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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

#51

Post by tomjakubowski »

anon-3988 wrote: post #42
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. Not some breathing techniques, how to focus your mind, posture etc. That comes later, very naturally, after you get curious about improvements. Chilling != meditation. Like I get that chilling is helpful for you but words have meaning and that is not meditation.

Becoming able to tolerate boredom still could be a good step on the way to learning to meditate.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#52

Post by kortilla »

anon-3988 wrote: post #42
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. Not some breathing techniques, how to focus your mind, posture etc. That comes later, very naturally, after you get curious about improvements. Chilling != meditation. Like I get that chilling is helpful for you but words have meaning and that is not meditation.

Chilling is not “doing nothing”. When people use that word they usually mean consuming content (listening to music, watching shows, reading book) or doing some other relaxing thing (knitting).

You’re right that words have meaning, and purposefully doing nothing at all to the point of being uncomfortable with it is antithetical to “chilling”.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#53

Post by [deleted] »

darkerside wrote: post #41
mcmoor wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That's exactly the point. You can do that in your own head, but you can't communicate that to other people. For every amazing thing you've ever seen in a movie screen, imagine how much MORE amazing it was in someone's head before that. But you can't capture that in full. And, much like the scientific method can take something that "everyone knows", and turn it into the basis for a branch of science, the process of ge…

[deleted]

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#54

Post by rramadass »

mtalantikite wrote: post #39
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/

Nice!

In case you didn't know of them already, you might find the following books interesting;

1) Mind Training: The Great Collection translated by Thupten Jinpa.

2) Essential Mind Training translated by Thupten Jinpa - This is a subset from the above collection.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#55

Post by jiggybling »

javawizard wrote: post #16

I have a pretty strong natural filter. Years of therapy and three different therapists have yet to get me to a place where I can truly open up, even when writing on a page I know no-one else will see. Two days ago I did weed for the first time. I accidentally took a much larger hit than I meant to. For the first 15 minutes I had a complete out-of-body experience; nothing seemed real, I felt like I was floating throug…

I tried weed once a few years ago and took a bit too much as well. When the euphoria hit, I realized I had never felt that good in my entire life and I became scared of the idea that I would lose control. My thoughts also sped up and I would get into these metacognitive/self-analytical loops. I'd start thinking about something and before I could finish I'd have another thought analyzing what I had just thought, and so on. And I experienced the loss of filter. At the time, I was with a friend in his basement and we were surrounded by his mom's amateur paintings. I've never been an art person but I remember looking at one of her paintings and talking nonstop about all the different visual details that kept popping out at me.

I didn't have as complete as loss of inhibition as you described however. The friend I was with wasn't someone I completely trusted - many of my thoughts I decided not to share. Still, I think the experience was valuable and I'm glad I tried it. Although, in retrospect any self-insight I gained I don't think I truly took to heart, as it didn't lead to any meaningful behavioral change. It's only been two days, but I wonder what kind of long term changes you will see. Has the loss of filter persisted in any way or did it wear off when you came down?

Either way, your story, outside of being well written and incredibly personable, gives me hope for my own healing. I'd love to connect and hear more about where your experience takes you, especially if you end up trying cannabis assisted therapy. I'm planning on trying psychedelic assisted therapy at some point so it would be cool to have someone to discuss with. My email is in my profile if you're interested.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#56

Post by anon-3988 »

kortilla wrote: post #52
anon-3988 wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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, how to focus your mind, posture etc. That comes later, very naturally, after you get curious about improvements. Chilling != meditation. Like I get that chilling is helpful for you but words have meaning and that is not meditation.

Chilling is not “doing nothing”. When people use that word they usually mean consuming content (listening to music, watching shows, reading book) or doing some other relaxing thing (knitting). You’re right that words have meaning, and purposefully doing nothing at all to the point of being uncomfortable with it is antithetical to “chilling”.

OP says that:

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

Without any proper technique or guidance, this is just chilling. What does it mean to "focus on doing nothing here?". I can apply this sentence to binge watching 10 episodes of Friends, getting stoned, just slouching on the couch, staring at walls etc etc. That is what it means to chill.

OTOH, to meditate is a very explicit, focused action which requires technique and discipline.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#57

Post by iammjm »

anon-3988 wrote: post #56
kortilla wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chilling is not “doing nothing”. When people use that word they usually mean consuming content (listening to music, watching shows, reading book) or doing some other relaxing thing (knitting). You’re right that words have meaning, and purposefully doing nothing at all to the point of being uncomfortable with it is antithetical to “chilling”.

OP says that: > The best meditation advice I got was to just sit down, focus on doing nothing and be OK with being bored Without any proper technique or guidance, this is just chilling. What does it mean to "focus on doing nothing here?". I can apply this sentence to binge watching 10 episodes of Friends, getting stoned, just slouching on the couch, staring at walls etc etc. That is what it means to chill. OTOH, to m…

Watching Netflix or getting stoned is clearly not doing nothing. If you take it literally then it becomes clear what is meant: just being, without indulging in anything, not even our thoughts. I agree this requires focus, but i don't think it requires technique but rather practice. As for discipline, i don't even know what that is

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#58

Post by layer8 »

dwaltrip wrote: post #31
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 y…

My point is that I don't find it remotely feasible to write down unfiltered thoughts. They are necessarily dramatically filtered in terms of volume, because the speed of thought is magnitudes faster than the speed of writing. They are also filtered because putting things into words constitutes a transformation and distortion of the original thoughts, a crafting into words that are not quite the same as the original thoughts. Thirdly, the writing process introduces meta-thoughts about the writing, which when following "write down what pops into your head" very quickly leads to just writing about the writing.

Maybe other people are less conscious of the distortions and of their meta-thoughts. But for me it makes the exercise a rather artificial process, where it's difficult to produce anything authentic, anything close to the original thoughts.

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#59

Post by [deleted] »

anon-3988 wrote: post #56
kortilla wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Chilling is not “doing nothing”. When people use that word they usually mean consuming content (listening to music, watching shows, reading book) or doing some other relaxing thing (knitting). You’re right that words have meaning, and purposefully doing nothing at all to the point of being uncomfortable with it is antithetical to “chilling”.

OP says that: > The best meditation advice I got was to just sit down, focus on doing nothing and be OK with being bored Without any proper technique or guidance, this is just chilling. What does it mean to "focus on doing nothing here?". I can apply this sentence to binge watching 10 episodes of Friends, getting stoned, just slouching on the couch, staring at walls etc etc. That is what it means to chill. OTOH, to m…

[deleted]

Re: Writing down unfiltered thoughts enhances self-knowledge

#60

Post by iammjm »

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…

If writing is something new for you then it is normal that it will feel unnatural and thus attract more attention to the activity itself. It's totally okay to start off writing about writing to get things going. In no time you will naturally move on to writing about other things. So don't worry and just write
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