A 52-year-old drummer taught me how to overcome stress

When you find yourself in a moment of stress, or in a personal crisis, there are two prevailing pieces of advice. Some people will say, “just be present—don’t worry about the future.” Other people will say, “this isn’t going to matter in five years, so stop worrying about it.” 

Neither one feels particularly helpful when you’re in a moment of stress.

When I try to only focus on the present moment, I get more stressed than before. On the other hand, when I try to only think of the future, my stressed-out mind predicts a future in which everything has gone terribly wrong.  

Then I discovered a different approach. Maybe both ideas were good, but only when you do them together. 

In his book Creative Quest, Questlove describes his process for “micro-mediations.” He says, “These are brief and intense phases of departure from the self. They bring you out of the moment…into a different kind of moment, just for a moment, and then they return you to the exact same place you were before.” 

Being teleported away from my problem? That sounds nice. 

“[Micro-meditations] engage both parts of my brain, the part that's right in the moment, pushing against a task, and the part that's considering the moment from afar. They're a ground survey and an aerial view.” 

Reading this gave me a new idea on how to approach stressful moments. I didn’t need to choose between zooming in or zooming out—I needed to zoom in and zoom out. 

Now, when I encounter a moment of stress, I try Questlove’s micro-meditation. 

I imagine myself zooming all the way out: out of the room I’m in, out of the city I’m in, out of the country I’m in. I imagine the earth getting smaller and smaller as I keep zooming out into the heavens. I imagine our galaxy. How strange and wonderful it is that I exist. 

Next, I zoom all the way in—I zoom in past the politics, I zoom in past what people think of me, past my own ego. I keep zooming in until I’m only focused on the issue at hand. What’s the problem? What are some solutions? How can I be more engaged, and solve these problems? 

I have a bad habit of trying to keep pain at arm’s length. Arm’s length is a bad distance. It’s better to give your problems a hug, and while you do , look at that hug from the perspective of Saturn. By choosing to zoom all the way out and also zoom all the way in, I get the perspective I need to experience gratitude, and I’m putting my mind firmly in the present to solve problems effectively.