In your eyes, what’s more important for your work or creative output? Is it a dedicated workspace? Is it based on the way you feel? Let’s say you wake up hella lethargic. Are you fucked for the rest of the day, doomed by the lack of sleep and unable to think clearly? Or perhaps your office chair has an annoying creaking noise that the most powerful WD-40 couldn’t fix?

How often do you look at your story views? Or count the likes on your latest post? Even covet fits on the street? We are creatures of comparison and that has only been exacerbated by the advent of social media. Even without being in the “public eye” like some of the internet’s biggest stars, we’re all on display one way or another. It’s your approach and how you choose to view it that will lead to clarity.

For me, in the early days, house & trance were used primarily as uplifters. I would throw on a playlist chalk-full of bangers to prepare to train or before a race. I’d queue some shit up when I was 16/17 at a party to rally the troops. It was a relationship fueled with chaotic energy. As time progressed, that changed tremendously.

Welp, it’s time to talk about something I’m NOT so great at: managing anxiety. Past generations would have just rubbed some dirt into it, maybe went and played stickball in the backyard and beat up the foreign kid. Our generation took a much different approach. One of acceptance, awareness, and transparency (probably some other things, too). Bringing these things to light has created a culture of change, but it has also led to some unintentional blunders as well.

Big time IMO: anger is a projection of some internal shit. It could be something irking you or something you haven’t worked through to completion. Those parasitic thoughts refusing to evaporate without the proper attention. Digging deep and reflecting to conquer these demons is no small task.

I’ve been in many different environments and living situations over the last year, but if there’s one commonality between all of them, it’s that I rarely interact with strangers anymore. You don’t realize how good something is until you don’t have it, and as it turns out, surrounding yourself with people you don’t know is incredibly meditative and borderline crucial.