Mind dumping - a form of journaling

In talking with a valued guide about my path in life, I was reminded of a writing practice that more than a few writers have encouraged. Julia Cameron, author of "The Artist's Way", wrote a book called "The Writing Diet" after she noticed that a lot of her students were losing weight without going on a diet. The first tool she listed is the "morning pages." Other authors call it a mind dump.

Is it journaling? Yes, and no. It can be done in a journal, but it's meant to be done first thing after waking up. (Okay, maybe you need to take care of a few critical things first, but otherwise...) You're trying to empty your mind of whatever is lingering from the dreams and the previous day. To help you focus better on the day ahead.

Why am I going to resume it?

1. I believe clearing one's mind is helpful.
This is only partly connected with yoga. Mostly, it's about getting into the emotions that we don't always realize we've stored within ourselves. Sometimes they manifest as physical symptoms. (Mine is mostly tension, but I think there are others that are attributable to stress...) Consistently mind dumping chips away at the stored things, and frees us of a lot of stress.

Of course, a bit of mind dumping at night might be useful. To let go of the day and make it a bit easier to sleep by getting lingering things out of our system. (Then again... as a writer, sometimes we want things to percolate overnight...)

2. We might start noticing patterns we didn't see before.
I admit: those morning (or evening) pages won't make a lot of sense at first. We're tired, we might be resisting doing it, and all sorts of other things can make us unwilling to look back over them. But after some consistent writing, it can help you see a change in yourself, or notice recurring themes that you didn't know where such a big deal in your life.

I did an exercise similar to this at my guide's suggestion today. It reminded me of why I did mind dumping originally, and of Julia Cameron. It also led me to locate her website for "The Artist's Way." Seems worth exploring...

In any case, it also reminded me that I had this to return to. Since writing is such an important part of my psyche now, making myself write entries again is one more step toward being a writer for good. (Along with writing stories.)