I've been practicing meditation more and more frequently in the past few weeks, to quieten my frenetic brain.
I find it very helpful to slow down my thoughts, which often race ahead at a lick, and to focus on what I'm doing there and then. Like most things that are good for me, I expected to only meditate in fits and starts, but surprisingly, I'm pretty regular with it, though it's harder to commit and concentrate when I'm overtired and stressed.
It's become an off/on part of my warm-up routine when preparing for a show. There are a string of vocal exercises I always do before a performance - partly to wake up my range, speech and diction and partly because I'd feel weird if I left them out - but meditation has certainly been added to the list. While mindfulness is currently in vogue and may seem a buzzword to a cynic, there's a lot to be said for it. Anything that helps you prioritise and take stock in where you're at can only be a good thing.
On a completely different note, I'd like to get back to writing my blog posts earlier in the day, as I keep starting them when it's late and my concentration is shot. It's not so bad when I'm coming back from a gig, as I'm more fired up (plus I usually have something to talk about), but I'm ltired of doing it when I should be in bed. That said, I need to prioritise in the coming weeks; while the content of my blogs tend to be weaker in the lead-up to a show, I'd like still write something that's vaguely of interest.