Life isn't a smooth ride. Often, just as everything seems perfect, life throws us an unexpected curve that stops us dead in our tracks and music is the last thing on our minds. Don't have a meltdown when this happens--there are practical channels for all this energy. Here are some ideas of how to put all that steam to work.
EXERCISE
Some physical exertion is great to calm you down. If you have a nearby track or jogging trail, find some running shoes and some shorts and a t-shirt or sweat top and go for a long, fast walk or easy jog. A long swim if you can do laps in your local pool works, too. If you don't have either of these, or it's really too cold or hot out, get out your cleaning supplies and rubber gloves if you have them and try scrubbing your bathtub or shower or all your tile floors. Vacuum and sing really loud if you are alone. If you can go to a rocky seashore, nearby waterfall or dam or other noisy place, preferably out in nature (which is more calming), where you can just walk along and sing your heart out or yell if that helps. There's something chemically cleansing and destressing about exercising and doing something primal like yelling or crying that rids your body of stress, and it's free, unlike chemicals you might otherwise try for the same results.
JOURNAL IT
Even if you write more music than lyrics, journaling has been proven to help relieve tension. Write a letter to yourself about what is happening to you, and let it all out. Write a letter to the person or thing you are annoyed at if it helps as well or instead. If you have a safe place you can do this, like an ashtray (outside if you have a sensitive fire alarm), or a fireplace, burn the letter or letters. Sometimes burning it makes you feel as good or better than the writing does, as if it is taking it out of your life, and destroying the anger behind it. Write a letter about how you can solve your problem, now, and perhaps even do a lyric or at least a free verse poem about it, just to help you point that energy in a more positive direction.
TAKE STEPS
Now that you've at least given yourself some ideas of what you can do to solve your current dilemma, what's the first step you mentioned in the list you made earlier? If that is something you can't really do, start another list, and think up things between where you are now and that first step that need doing, first. Often it is just a matter of thinking up the things between A and F, then even breaking those into sub-steps until you find something that is possible right now. Now, do that step, as long as it is practical and legal. Stealing money and/or killing someone are never solutions. If you can sell Aunt Bertha's ugly collectible lamp you really don't like so you can fix your flat tire, that is a solution. You will think of something. If you weren't creative, you wouldn't be a songwriter.
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