I am someone whose brain is constantly going on and on, and I need a way to manage it. I’ve tried a lot of strategies over the years, some great and some not so good. Here’s some things I’ve tried, and how I personally felt about them.

Disclaimer: Your milage may vary! There are things that work for some people and not for others. This has just been my own personal experience and I am not a licensed professional, just someone who has been trying a variety of things to help bring my life together.

Morning pages

Every morning, sit down with a pen and paper and write three pages of your stream of consciousness thoughts. This is intended to get all of those thoughts and ideas out of your head and in a place where you can either take some action on them or let them go so that you can continue with your day.

Rating: 3/5 – It was nice in the morning, and I do well with stream of consciousness writing, but as the day progressed my brain got cluttered again

List making

Sit down with a pen and paper (This is a theme) and write down a list of something. This can be a list of things you are grateful for or that bring you joy, which you can use to reframe your ways of thinking about things. Or, if you’re me, it can be a list of things you can do next and a chance to pull those ideas together into something you can take actionable.

Rating: 4/5 – I like having actionable items, the gratitude and joy stuff doesn’t really stick.

Meditation

This is the idea of sitting down and being aware of not only yourself, but being more okay with letting your thoughts come and go. In time, this practice can make you a calmer person because it can teach you to better handle things like intrusive thoughts and unwelcome emotions. If you want to give it a try, regardless of my feelings on it, Headspace is a nice app to go for some guided meditation practices, or you can check Youtube for more.

Rating 1/5 – Made me actively more anxious on a regular basis. I kept thinking of things I wanted to remember for later, stressed about keeping those thoughts in my head, and then was frustrated that I forgot them.

Guided journaling

This references writing to a prompt of some sort. You can get these as books, or look them up for yourself, and they are meant to give you something specific to write about to help you figure out your thoughts and to reframe your experiences, often in a more positive light. Or that’s been my experience.

Rating 2/5 – I tried a book with prompts and they so rarely aligned to what was actually the problem that I found it frustrating. Looking online for random ones also ended up being frustrating because, again, they just didn’t align with what I was dealing with.

Continuous brain dumps

This is the thing I do and the thing that has helped me the most. I find a place to put a journal that I go back to throughout the day. Maybe it’s the bathroom, or a couch. Somewhere where you are a few times a day and can be alone. I put it by the cat’s food, because she will lead me there to watch her eat.

Every time I’m there, I open it up and start to write complete stream of consciousness. This helps me to constantly dump out the buzzing thoughts and put them on paper, where I will either remember them for later or let them go.

I have also paired this with having a second notepad close by to take note of any things that I want to get done.

Rating: 5/5 – Of course the method I created for myself is the one that works the best! It’s one that’s kept me calm, and better at dealing with the nonsense that life has been throwing at me these past several years.