Brain Dumping

There are so many times I have ideas and thoughts, but it just seems like my mind gets so cluttered with all the things that pop up into it at random. Then the idea is lost, and forgotten.  This same thing goes for when I want to journal about something, or even to put together thoughts for a blog. Most of the time when I do blog, it is on a wild whim, when the thought comes to mind, and I just spew it forth.

Some way, or some how I came across a youtube video of someone discussing a notebook. Oh, there are others out there that love notebooks? Well, of course there are. Some folks get so very creative with their journals. I am not artsy by any sense of the imagination. But I do enjoy looking at what others do with their journals.

Then going through a few of the videos, I heard the vlogger mention brain dumping. Hm, What is that? Basically its often what I do when I journal. However this is more of a way of just quickly getting the thoughts out. The mind can get so clutter trying to remember all these things. But truly the mind should be for thinking and thought processing, not necessarily just for storage of all those random loose strings. So it would be better use of your time to reallocate your mental energy for things that matter. 

So here are some ideas to clear the mind for things that matter. Create a space to brain dump. You can do this with a spare notebook, or use your phone to create lists. Some folks use google keep, evernote, reminders, or just a notepad.

1 - A place to do it
2 - Don't organize it
3 - Just get out those ideas
4 - Reallocating mental energy

There was a time I had this big event coming up that was using a lot of my energy trying to remember all these little details that popped up in my mind. So I would think about what clothes do I want to wear, do I need socks and shoes, or wearing sandals? Do I have enough milk to last for the weekend? How about thank you cards? Should I have a this or do I need to do that. Am I going to be gone from home long enough I need to keep spare insulin with me just in case. The thoughts could really run the entire gambit. So I had a spare notebook that I was using for just odds and ends. This one I grabbed and started jotting a list down. Most often my mind would be flooded with all these ideas at the time when I should be laying my head down to quietly fall to sleep. But that broken record just would never allowed my mind to settle so that sleep could happen. When the thoughts were thrown onto the page, then my mind didn't have to keep reminding itself about this and that. Finally I would find my mind settling down so sleep could occur.

So, I had used the idea of a brain dump in the past and did not quite realize that was actually the case.  But today I really think that this is something I need to make more a part of my day, and also my writing process.  I have a couple of journals that are not that great quality, and wouldn't be something that would be worth archiving for using as a regular journal. Today I started it. Put in some of the ideas I mentioned above - and then when a thought popped in my head such as BLOG TODAY - Yup, that was written down and here I am actually putting that random thought into action. And reallocating my mental energy into a better productive outlet. 

Today I feel like there is a bit of mental clarity, and I have more writing to do. Might be some ideas for blogging, or for my personal journal. But there are ideas, and I need to start putting them into action. One of them is a notebook idea I came up with last night. That's another topic - and would be perfect for another journal entry on another day.  So stay tuned - just never know what might pop up on this blog. But hopefully there will be more useful, random stuff put forth. (That sounded better than spewed on the screen. LOL)

Mishelle