It is April ya’ll! You know what time it is. Its time for spring cleaning… We’re not talking about your house though. We are talking about your mind using a stream of consciousness.
We are a month into our Safer-At-Home Order. I know for myself, that my brain is going crazy. Crazier than usual. My mind keeps racing and not just before I go to bed. It’s racing ALL.THE.DAMN.TIME.
Do you feel the same way?
You do? Let me share with you how I started using the stream of consciousness or brain dump as I like to call it to clear my mind and get focused.
What is a stream of consciousness?
Many of you may not realize that you kind of already do a stream of consciousness internally. Britannica defines stream of consciousness as a narrative technique in nondramatic fiction intended to render the flow of myriad impressions—visual, auditory, physical, associative, and subliminal—that impinge on the consciousness of an individual and form part of his awareness along with the trend of his rational thoughts.
I don’t know about you, but I don’t get that.
How I dumbed it down for myself to understand was “you write what you are thinking”. It is your inner monologue in written form. It’s like one of those word association games where I say “Red” and you say the first thing that pops in your mind. Except I am not there to say anything, you are alone with whatever is popping in your head and you write it down as you think it.
Would it help me?
It all depends on what you think. Do you think it would help you organize your thoughts and work through some things you may be harboring internally? I like to think of it as a positive even if I write down some bad things. This is the time to be 100% honest with yourself and just let your mind wander.
Writing down your stream has no consequences. This is a grammar and spelling mistakes-free area. No one is supposed to read your stream of consciousness writings. This is for you and for you only.
How do you write a good stream of consciousness?
It may take a little be to get used to. Even if you just start writing your to-do list. It’s a start. It’s getting those things out of your head and onto paper so you don’t have to remember them anymore. Things like that are just taking up room in your brain that is unnecessary. There is an art of getting shit done.
I mention this in every post because you guys know how much I love lists, but this is the one time I found it harder to write in a notebook because my hand couldn’t keep up with my thoughts. For a stream of consciousness, I found it easier to work on a computer and just write in a word doc.
Let me be clear a stream of consciousness does not have to be good. It has to be real and it’s okay if your first few tries you literally write “I don’t know what to write. My mind is blank.” Your brain is used to just thinking it automatically, but when you go to actually write it out you may freeze up. It is no biggy.
Who uses a stream of consciousness?
Anybody could use stream-of-consciousness. I find when I do a stream of consciousness I end up finding some ideas for blog posts in my writings. I think it could help people who have anxiety. They can write what is going through their mind and if it is something major they write it down. Ask yourself why? To dig a litter deeper. If you can’t answer the why now, come back to it later when your mind is clearer and you can dive deeper.
Not every day especially in the beginning is there going to be groundbreaking discoveries about who you are and why you do what you do. As I said previously it’s okay if your brain freezes and only thinks “ching chongs ping pongs potatoes”.
What is an example?
I am not going to give you examples from my personal stream of consciousness word doc, but I am going to do one right now while writing this blog to see where it takes me. If you would like to see how a verbal stream of consciousness goes check out the video on my Youtube channel.
If you watch the Youtube video I was correcting spelling errors in the video, but not all. It is just a habit of mine because of blogging I like to fix my mistakes right then and there. I AM A PERFECTIONIST! What errors I do see right now I am not going to fix even though IT IS BUGGING ME! I did not fix them.
Example:
Laundry
dishes
wash the cat dishes
think about changing the cat’s food, their shits stink
get more cat treats
or make homemade cat treats
you know what happened last time you did that…
they hated them. Maybe they hated the flour.
I need to finish cleaning the house. I don’t feel like it. Why?
Why? Because I’m tired. Because I am tired of sweeping a mopping every day.
Mike needs to clean up the backyard.
I need to check on our plants
I should turn the light on in the laundry room for the plants
What is making me unmotivated?
More Examples
I’M BORED.
I AM TIRED OF BEING IN THE HOUSE.
I WANT TO GO TO A THRIFT STORE
GOODWILL SALVATION ARMY
ANY RINKY DINK ONES WILL DO.
I WANT TO DO SOMETHING FUN!
CLEANING IS NOT FUN. ORGANIZING IS NOT FUN!!!!!
WHY CAN’T I HAVE A MAID?
I’M BORED IN THE HOUSE AND I’M IN THE HOUSE BORED.
SOMEBODY COME GET ERR SHE DANCING LIKE A STRIPPER
CAROLE BASKIN KILLED HER HUSBAND WHACKED HIM.
OH GOD TIKTOK.
I DOWNLOADED IT AS A JOKE AND I ACTUALLY LOVE IT!!
AHHHHHHHHHHHH
I CAN’T THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE TO WRITE.
MY BRAIN IS EMPTY.
Hope this helped
I hope this helped you guys in finding ways to declutter your mind. I know my mind feels a little bit better. Not particularly excited I wrote about TikTok. A stream of consciousness does not have to make sense. Remember It doesn’t have to be perfect it is just there to get all of the thoughts out of your head. It could just be a to-do list or lyrics to a song. It can be whatever you want. Spring cleaning your mind to get rid of the semi-useless crap in your head to focus on the more important things.
Until next time, have a good day!
This Is Like a mind detox. I think that sometimes is very hard in this quarantine time. And we need to do it.
This is just what we need to do right now! Let our minds just go to where they need to. A great idea to give ourselves a break and see how we benefit!
Yeah. This is definitely the time to do a mind detox. Thanks for the advice!
wow, i’ve never heard of this before. I’m always making lists like these. never knew it had a name lol I learn something new every time I visit your blog
You are very welcome!
Are you in my thoughts right now? I really feel llke you know I need to clear my thoughts
Me too girl, me too. I have bee feeling so overwhelmed with everything going on and trying to keep busy. I guess I have just been driving myself crazy.
Mindtox,I didn’t know a word existed.i honestly need to clear my mind.
I didn’t know mindtox was a thing either, but apparently I needed it bad.
It’s amazing how the mind can control our mood, body, etc. There are times where I do need to think before doing something or else I don’t feel good or productive at all.
xo,
Anna
❥ https://www.annalovelife.com/
It is amazing. I find myself having more energy since I have been clearing out my mind. I have been able to focus more on the things I need to get done instead of feeling weighted down.
I like mind detox. It does help me to think more openly, and gain more awesome ideas.
Just from the week of doing it I have come up with at least 5 blog posts. It is amazing that it clears my mind, makes me relaxed and gives me ideas for content.
I do some schedules to about my housing chores and I’m so enjoy to do it. Mind detox. sounds great idea for me Happy weekend.
I am all about lists for my house, but I never deep dive to anything in my mind. I just deal with it all.
I have so many lists going on: one for home life, one for work, and one for my blog. And they are ongoing but they don’t really bother me, but make me happy as I can organize my thoughts better.
That’s all I wanted was a place to put all of my thoughts. I never thought to write in a journal, which is stupid because I used to write in a diary when I was younger. I think because my older sister use to go through my diary when I was younger and made me feel bad for what I was writing made me stop and block it out.
Cool. Reading this made me want to have a mind detox. 🙂
You should. I find it very therapeutic.
worth reading it . We really need to detox our mind sometimes and let then mind feel some peacefulness
I feel at peace after writing and getting everything off my chest and out of my mind.
I agree with this! I do this in the morning to sort thinks out (and my priorities) and it serves as my ‘outline’ of activities for the day. I can be a bit meticulous when it comes to doing things (big or small) and having a list (even though some don’t make sense) gives me the sense of organization. Thanks for the great tips!
I agree I use it to get things off my chest I wouldn’t normally say but think. I think that takes a toll on you too when you hold in things and never get to say what you wanted to.
Spring is the season of love. Clear the mind and jump into the seea of love!!! 🙂
I am jumping right in my friend!
What a great topic. People love to talk about physical spring cleaning but the mental and conscience spring cleaning is important as well.
It really is. Since starting I find myself with more energy to do the things I need to do around the house.
A friend and I were recently talking about this. We spend so much time organizing and declutting our homes but what about our minds? Love this.
Exactly, I spend so much time figuring out how to clean and organize my house for better efficiency but not my mind. This stream of consciousness really helped calm my nerves.
Very insightful and great for building mental strength! Thanks x
100%. I find myself wanting to journal multiple times throughout the day just to calm me.
Great topic.
Thank you Bindu.
This is so helpful! It is so important to rid your mind of worries, especially during a time like this.
Yeah, my mind was racing trying to do all the things. Writing everything in my brain out really helped calm me.
Yes, It is very helpful! Mind detox sounds a good idea for me too. Thanks for the share.
It has really been helping me lately clear my mind.