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Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

scientificamerican.com

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Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#31

Post by dwaltrip »

layer8 wrote: post #22

The problem I have with this is that my thoughts come 10 or 20 times quicker than I can write them down. And while doing this writing exercise I’ll have meta-thoughts about the writing and the exercise. The thoughts hopelessly outrun the writing, and also the train of thoughts will be wildly different from what it would be when not attempting to write it down. I guess one still learns something from the exercise, but…

It sounds like you are putting too much pressure on yourself. You don’t have to write everything down. Just writing something, anything at all, no matter what it is, is great. That’s something to be proud of.

I find it very helpful to slow down, breathe, and regain connection to my body.

And you can stop whenever you want. Journaling is something you do for yourself — it shouldn’t feel like a chore.

Your journal is your safe place where you can dump your thoughts. It will never judge you :) It can receive anything you offer to it.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#32

Post by motohagiography »

prepend wrote: post #24
motohagiography wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's unbelievable how that campaign and even the hint of something like it here with internet mobs can obliterate the creative capacity of huge numbers of people. I write and make to understand things, and by example, I recently wrote about 12,000 words to get a yield of about 3,000 words of my best work. The stuff in that other 9,000 words will probably never see a screen again, but it had to come out to mine it for…

There’s a black mirror episode in the future about how LLMs trained on people’s discarded drafts start outing them for having disfavored opinions. Maybe through people’s digital AI ghosts (AIs made from people’s content after they die) start spouting racist stuff. So people are surprised to learn their friends and heroes were racist/capitalist/nickel back fans/etc Ends up being a programming error that didn’t properl…

Not giving a fuck is a superpower.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#33

Post by SoftTalker »

zingababba wrote: post #18

I've been journaling for something like 25 years now. The hardest yet most rewarding part for me is going back and reading my entries. Sometimes I have to force myself because I'm often revolted by what I've written during various periods however it has really helped me understand my moods.

Is it important to go back and read them?

The few times I've felt motivated to write down my thoughts were during periods of high personal stress and once they were on paper I put the notebook on a shelf. It sat for a while, and one day when I thought about it I tore up the pages and threw them away. They weren't anything I needed anymore, and I certainly didn't want anyone else to come across them.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#34

Post by numtel »

NalNezumi wrote: post #28

I think a lot of people put too much pressure on themselves when it comes to the advice "writing your thoughts down". Perfectionism, or the memories of being forced to take notes in school, kicks in and you start to look for how-to:s, format and guides. Very similar to meditation. The best meditation advice I got was to just sit down, focus on doing nothing and be OK with being bored. Not some breathing techniques, h…

Before I graduated from college, my aunt gave me the book, The Artist's Way, which prescribes this basic task as you've described as the foundational exercise for creativity. The suggestion given was 3 pages a day no matter what.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#35

Post by criddell »

numtel wrote: post #34
NalNezumi wrote: post #28

I think a lot of people put too much pressure on themselves when it comes to the advice "writing your thoughts down". Perfectionism, or the memories of being forced to take notes in school, kicks in and you start to look for how-to:s, format and guides. Very similar to meditation. The best meditation advice I got was to just sit down, focus on doing nothing and be OK with being bored. Not some breathing techniques, h…

Before I graduated from college, my aunt gave me the book, The Artist's Way, which prescribes this basic task as you've described as the foundational exercise for creativity. The suggestion given was 3 pages a day no matter what.

Did you pick up the practice? If so, what are your thoughts after doing it for some time?

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#36

Post by criddell »

rajataghi wrote: post #5

Read through the article - fill-in journal seems like a good idea for a small app. Does anything like that exist?

There are lots of journals out there that provide a daily prompt. Day One (from Automattic) is pretty nice and you get basic functionality for free.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#37

Post by mcmoor »

zeroCalories wrote: post #12

I like writing because it forces you to turn vague feelings into concrete ideas. You can barf your thoughts onto paper and then read it with a critical eye, allowing you to evaluate your own thoughts. It helps me to find the gaps in my knowledge, notice sloppy arguments, etc. Sometimes that leads to a better understanding of the topic, but most of the time I realize that I have no understanding of the topic, which is…

I don't like it because I feel my vague ideas "disappear" when becoming concrete. It feels like trying to project a multidimensional creature into 2D; you inevitably lose some of it. In contrast, in my brain I can rotate or pinch the idea anyway I like and even turn it into further ideas.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#38

Post by mtalantikite »

criddell wrote: post #35
numtel wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Before I graduated from college, my aunt gave me the book, The Artist's Way, which prescribes this basic task as you've described as the foundational exercise for creativity. The suggestion given was 3 pages a day no matter what.

Did you pick up the practice? If so, what are your thoughts after doing it for some time?

Not OP, but I went through the Artist's Way a while back and kept morning pages up for two or so years after it. I'd still probably do morning pages every day if I didn't move on to sitting at my piano in place of them (and would do both if I had time in the morning). So in that regard I think it was a success -- it got me back to having a healthy relationship with music making and artistic practice.

The content of the workbook at places doesn't totally resonate with me, but I'd say there's enough in there that it's worth trying out. It definitely asks you to confront and reflect on a lot of things that have happened in your life, so it can be uncomfortable and bring up a lot. But that's of course an important part of art making.

I'd say just try it out, it's only 12 weeks and you can always bail if it doesn't work for you!

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#39

Post by mtalantikite »

NalNezumi wrote: post #28

I think a lot of people put too much pressure on themselves when it comes to the advice "writing your thoughts down". Perfectionism, or the memories of being forced to take notes in school, kicks in and you start to look for how-to:s, format and guides. Very similar to meditation. The best meditation advice I got was to just sit down, focus on doing nothing and be OK with being bored. Not some breathing techniques, h…

> Very similar to meditation. The best meditation advice I got was to just sit down, focus on doing nothing and be OK with being bored.

Similarly, no matter how much instruction I've gotten in meditation over the years, I still go back to Tilopa's advice all the time [1]. Just rest.

[1] https://unfetteredmind.org/tilopas-advice/

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#40

Post by barapa »

NalNezumi wrote: post #28

I think a lot of people put too much pressure on themselves when it comes to the advice "writing your thoughts down". Perfectionism, or the memories of being forced to take notes in school, kicks in and you start to look for how-to:s, format and guides. Very similar to meditation. The best meditation advice I got was to just sit down, focus on doing nothing and be OK with being bored. Not some breathing techniques, h…

Which stock A4 should I use?
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