Rituals: Brain Dump
You know those days where there are too many thoughts, too many ideas and too many tasks zooming around the confines of your brain, all wanting your attention but never sticking around for long enough to be acted upon? Those days where the competing thoughts, ideas, projects, problems, grocery items, packing lists never stop rolling around your head, leaving you tired and prone to procrastination?
I’m no stranger to days like that, and what I’ve discovered is that the low-level anxiousness that accompanies this overwhelmingly active brain is one of the biggest obstacles to slow. When we can’t stop, we can’t think, we can’t act - we can’t slow down.
This is where the poetically named Brain Dump comes in. This week, as we continue to look at some of the everyday rituals we can use to create a little slow in our days, it’s all about getting it out on paper.
The Brain Dump is a ritual I use to great effect whenever I’m feeling a little overwhelmed, and in today’s episode I talk through exactly how I use it (not daily, but whenever I feel that familiar quickening of my thoughts) and how it helps me to calm down, find clarity, get mindful and start getting things done.
Essentially, it’s about getting everything out of your brain and on to paper, so you can restore some clarity and simultaneously free up a whole lot of mental energy, creating space where there was none previously. And it’s in this freeing of space that the Brain Dump helps us to find little pockets of slow in our days.
As always, we end the episode with an action we’d love you to try and this week it’s very simple: try the Brain Dump ritual once and see if it impacts your ability to slow down, get mindful and start moving forward again.
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Things to Check Out After Today’s Episode:
- Grab a copy of Destination Simple to learn more about single tasking, as well as eight other rituals that can help you slow down, even when life feels too busy