Release Overwhelm with This Simple Technique
One of the most common complaints I hear from clients is that they feel overwhelmed. Most people really want to do a good job with their lives. They want to be loving partners, caring parents, thoughtful friends, clever and witty dinner guests, devoted daughters and sons, and conscientious professionals at their jobs.
We all have great intentions, but balancing all of those demands can get tough. One of the best tools to help you surf the waves of overwhelm is to do a daily Brain Dump.
A Brain Dump is when you sit down with some kind of writing tool, it might be your laptop or a piece of paper and a pen. Once you get settled, set a timer for 10-15 minutes. During that time, let all of the swirling thoughts in your head flow out of your brain, through your hands and onto the page. Allow it to all dump it all out. Don’t edit it. Don’t try to shape it. Imagine you’re taking a basket filled with odds and ends and you’re tipping out on the dining room table.
Right now, you may feel that a Brain Dump is unnecessary and therefore aren’t interested. Our brain is a part of our physical body. Our bodies need ways to get rid of excess. If you’re too hot you sweat. Part of eating and drinking is needing to go to the bathroom. You swallow too much air, you burp, too much gas, you toot. Your thoughts need a release too.
A Brain Dump is the fart of the overwhelmed mind.
Routinely doing a Brain Dump releases the built up pressure in your mind. It keeps those pervasive thoughts from spinning and spinning and spinning because it gives them somewhere to go. They have an exit strategy. As you write, they spin, swirl and rattle down through your hand and onto the page, where they land before you, still and observable.
Imagine a dog chasing his tail and then asking him to sit. He obediently does and waits for the next command. This is what happens with your thoughts. You drain them out where they SIT and STAY, at least for a bit.
Sound good?
Now that you’re ready to give Brain Dumps a try, let’s explore what a Brain Dump IS and what it IS NOT.
A Brain Dump IS:
Easy
Messy
A stream of consciousness writing
An experiment to see what comes out when you just let words flow without judgment
A way to release the pressure of your thoughts each day
A place to say things you could never say anywhere else
Private-meant for your eyes only
Relatively short (15 minutes or so)
A Brain Dump IS NOT:
Difficult
Tidy and Organized
Highly structured
An essay
Graded or edited by anyone, including yourself
A time to practice creating powerful metaphors or weaving colorful language
Meant to be shared with other people
If you’re new to Brain Dumping, you might not know where to start.
Here are a few prompts to start if you’re stuck:
How are you feeling?
Where are you feeling stuck?
What are some of your relationships like right now?
What surprised you today? Bored you? Annoyed you? Energized you?
What is going well?
If you could really speak your mind, what would you say? What might be the reaction?
What do you feel like you are learning lately?
What feels impossible to get right?
What do you wish were different? What is great?
You will know when you are on the right track with your Brain Dumping when:
It’s boring to read.
You write something you don’t want anyone else to read.
You misspell words.
It jumps all over the place.
You think the process is stupid, you are stupid, life is stupid and I am stupid for suggesting this...and then you feel a bit better.
Here’s an example:
Date: April 24, 2019 Time: 2:46pm
I am so tired. I cannot believe that a person can actually be this tired. I dreamt of a bear carrying me down a mountain last night. For some reason the bear felt so safe. It is the safest I have felt in a dream for a long time. I tried falling back to sleep but it didn’t work. Jane is bugging the crap out of me. If she talks about her son getting into Yale one more time my head might explode.
Today I have to take Joe to the orthodontist. Braces are so expensive. Hawaii or straight teeth? This is a new guy so I hope we like him. Paying for another set of braces is not my favorite way to spend money, but straight teeth look so nice. I am so grateful to my parents for my own teeth. Madonna did well with her space between her teeth, but I am glad not to have to finagle that myself...
Bored yet? GOOD! Then it was done correctly! You get the idea.
WHERE YOU MIGHT GET STUCK:
You might need to write about something that you really don’t want to risk anyone else ever seeing. This is a real and valid concern. If this is true for you, then this is what I invited you to try.
Use a piece of paper and a pen or a pencil. Do your brain dump. Get it all out. Then, when you are finished, tear it up into several pieces. Take the pieces and crumple them up in a ball. Turn on the faucet, run that ball of paper under the water. Squeeze it out and throw it away. No one is going to be able to pull that apart and put those pieces back together. This is also WAY less conspicuous than burning it. Everyone wants to burn things up. Please do not do this. Burn a candle, don’t burn your Brain Dumps.
Try a Brain Dump. Set a timer for 5 minutes. See what happens. It’s free and very effective. After all, who doesn’t want to feel a little less overwhelmed right now?