Are you facing a tornado of thoughts? Start writing. But what?

Earlier this year, a lot was going on in my life, especially on the relationship front that I was having boatloads of thoughts. Those thoughts seemed to have no end. I would get up, go out and listen to music for a few minutes but the music would detach me even more from reality and made me dwell into those thoughts even more. It didn't affect my work but it pretty much demolished my well-being. Going to the gym and the wholesome strength training would relax me for a few hours but at around 1:00 PM those thoughts would take over my mind.

Voice Memos

So, one day at five in the evening, when I was working in the office, I just went to the terrace and opened up the voice memos app on my iPhone and started recording. But what? I spoke whatever was on my mind. I even acted as my own counselor. And because I was focused on the present, my mind felt so much lighter, even though the thoughts were about the past as you shouldn't be living in the past. It not only helped me to feel free of all of that load but once I had recorded the whole ten minutes of rant in cringe-worthy voice, I listened to the recording.

While listening to the recording my mind processed that audio in an absolutely different manner. It was no longer about me or my ego. It became more of a situation where I was listening to someone else's issue and trying to give them advice. And as you might know that every one of us is way better at give genuinely great advice to others but when we are experiencing a similar situation in life we are just worst at thinking.

But what about writing?

Well, voice memos are great if you have a private space to speak into your phone because I let myself be extremely vulnerable while I'm recording my thoughts and it won't be pleasant for me if someone ends up overhearing my thoughts. Haha! I think you would mind it too. Anyway, after a few days of using voice memos as a way of clearing my thoughts, I started writing whatever I was feeling in my notes app. Initially, I would only write a scaffold of thoughts but soon enough I started exploring and going deeper into those thoughts and understanding why I was getting those particular thoughts even in the first place.

Writing is better than voice memos

I've already talked about the privacy aspect of voice memos, but there's one even more important aspect where writing is superior to voice memos. That is remembering. Not only when you write something you can easily go through and find where it was written but if it was digitally stored then it can easily be searched. But you also tend to remember what you wrote more than what you just spoke. So, if you had thought once and you went deeper while exploring it in writing then you are more likely to identify if the same or similar thought arises again in the future.

“Your soul takes on the colour of your thoughts” — Marcus Aurelius

So, if you really want to get rid of the burden of your thoughts, you should start writing or typing. And if you want to make it a habit it'll be beneficial for you to start journaling every day. I incorporate my thoughts into my daily journals. If you don't know how to start journaling or if you've ever tried it but failed to make it a habit then read more in this blog post.

That's it for this blog post and if you feel that you've something to add to this or you have a different perspective then share it and discuss it on r/StoicHuman or go to the Reddit discussion post for this blog post linked down below.

Stay healthy, Stay safe.

Follow our all-new weekly podcast on Spotify called "Stoic Human Podcast". Also available on other platforms like Apple Podcast, Google Podcast, Overcast, and more. Just search "Stoic Human Podcast".

[Discussion Post] Are you facing a tornado of thoughts? Start writing. But what? from r/StoicHuman