Have you ever felt a little foggy or a little “blah,” but you don’t know why?  This happened to me a few weeks ago. I didn’t know how to even articulate what I was feeling or why…I just knew I felt off.  I thought it would pass, but it didn’t.  

“The Basin of the Mind”

I love how Zora Neal Hurston describes this partial awareness of self in her book Their Eyes Were Watching God:

 “There is a basin in the mind where words float around on thought and thought on sound and sight. Then there is a depth of thought untouched by words, and deeper still a gulf of formless feelings untouched by thought.”

On that day a few weeks ago, my “basin” felt like a cesspool of formless feelings and words just outside the reach of my cohesive thought.  I didn’t know how to even get a handle on my own thoughts and emotions; I became a victim of my own thoughts.

The Power of Pencil and Paper

Our thoughts have power over us when we don’t know what they are.  If we’re not aware of them, we can’t choose whether or not we want to think them. We are at their mercy.  

But there’s a way we can take back control over our thoughts, a way to stop our unconscious mind from dominating our day.  The weapons we need:  a pencil and a blank sheet of paper.   

When I was feeling the “blahs” a few weeks ago, I began to empty my brain onto the paper.  I wrote down all sorts of thoughts—whatever floated by. It looked something like this:

I feel blah.
I hate winter.
I’m cold.
I’m worried about my daughter’s grades.
I’m a bad mom–I should have helped her more with school.
I hate feeling this way.
I can’t seem to stop feeling this way.
My baby is acting out today.
I don’t know why.
I have so much to do.
I’m not sure how to arrange the pictures on the wall.
I didn’t record my spending yesterday.
I never stick to things I plan to do.
I need a haircut.M

Writing Things Down Brings Relief and Hope

Getting all my thoughts out was cathartic—it cleared up space in my mind. Instead of vague thoughts and feelings floating around in my “basin,” I identified concrete thoughts and feelings.  I didn’t feel confused about why I felt so blah… I could see I was feeding myself a whole string of negative thoughts that were causing me to feel overwhelmed, discouraged, guilty, and miserable!  I realized some of the thoughts weren’t even true, or were more extreme than how I really felt.  With all of it in front of me I felt more able to start working on them instead of worrying about my thoughts!  Almost immediately, I began to feel some relief and some hope. I hadn’t even moved from my chair.  A pencil is a powerful weapon.

Benefits of Writing Down Thoughts

1. Clears Your Mind

Writing things down clears space in your brain because the brain doesn’t have to constantly try to store and remember all the thoughts.  David Allen says in hisbest-selling book, Getting Things Done, “Our minds are for having ideas, not storing them.”  Trying to keep too much in our brain slows us down, just like keeping too many files on our desktop slows a computer system down.  Our mental RAM speeds up when we clear our thoughts off our brain’s desktop and put them on paper.  Once the brain has more space, it is able to analyze, get rid of, solve or act on our thoughts. 

2. Clarifies Your Thoughts and Feelings

Writing thoughts down on paper helps you put specific words to vague feelings and ideas. When they are floating around in the mind sometimes it’s difficult to fully articulate or understand them.   As you write them out and see them on paper you can begin to see them more clearly. Sometimes you will even notice patterns of your thoughts that can help in untangling them.  

Writing down your thoughts is a bit like looking at an impressionist painting far away. Up close it looks like globs of paint, but as you back away you can begin to see shapes and characters and scenes. The beauty and meaning of the painting is more clear as you look at it as a whole.  

3. Eliminates the Confusion Layer of Emotion

Sometimes just placing words to how we feel is enough to feel relief.  When you feel yucky, it’s easy to ask yourself “Why am I feeling this way?”  Underlying that question is the question “What’s wrong with me?”  This often adds frustration or shame to an already messy ball of emotions.  Being able to name what you are feeling brings some measure of relief because it becomes clear what is causing the emotion.  We realize there is nothing wrong with us—our thoughts are just creating feelings. 

4. Helps Process Emotions

Emotions are the brains way of sending us a message to protect us in some way.  When we try to resist or shove down our emotions, they actually get bigger—it’s like the brain’s way of trying to protect us. Often, we resist emotions without realizing it because we don’t even know what we’re feeling.  As we write emotions down and recognize what we’re feeling, we can process the emotions.  Interestingly as we do this, the emotion often goes away because it’s done it’s job.  

5. You Can Decide If You Want to Keep the Thoughts    

Once you can see your thoughts clearly, you may decide to change your thoughts.  All thoughts are optional.  While they may “feel” true, it’s important to remember that all thoughts are choices.  As you challenge them a bit, you may be able to see things in a different way.  

It’s like cleaning out a closet…you think you need everything in there, but as you pull everything out you realize you don’t need 25 pairs of socks and that several things in there don’t fit or are for the wrong season anyway!  It’s hard to see until you pull them all out though.  

Dr. Beilock, professor at the University of Chicago, says, “When [you] write, [you] might reappraise the situation — thinking about what has to be done, rather than what [you] might lose.”

Dr. David Burns, former Stanford professor and author of The Feeling Good Handbook, explains, “Let’s face it–nearly all of us fall into the black hole of depression, anxiety, shame, and self-doubt at times.  Then it’s time to ask yourself what you’re telling yourself, write down your negative thoughts, identify the distortions in them, and substitute thoughts that are more positive and realistic. Sound too easy?  The results can be mind-blowing!”

Sometimes you may want to keep your thoughts—but at least you can choose them deliberately.

6. Creates Momentum Toward Solving a Problem

When our minds are full of thoughts, it feels overwhelming.  Overwhelm often paralyzes us.  We feel we don’t know what to do.  We feel unmotivated.  Getting thoughts, feelings and ideas out on paper gives us some momentum.  Instead of spinning in overwhelm, we take the first step forward in eliminating, solving, or evaluating our concerns or ideas.  Momentum is worth a lot.  

Wield the Power of the Pencil

If you have time to read this blog post, you have 5 minutes to get some amazing benefits from writing your thoughts down.  Take out a piece of paper write now and write down your thoughts.  Don’t sensor anything.  No order or structure is necessary.  Just write down all the thoughts that come to mind.  

Once you have a list, read over the thoughts you’ve written down.  Notice how the thoughts are making you feel.  Notice any patterns.  Notice any emotions you didn’t realize you were feeling.  Do you believe everything you wrote down?  Do you want to keep thinking everything there?  Notice how you feel before and after writing down your thoughts.