The Eddie Vedder Advice To Calm Your Anxious Mind (For When You Wake Up On 11)
I woke up this morning with Bubble Brain
Thoughts boiling to the surface.
Pop. Pop. Pop.
- “When is the coffee gonna to be done?”
- “OMG, I got terrible sleep last night.”
- “I should be writing by now.”
- “Did the dog just bark?”
- “Let’s stretch.”
I bounced from 1 thing to the next like Tigger.
Woo hoo hoo hoo!
It happens to me at 5AM every morning. And if I don’t shut it down, I will bounce right through lunch and get zilch done. Bubble Brain is a dirt bag.
I took 3 deeeeeep breaths.
Closed my eyes.
Then 3 more breaths. In through the nose. Out through the mouth.
And slowly I settled down into a more meditative morning state.
It’s crazy how an influx of oxygen calms the nerves.
It seems obvious, “Remember to breathe — dummy.”
But like most obvious things, their simplicity is easy to ignore.
So, the lesson?
Slow down.
If you’re anxious, hurried, scattered, smothered, or covered…then take a lesson from the greatest band known to man (at least while I was in college) Pearl Jam, and….
JUST BREATHE!
