Brain-dumping — A small thing that’s becoming a big part of my self-care
Don’t forget to put the washing away, buy shampoo, did I send that message at work, sort my sleep pattern out, I must see the dentist soon, is now a good time to be thinking about buying an apartment, should I go back to the gym, I need some time off work, my car number plate keeps falling off.
That’s just a glimpse into 5 minutes of my mind as my head hits the pillow ready to go to sleep. Lockdown has screwed with all of us in different ways. For me, my sleep has been terrible recently— I’m often tired no matter how much sleep I get, I’m overthinking things way more than I used to, and the regular headaches I thought I’d kicked years ago have slowly been creeping back.
Brain-dumping all of my thoughts into a notebook has been my way of trying to get all of those things spinning around in my head, out of my head. I’m trying to get into the habit of doing it every night before bed, but especially on the nights where my brain suddenly seems to be concerned about things that happened 5 years ago. My therapist (yep, I have a therapist now — one for another blog post), suggested I try this technique to help my brain slow down and hopefully help me to start getting a better nights sleep.
And you know what? It’s really helping. There’s something about putting pen to paper and seeing things move from my head to the page in front of me, and then closing the notebook and putting it away for the night that helps put some distance between myself and my thoughts.
Each night, before I settle in to go to sleep, I take 10–15 minutes to sit with my notebook in silence. No distractions, just me being fully present with my mind, ready to listen to everything it has to say. I sit there and listen, writing down everything that comes to mind, whether it’s a thought, a feeling, or something I need to remember to do, until my mind quietens, and has nothing left to say.
There’s only 2 rules that I have when doing this;
- The notebook doesn’t get opened again until I’ve had some time to myself in the morning.
- Every thought, no matter how small or insignificant, gets acknowledged and written down.
Once I’ve had an hour or so to myself in the morning, I go back to the notebook and read over all of the stuff from the night before. I try my best to do something about everything that I’ve written down, whether that’s adding it to my to-do list for the week, crossing it off if it’s irrelevant, or marking it if it’s a thought to come back to later.
I haven’t been doing it long enough to know whether it’s helping my sleep or headaches, but it’s definitely helping my mind to slow down and is helping me to find some headspace without 101 things cluttering up my head.
It might seem like a small thing, but spending 10–15 minutes fully present with myself and my mind with no distractions before going to sleep is slowly becoming a big part of my self-care. And if I’ve learned one thing during lockdown, it’s the importance of being intentional about my self-care and looking after my wellbeing.
