06/18/2025
Have you ever wished you could defrag your brain and create more mental space - give this a try.
TOOL OF THE WEEK
The Brain Dump Practice
From The Daily Wellness https://the-daily-wellness.beehiiv.com/p/brain-dump-monday-7d9ebb1e6a50a68f?utm_source=the-daily-wellness.beehiiv.com&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=brain-dump-monday&_bhlid=587423bc325546db947e15c974f01049089582eb
What it is: A brain dump is a technique that focuses on the act of unloading everything on your mind onto a blank page without rules, structure, or judgment. This includes worries, to-do items, random thoughts, emotions, decisions you're avoiding, work stress, or anything else taking up mental space. The goal isn't to create something beautiful or coherent, it's to empty your mental cache and create breathing room in your mind.
Why it works: Your brain has limited working memory, and when it's cluttered with unfinished thoughts, worries, and mental to-do lists, it struggles to focus or relax. Brain dumping acts like clearing your mental browser history.
It frees up cognitive resources and reduces the background stress of trying to remember everything. Research shows that the act of writing down worries and tasks actually helps your brain let go of them, reducing the mental energy spent on repetitive thinking.
How to practice it: Grab any writing tool, your notebook, phone notes, or computer document. Set aside 5-15 minutes in a quiet space. Start writing whatever comes to mind without stopping to edit, organize, or judge. You can write in lists, full sentences, or random phrases.
Include everything: "Pick up dry cleaning, worried about mom's health, that awkward thing I said yesterday, need to call dentist, feeling overwhelmed." Keep writing until your mind feels clearer or your timer goes off.
When to use it: Perfect for when your mind feels cluttered and you can't focus, before bed when thoughts are racing, at the start of a stressful day to clear mental space, or anytime you feel mentally overwhelmed by everything you're trying to track.
Pro tip: Don't reread what you've written immediately. The goal is release, not analysis. You can revisit it later if you want to pull out actionable items, but the therapeutic benefit comes from the dumping itself, not from solving everything you wrote down.
Research backing: A 2019 study found that people who wrote down their to-do lists before bed fell asleep significantly faster than those who wrote about completed activities. Research on therapeutic writing shows a 5% improvement in mental health symptoms, with the strongest benefits for anxiety and PTSD. Regular journaling (even just a few times per week) increases resilience and reduces stress over time.
Empty your mental cache in 5 minutes (plus: why stress breaks your brain)...
