Emptying Your Mind

One of the biggest reasons that Sundays (and Mondays) can be so difficult is because our mind starts racing with anticipation of the week ahead.

All of the things you need to do at work.

Meetings you have coming up.

Presentations.

Family responsibilities.

Appointments.

Your own personal habits.

There are times where all of these things start to force their way into our heads all at once - and it’s usually Sunday and Monday.

Not surprisingly, all of these thoughts and concerns can cause a great deal of anxiety and worry.

We think about these different obligations and worries over and over and over again until they actually happen.

But once we make it through them, do we achieve peace of mind?

Maybe for a day or two (at most).

But before we know it, we find ourselves back in the storm of our thoughts.

Is there anything that can be done to avoid - or at least shorten - this process?

Yes, thankfully there is.

If you ever just want to temporarily stop the madness and clear your head, then you have to literally empty your mind.

It is the most effective method I have come across (at least for myself).

So what does that mean - to empty your mind?

It is actually fairly straight forward.

You need to write.

And I don’t mean write a story or a poem or a blog post.

Just put pen to paper and let your hand do the rest.

This is a practice I found from Julia Cameron’s renowned book The Artist’s Way, a great self-guided journey to rediscovering your own creativity and identity.

In the book, Julia calls this process her “morning pages” and describes it as follows:

“Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing,
done first thing in the morning. *There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages*–
they are not high art. They are not even “writing.” They are about
anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes
only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and
synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put
three pages of anything on the page...and then do three more pages tomorrow.”

Don’t overthink it.

The key for me was committing to the “stream of consciousness” of the entire exercise.

Letting my hand literally write whatever thoughts I had going through my head.

Don’t worry about sentence structure or grammar or syntax or even spelling - just write exactly what you are thinking.

You will probably bounce from one random thing you see to a person you have been thinking about to something you don’t like about yourself to something you have coming up and so on and so on.

But getting all of those thoughts out of your head and onto a sheet of paper does wonders.

When I finish writing, I just rip the pages off my notepad and throw them away.

No re-reading.  No reflection or analysis.  Just let them go.

You will be amazed at how clear your head feels going into the rest of your day - I guarantee it.

But be sure to try it first with handwriting - not typing on the computer.

I’ve found that putting pen to paper and ensuring that my hand just keeps moving - even if most of the text is illegible (which it usually is) - is much more effective.

When I type on a computer, my hands can’t help but try to correct errors or rewrite stuff to make it sound better.

Handwriting forces you to avoid that tendency.

And then you get the satisfaction of throwing away balls of paper like they do in the movies! :)

The best part?  You don’t even have to do it first thing in the morning (although that is particularly effective).

You can try it right now.

It will feel silly at first - but just keep writing.

You may start cursing yourself out in the words - but just keep writing.

You may write wild and ridiculous things that make no sense - but just keep writing.

And once you reach the end of 3 pages, stop.

Give it a try and see how you feel.

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