A Simple Way to Being Calm, Cool & Collected

Stop. 

Don't do whatever you were going to do next. 

Close your eyes and center yourself. Breathe easily. Stay like that for as long as you want. Forget time.

Don't worry, you won't be here long. There will be a point when your mind will call you out of this short reverie. 

That's when you'll want to do the next thing. That's when you'll truly be ready to do it. When you want to.

Not because it's the next thing to do. Not because you were looking for something to occupy your time. Not out of a nervous habit to keep going.

Wait for originality, creativity, ingenuity to strike you. Claude Debussy said: "music is the space between the notes."

Stopping allows you to create the space for your music to enter. Otherwise, you just keep playing without taking a breath.

Try this now. Collect yourself before you do the next thing, so you act as a whole person. Not partially attentive, but fully there.

Based on the number of direct emails I got on my last post, I'm closing comments and asking that you email me your thoughts. I've found the dialog to be very rich this way, and hope you do too.