How To Untangle Your Mind With A Brain Dump - LittleCoffeeFox

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When your mind starts taking you in stress circles around all of the things you need to keep track of, pull out a pen and create a bullet journal brain dump list to help you release some of the mental pressure!

The Plague of a Messy Mind

Sometimes, your brain is a mess. You might be anxious, worried, stressed, or so full of ideas and random thoughts that you can’t focus on. It’s a frustrating condition that can lead to even more stress. I find that when my brain is especially restless and I’m feeling overwhelmed, I begin to fall out of my healthy routines and habits. How do you fix this overwhelming sensation? Well, I like to use a method called the brain dump.

What is a Brain Dump?

The brain dump exercise is simply the act of dumping all the contents of your mind onto a blank page as one might dump the contents of a purse onto a table. You are spilling out stressors, your nagging thoughts, your mental clutter, your pesky annoyances. Simply open up a valve in your mind and let all those thoughts flow out of your hand and onto your piece of paper. Write until you feel like the pressure inside of you is lessened and you can take a big breath. Then you will have achieved a brain dump.

Materials Used

• Leuchtturm 1917
• Tombow Dual Brush Pens
• Tombow Fudenosuke Brush Pen – Hard Tip
• Paper Mate Felt Tip Pens

Why Brain Dumps Work

You might think this sounds silly. Listing out your problems and anxieties on paper isn’t that big of a deal, right? How can that solve anything?

The reason the brain dump method is effective is that it allows you to capture abstract thoughts and make them corporeal. When you’re stressed or overthinking, you have a tornado of thoughts swirling in your head. The winds are whipping, the cows are flying, and nothing is able to be captured. A nagging worry might swing into your conscious for a moment, then a different thought, then a different thought. Eventually, the first nagging worry will swing by again, and it will continue to do so unless you pin it down. Trying to capture these thoughts with no tool is like trying to catch smoke with your hands. It’s impossible.

But if you turn to your brain dump notebook, you can nail things down in absolutes. Once you write something down, it can’t leave. It can’t take another cycle in the brain tornado to haunt you again – it’s right there on the paper, right where you left it. So you can work through all your thoughts and pin them down one by one. You can stop chasing after distractions and half-formed ideas and put them in the inescapable form of the written word, achieving self-awareness and mental clarity. You’ll be able to reclaim that brainpower for more positive feelings and activities, like gratitude journaling or creating a mind map.

What to Write in Your Brain Dump

Okay, so the brain dump is a powerful tool that works. But how do you know what to write when you sit down with your pen in hand? You can write a specific to-do list or tasks that you have been meaning to deal with, like:

• List of errands for the weekend
• Your grocery list
• Replant the wilting succulent
• Practice my hand lettering
• Gather addresses for Christmas cards
• Work on that looming paper
• Take the leftovers for work tomorrow
• Bullet journal spreads

However, your brain dump doesn’t have to be about a particular topic. You can just as easily write down a lot of things on your mind with no particular action plan or specific category, such as:

• Upcoming Las Vegas trip
• Camping and hiking
• Special occasions
• Yoga
• Stickers
• Politics
• Emails
• Trackers
• My coworker Cindy

If it’s something that bugs you on a regular basis, then it can go on the brain dump.

The Next Step

When you have written a brain dump and you feel satisfied with your work, you have a few options for your next step. You can look at your list, identify what is stressing you out, and make actionable steps to tackle those problems. That’s always a good option! In fact, if you want to explore a particular problem deeper, you can always use a List of 100 to further analyze a subject. Where brain dump notes are a shotgun blast, the List of 100 is a sniper. It allows you to work with one particular theme and delve into your subconscious in a truly unique way.

While making a plan of action is a solid next step, it isn’t the only one. You can always set down your pen and walk away. Sometimes, you don’t need to do anything in particular. You may feel like you should take action, that you need to go go go! However, there are moments where you simply need to acknowledge your problems and then take care of yourself. A brain dump is a way to take care of your own mental health by letting it serve as a sort of pressure valve for your life. It’s a great self-care exercise to reduce stress and clear your mind so you can take a bath in peace.

Untangle Your Brain

The next time you start to feel your emotions becoming overwhelmed with too much brain activity, pull out your favorite pen, settle in for a brain dump, and start writing. It doesn’t take long, but it is an effective way to help you tackle your problems, relax your mind, and take care of yourself. This regular maintenance is as important as cleaning – once you’ve emptied your brain of these pesky problems, you give yourself mental space for new ideas and thoughts to take root. So go ahead – take out your brain and give it a good shake with a brain dump!

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