on medication.
your past
Your mind cannot find lasting peace until you are at peace with who you are, what’s happened ‘to’ you and what you've done.
This feels like a tall order, and it is. It requires real grit, tenacity, courage and a willingness to soften. You must be willing to admit fault, take responsibility and not outsource blame to anyone. You can no longer point the finger, or hold anger or resentment to another human being.
As but one example, the anger you direct at someone else for what they did to you is still anger you feel, so there’s no real sense to hold onto it. Yes, you may be right in being angry for what something did to you. But your righteousness keeps you stuck. And angry. And that anger will spill out onto others until you address it.
If you’re holding an empty cup and someone bumps into you, what spills out? Nothing. If you’re holding a cup full of water, or coffee, or even a margarita and someone bumps into you, what spills out? Whatever is in the cup. Well, your emotions are in your ‘cup’, aka your body. When life happens (and it will) how you react shows what’s inside your cup.
And, for all those people who can hold it together so well (many of us), you’re in what I call a pressure cooker. Yes, you can hold it and hold it and hold it in all you want, but one day one of two things will happen. Either you will let loose on the wrong person at the wrong time, or you will continue to hold it all in until it affects your health or mental health, and then find other alternative ways of relieving the pressure like drinking, taking drugs, vaping etc. That itself becomes a problem, and it makes it harder for you to make lasting changes to this behaviour.
That’s why must explore the parts of your life that hurt you the most and actually heal from it, not just ‘move on’. (That approach, aka sweeping it under the rug, has been celebrated, but it’s highly ineffective when it comes to clearing up your headspace).
So, yes, you must start speaking about your past, not put on a brave face and pretend like you have it altogether. Because you don't. No one does. And you pretending like you do is keeping you stuck.
the basic 'science' behind it.
Your body is a walking library of everything that has ever happened to you. That experience in your past that you 'moved on' from (e.g. getting dumped, failed business, losing a loved one, abuse, rejection, poverty etc.) hasn't necessarily been cleared at an energetic or emotional level.
Put simply, the emotion that you've suppressed has produced a thought and then a behaviour or set of behaviours that has changed who you are and who you think you need to be in order to ensure this doesn't happen again, essentially to keep you safe. Which is a fundamental piece for you to continue living.
And thus you are living in a space of pretending to be someone you’re not in order to stay safe. Put simply, to get love, approval, security or control. Essentially you’ve created an identity, a tool for protection and it’s becomes normal. So normal in fact that you think it’s who you are. But it’s not. Not really. It’s who you had to become in order for you to minimize the chance of this painful experience happening again.
It’s a fantastic tool for safety, comfort and emotional protection, but terrible for a mind that’s wanting peace.
Why can’t your mind find peace? Because you are living in a space of high-alert, essentially in a state of fear, making sure you act in a certain way, say a certain thing, speak in a certain way, look a certain way to make sure it doesn’t happen again. And your mind is on constantly. And when it gets too much, you either go inward and block out the world, potentially even outsourcing blame to others as being the problem, or you numb, escape and avoid your problems through any number of vices: alcohol, drugs, vaping, porn, gambling etc. (And yes, even overworking can be a vice to help you avoid discomfort!)
When you clear up the painful/traumatic experiences of the past, your mind starts to calm down. You no longer feel a threat or a need to be seen in any other way than how you actually are. You don’t care so much for other people’s opinions, you are free to live as you desire to live. You feel safe because you trust yourself enough to not surround yourself with people that don’t align with you, and you don’t put yourself in dangerous situations anymore because you’ve raised your own standards (and healed). You no longer feel threatened or triggered by people or experiences because there is no trigger point for it to act upon.
N.B. This is not about perfection or becoming fully healed, but more about doing some of the inner work to produce a massive impact on how your mind operates.
(There is so much more to this, but I’ll keep it to that- for now!) 😅😜
How to deal with it:
Address what happened in your past.
There are a number of tools to help you do this, and after exploring so many of them, I can't say that one is necessarily better than the other. Things like guided plant medicine journeys (e.g. ayahuasca, psylocybin, 5-MeO-DMT) are powerful tools, but they're not something I would suggest every person to do, as these are very intense are best to explored if an individual actually feels the desire to take part in these ceremonies.
Counselling, therapy, coaching etc. are great tools and often produce lasting shifts too. My recommendation is seeking out someone who is trauma informed who can take you through the process of clearing out these root problems.
Kinesiology was an absolute game changer for me, and something I feel is a great entry point for most people. This practise bypasses the conscious mind and taps into the subconscious, and thus the trauma that is stored. It's not a quick fix, but a gradual step by step process that helps release what you've been unconsciously holding onto.
There is one thing that is at the core of many of the options I've mentioned above. Somatics.
Somatics is the practice of connecting your body and mind to release tension, stored emotion, and unconscious patterns. There isn't a one size fits all approach, and this is not something that will magically transform your mental space overnight (even though some of them will give you radical shifts). This is all a longer-term approach to explore until you're feeling rather free from what's happening in your past.
your present
Do you love what you do each day?
Do you absolutely love who you are?
Do you love how you do life?
(If you're in a relationship) Do you absolutely love the relationship you're in or are you in a relationship that is more about convenience and support rather than true love? The truest test of love isn’t rules, it's freedom. Are you happy with your partner being exactly who they are, or do you get upset when they don't follow traditional 'rules' set out by society or the ones you believe your partner should follow?
Is your career driven by joy or results?
Results like getting signed to bigger or better labels, scoring your dream gig or landing a collab with your favourite artist are important, and wonderful measures of your success. However, if you are sacrificing joy/happiness in order to get these results your mind won't find peace.
e.g.
You change your music style to a different genre just to be signed by a certain label, but you don’t really like the music you’re making.
You reach out to an artist to leverage their audience as the focus, not because you actually deep down love this artist and want to work with them.
You pretend to be someone you’re not on social media, just so you can get likes, attention, plays, fame…
Yes, all this works in a business sense. But what is good for business isn’t always good for your mind, especially if you’re chasing an end result that requires you to be someone you don’t want to be, or do something you don’t want to do. Yes, there are times that you will have to do things you don’t really want to do. But if this is the majority of your career? It’s likely you’re in the wrong career. Or approaching it in a way that isn’t all that effective.
Here’s a secret almost no-one will tell you: Your mind doesn't really care about the end result.
Your mind wants you to be happy now.
Not in 5 years time. Or when you retire.
And if you have to ‘push through’ doing what you ‘need’ to do in order to be successful, but your heart isn’t fully in it? Your mind will not find peace. It can’t because you’re going against what is your truest, and most original nature.
Joy.
Until that is at the core of what you do, your mind will be constantly looking for new ways to get you out of the predicament you are in.
Furthermore, you’re safe guarding your future. There’s no worry if you’re doing the right thing because you deep down know you are, and there’s no sadness or guilt associated with doing the wrong thing later down the track, because you will inherently know that you chose the path that was best for you at the time. It may not always work out the way you wanted it to, but at least you gave it a go. Better to try for something that truly matters rather than wasting precious years on shit that gives you an end result, but requires you sacrificing your happiness or health just to get it.
How to deal with it:
Happiness Check In. Write down everything you do in a week and score this between 1-10 on how happy you are doing it. This isn’t about how much fame or fortune you get from it (whilst that is the focus, you’ll suffer), this is purely about your joy and overall happiness. If you’re in a relationship, you can even score your relationship and how happy you are in it.
10: “This is my most favourite thing in the world.”
1: “I would give this up tomorrow if I could.”
This isn’t to make anything wrong, because it’s not. All of your life right now is perfect, because it cannot be anything else in this moment. This exericse is to help you identify how much of your life right now is done out of obligation, and how much is done in joy. Depending on what shows up, some simple shifts might be.
start making music you love, not just music that sells
only collaborate with artists that you truly love, not just for fame or leveraging their audience
change where you live/work
say no to any gigs that you’re not excited about
don’t chase labels or events for exposure only, especially if it requires you to make or play music you’re not really excited about. this is your career being built so I highly recommend it you don’t build it on good enough - go after what you really want!
When your career (and life) is led by joy, with goals set around that, you’ll craft a journey to success that also allows your mind to be at peace along the way.
your health
What’s going on in your gut has so much to do with your mental health. In fact, if you want to address the root causes of your mental health, do not for a moment focus on the mind alone. Focus on the body and emotions (what I've just mentioned above) and what is about to be explored here.
Trying to fix the mind alone is like trying to get an app on your phone to do something it’s not designed to do. If you want to get the app to do something different, you need to address the mainframe. That’s what this work is all about.
If your gut isn't happy, you'll be pushed to be happy in every day life.
There is so much science to support this, which I won't go into here. However, if you feel sluggish and lazy, it's because your body doesn't have what it needs in order to operate effectively. If you don't want to get out of bed some days (or even when the alarm goes off) that's your body telling you that what you are about to make it do is not what it wants to do, or needs at this point of time, or that your body is needing more R&R! If you’re constantly depressed or anxious?
It’s a sign to start taking better care of your health!
When you get healthy-er, your mind does too! I’m yet to come across a single person who eats like shit and drinks alcohol regularly who doesn’t have mental health problems. What’s being put in processed food and ‘convenient’ foods these days disrupt our hormones, gut, brain and body. Start eliminating these foods and your body will automatically start cleaning house. Team that up with fuelling your body with what it needs (stuff that comes from nature) and it will be supported in doing what it does naturally. Health really is that simple!
how to deal with it:
Move your body until you sweat daily. 20-30 minutes is all you need and it will make world of difference.
Spend 10-20 minutes in nature (barefoot where possible) without a phone, book or anything to do. Just sit and be.
Cut out alcohol and/or drugs completely for a month or more
Limit (or cut out) processed foods and sugar.
Yes, there are many others I could include here, but these few things will make the biggest difference initially. If I had to pick the top two, I would select eliminating alcohol and exercise. Even after a few days of this, most people will notice an improvement in sleep quality, often in duration, and a desire to eat better (when we feel better, we tend to avoid foods we know will make us feel like shit). That itself will make a huge difference to your mental state!
wrap up
So there you have it.
The three things you must address if you want to clear up your headspace for good. Yes, there will be times that you will get frustrated or angry, feel like you're losing clarity or get sad. But these are natural aspects of life, and all you need to do is clear these by using the same approaches above.
Do not get locked into my suggestions here either. In favour of not turning this blog post into a book, I've spoken briefly about the best approaches that will make the biggest difference. I am not so foolish to think I have all the answers, but I am experienced enough to know that these matter. What I’ve shared is not an exhaustive list, as there are many different approaches to help you. In fact, I encourage you to try things out and find the tools that work best for you.
That said, if you start working on each of these three things, and you do this with consistency, you will notice a difference in your mental state within a matter of weeks, if not days.