Declutter your mind, I know a way.

Free writing.

It's powerful.

It’s also a relief. It’s like a painkiller.

It’s like this feeling that we all sometimes dream of… soul freedom, head space, fresh air.

When you just want it out of you - whatever it is - the anxious thoughts, the bad memories, the excitement overload, the feelings, the fears, all the mess in your head, that thing you just need to get the fudge out of your system cuz it’s driving you nuts - free write.

It works, I swear and I promise, and it might sound overwhelming but this is arguably the most relieving thing you could do for yourself. 

Just write. Say it all. Raw, unedited, uncensored, undisturbed.

No dress code, no respect.

BRUTAL HONESTY.

Write it all out: say what hurts you, say where you’ve gone wrong, how you felt, how you feel now, how much it bothers you, speak feelings, speak scenarios - every single thing your mind produces in that moment of writing/typing - get it out.

Speak loud, speak proud, speak shameless, just say the truth.

Nobody’s ever gonna read this one. Nobody’s ever gonna judge.

Just speak. You need to let it out.

Otherwise it’s gonna keep rolling in your head - the same words, the same sentences, the same fears, the same battles over and over and over again.

It might be hard, and long, and overwhelming to start. 

Where do you even start?!

It honestly doesn’t matter. 

Where is your mind right here right now? Start here and just let it out, out, out, out, all of it, pour, pour, pour, until there is nothing left.

I do this often because it’s powerful. I’d just scream and shout and swear and cry and let it all out and then come to the nice part - I’d be grateful, I’ll appreciate, I’ll see the beauty or the irony, I’ll tell myself it’s not that serious, I’ll see it on paper and I’ll laugh at my fears and doubts. Or sometimes delete it straight after cuz it’s too ugly.

But it’s got to be out.

All of it.

Now that I got it out in the form of emotion, let me give you the rationale of it.

Why is free writing ABSOLUTELY AMAZING for you (and for every single human)

It sets you free

No joke. You would never understand if you don’t try, but it really feels like getting out of soul prison.

We all get overwhelmed with our thoughts and feelings, especially with those recurring ones that just keep coming back - stronger, louder, sometimes irrational but convincing. Inner dialogues that we all have with ourselves. Unexplained cravings, drives, ideas.

Experts estimate that the mind thinks between 60,000 – 80,000 thoughts a day.

All of this mess is just wingling in your head. It can make you anxious, or excited, or sad, or angry, but that’s all it does unless you act on in it somehow.

As soon as it makes you feel like JUST SHUT THE FUDGE UP - YOU’RE SAYING THIS FOR THE 100TH TIME - just get it out. Write it down and let it rest on the paper so you can take a breath and chill.

How exactly do you do that though?

Take a piece of paper or open a google doc like me and start writing/typing fast and fierce without absolutely no boundaries - in this very moment fudge punctuation, grammar, logic or flow. Just write everything as it comes to your mind. EVERYTHING. Thoughts, feeling - write it all.

The FREEDOM after such exercise it gold. PURE GOLD.

It gives you confidence

Wtf?! How writing about all my fears and doubts and emotional breakdowns can give me confidence?! This is stupid and highly irrational! - you might think

But nah, the more honest you can be with your own self, the more willing you will be to face your demons, your weak self, your unpolished personality - the better you will get at handling it.

Inspired by David Goggins, I need to quote him here...

The most important conversations you’ll ever have are the ones you’ll have with yourself. Tell yourself the truth! That you’ve wasted enough time, and that you have other dreams that will take courage to realize, so you don’t die a looser*.

―David Goggins

The journey to your best self starts with self awareness. To be able to get better you first need to know what’s wrong with you. Face it, own it, and only then start working towards improvement.

We often think we’re so smart. The little arrogant voice in our heads goes:

I know what’s wrong with me. I don’t need to write sh*t. 

Or 

Nothing’s wrong with me - it’s just that I’m unlucky.

Yeah right.

'The most important decision we make is whether we believe we live in a friendly or hostile universe.'

said Einstein and it’s not just a cool quote, I say.

Sometimes I read my vomit of words and I can’t even believe I wrote. Sounds weird but if you do let yourself fully get into such flow… without absolutely any boundaries at any point… You might surprise yourself like never before.

You will see patterns, the angles of your worldview, the lenses, and possibly the big picture.

I know why I am the way I am. I know why I want what I want. Now I can pick it up with my consciousness and do something about it.

Knowledge is power. Knowledge is confidence.

You need to clearly know what you’re about to get the confidence that you can sort yourself out. Sort the world out.

It teaches you to trust the process

We are so caught up at always getting it right. Whatever it is - our jobs, our relationships, our health and fitness, our looks - we’re so caught up at getting to that ‘finish line’ that level of ‘perfection’ that we end up not living it.

Trusting and understanding the process equals pretty much living consciously. 

Remember that neither yesterday nor tomorrow exists. 

It’s the concept of time that us humans invented so we can make sense of life but really and truly the only real moment is the one here and now.

We’re the only living beings on our planet that worry about that stuff. Have you ever gone to your dog and been like: ‘Yo let’s go for a walk!’ and him just staring at the window nostalgically goes ‘Sorry bro, don’t feel like it’ because he’s contemplating tomorrow.

We don’t know if dogs have imagination but the fact that we do is absolutely fascinating - we don’t want to ever lose that because everything we see and experience around us is the result of somebody’s imagination - roads, buildings, gadgets, the internet. And this ‘someone’ immersed in their moment, got into flow, and just created in the moment of creation. Yes, he/she needed the past to identify a problem and produce a solution, and there were glances at the future to convince the self that this imaginary thing could become a reality (the imagination itself), but in essence, the process of creating to its full capacity requires the human to fully immerse in the present moment and get into flow of just being, just doing, trusting the process, trusting him/herself.

How does free writing help with that?

When you’re free writing you’re allowed to fully and truly express yourself. No fear of judgment, no fear of failing. You can’t fail at this and you can’t get it wrong. You just do you.

It’s the same with creating things that are new and innovative and YOURS. Even the jobs, the relationships, whatever - really and truly there is no right way. There is your way, but you need to FIND YOUR WAY. 

We’re all biased. We’ve always been told to do it a certain way. But it’s one way we were told at school, and another at uni, and another in our first job, and another in our second. The right way is YOUR WAY. People that find their way are the people that make things that matter - unique things, special, valuable, different. But to find your way you need to trust the process of discovery.

You just need to do YOU fearlessly.

But first learn how to be you fearlessly. In a flow. No judgment. No rules.

It’s a skill.

It inspires you

Again, this might sound odd, unrealistic, wtf x2, BUT it does inspire.

How can your flaws written down on paper can inspire you?!

You’ll see yourself, once you start typing it all, all that’s inside of you, you’ll also see light, sparkles, ideas - some genius ideas! Once you spit out all overwhelming emotions, the good stuff will start coming out too - remember you’re typing everything that comes to your mind, and all those ideas that you thought about but never took action on, all those jokes, all those moments of gratitude and joy - they are still there - just gotta make some space for them.

In the process of writing, I personally learn a lot. It might sound crazy again but getting it out sometimes really connects the dots to a point where I go...

OOOOOH, THAT’S WHY I FEEL THAT WAY.

OOOOOH, THAT’S THE REAL REASON FOR WANTING THIS.

OOOOOH, NOW I SEE WHERE I WENT WRONG.

OOOOOH, IT’S NOT EVEN ABOUT ME, MOVE ON.

Inspiration also comes in other forms. For example - free writing can have a topic, it doesn’t necessarily have to be because of feeling some type of way - it could be because you want to express an idea but you’re struggling to do it ‘the right way’. 

With free writing there ain't no right way. It’s just a way. Just type it out - type all of the clutter that’s going through your mind, all exciting bits, all uncertainties, all the stuff that doesn’t make sense - just type it out without paying attention to anything in that very moment - no punctuation, grammar, bullet points, or the environment around you - just type, type, type, type until nothing left to say in your head. 

Then put it away. Let it rest. For an hour or a day… or a week. Come back, pick it up and start cleaning, structuring, and making sense of it. You’ll find diamonds in there.

It does whatever you need it to do for you

.

The above explains what free writing does for me. I felt like sharing it because it’s beautiful, it’s inspiring, it’s pretty cool.

What is does for you is really what you want it to do for you.

Some use it as a form of meditation for example. 

How?

We all know that meditation is good for us, right, and we might have experienced the benefits of it ourselves, but there are just times that your brain wouldn’t shut the fudge up. It just doesn’t work. You can’t focus on your breath. You can’t focus on body scanning. You can’t even repeat what the guy from headspace said 2 sec ago because your mind is wandering hardcore and so busy thinking about stuff. It’s just simply impossible.

Well, what a great opportunity to empty the bin. Just get it all out. Pick up your phone, pause it, open notes and start typing - no overthinking, just typing, and no worries, you can delete the note straight away, just get it out for now.

Phew.

Clean.

Try again. Or maybe not. Maybe you already have your headspace by doing this ;)

Ok, I believe I gave you pretty cool reasons to try.

Now, I will give you a free trial for a week. After all, the profits after are for you anyways.

Let me know what it does for you.

Maria

btw I am on Medium.