Do you have too much mind chatter taking up some vital headspace?
I have a really cool tool for you today that can actually save your life! Okay, well, that depends on if you tend to drive like I do (you’ll see what I mean).
Either way, it’s completely free, and it’s my favorite resource for tackling excess mind chatter that I’m sharing thanks to a recent question from one of my students in The Calming Toolkit.
What Do I Mean By Mind Chatter?
You know the thoughts of all the things you need to do that pop up throughout your day at the most inconvenient time… that’s what I mean.
Like when you’re trying to fall asleep, and instead of drifting off into a nice slumber, your to do list keeps running through your head taking up space like it owns the place. So instead of falling into an easy restful sleep, you end up either taking hours to do so, or you sleep feeling like you’ve been floating on the surface of being awake all night long.
Or maybe while you’re driving you all of a sudden realize, holy crap, I have just been driving for 10 minutes and I don’t know how I got here (no, that’s never happened to me before ).
Our lives are so busy and we often have a gazillion and one things to do every day. It doesn’t take long before we fill up our mind space with clutter of all the to do lists and tasks, and before you know it, you turn into a robot working in overdrive with too many things to do, no time to process the information, and especially, no time to rest.
What Is Wrong With Mind Chatter?
This is a problem though for many reasons as the lack of the brain having a chance to have some free space leads to a lot of problems and symptoms within the body, including:
- Disrupted sleep
- Digestion disturbances
- Sense of overwhelm
- Excess worry
- Anxiety and panic
- Poor nutrient absorption
- Lack of happiness
- Sense of solitude
But one of the most important is it creates a lot of stress throughout your whole body, which in turn creates the annoying problems that stress creates.
How Do You Declutter Your Mind?
This is the good part as this tool has been monumental in how I handle my mind chatter and I have recommended it to many others over the years and they have all agreed. The best part is, it’s completely free, and very easy to do. I call it brain dumping and it’s something I have been doing faithfully almost every day for at least 5 years now and it has completely changed my relationship with all the brain chatter (and as a Gemini, there’s a heck a lot of chatter going on in there ).
Many also ask me how I manage to get so much done and consistently create more offerings. This is my secret weapon as it helps not only my personal health, but also has been the key trick I have used to grow my business as well.
What Are Brain Dumps?
Brain dumps are simply the process of getting all the chaotic clutter out of your headspace and it can be done in a variety of ways depending on what you connect with the most. At the core of it, you simply spend a minute or two writing down all the thoughts going through your mind as a way to declutter the mind so there are less thoughts racing threw preventing you from relaxing.
How Do You Brain Dumps?
The process of brain dumping can be super simple or very elaborate, but simplicity is always my motto as it means you actually get it done. In order to do brain dumps you take whatever you are thinking about (primarily the things that for some reason you can’t let go of- whether you want to or not) and you jot them down somewhere so your mind has space again to breathe.
It sounds really simple because it is and it results in you being able to let down your shoulders a little because you know that information is still there for you if you ever need it again. Very often we hold onto thoughts because we fear we will forget them so when we start a habit of letting them out, the body can begin to feel lighter as the load is literally lessoned for the mind.
Then, those thoughts are there in one space for whenever you need them again. For example, if my mind is racing at night before bed because I have a new class idea that I’m excited about, I quickly jot down a few notes in my brain dump worksheet (see below) and then my chaotic mind chatter dissipates and I can know my notes are there for when I’m ready to see them again and actually have the mental space to do so.
Now you can keep it super simple or geek out on a more techy route.
Here are some ways you can do this:
- Old fashioned pen and paper
- Use a journal
- Create a Google Doc that you use to continuously add to (my personal method- see below)
- Use a form of tech that you already feel comfortable with. There’s a surplus of options out there but one of my favorite free tools is Trello where you can create boards (basically lists) of items you can move around.
What Do You Put In Brain Dumps?
This is easy. Anything and everything that runs through your mind that is taking up space. Now you can choose to limit it to only specific items like to do list items, or you can turn it into a way to track a lot of your thoughts. Whichever way you do it, the key is to have it be a tool that benefits you, rather than something that turns into another to do list task.
Here are some great things to consider adding to your brain dumps:
- When you feel like there’s a new idea that comes to your mind that you don’t want to forget
- Thoughts that are running through your mind when you’re trying to fall asleep (highly recommend this one)
- Things you are worrying about
- Things you want to achieve (think goals)
- Things you feel uncomfortable about or situations you are struggling with
Want A Free Brain Dump Worksheet?
Grab a free Brain Dump Worksheet below to use to put this into practice.
Here’s a bonus tip for reading all the way to the end… use your phone!
Save the brain dump worksheet to your phone so you can record brain dumps no matter where you are. Total gamechanger!
I hope this releases some mind chatter for you. Let me know what you think about this method if you give it a try!
