Last Updated on May 29, 2023
Overview
Mental health plays a significant role in shaping one’s personality and laying down the foundation of an informed society. It forms the basis of a quality life. In recent times, the focus on mental health has increased exponentially and various mental healthcare organizations are working on spreading awareness regarding good mental health and how it affects the quality of life. Poor mental health does not necessarily mean having some major issues or mental disorders. It can even be simply affected by a tough routine or day-to-day hindrances. There are various techniques that mental health professionals recommend for improving mental health and brain dumping is a unique one from the list.
This article will be geared towards different powerful techniques like brain dumping that can help manage mental health in a more effective manner.
Why Invest in Mental Health?
As discussed earlier, mental health is an indispensable part of well-being. Investing in mental health refers to the promotion and protection of mental health and the treatment of various mental health disorders. Not only that, investment in mental health also is important to the overall wellness of a society.
What are some of the Techniques that can help in Improving Mental Health?
Our mental health influences how we think, feel, and react to different stimuli. It also tends to affect our ability to cope with and recover from setbacks that we encounter on a daily basis. For this, it is extremely important to have a basic understanding of how to cope with distressful situations and techniques that can come in handy.
It is often difficult for one to spare his/her mind from all the thoughts and focus on one thing. This resultantly affects the performance even in day-to-day chores. Techniques like brain dumping can be very helpful in dealing with the pool of thoughts all at once.
Here are some of the activities that you can indulge yourself in to overcome or manage mental health in a more appropriate way.
Feel GREAT by following this simple mnemonic
(G) Gratitude:
Practicing gratitude is one of the most relaxing things to do to overcome stress. Positive thinking releases serotonin and dopamine hormones that make the body relaxed and happy in general.
(R) Relaxation:
It involves a range of techniques like deep breathing, progressive muscle relaxation, visualization and mindfulness, etc.
(E) Exercise:
Having a fitness schedule is essential for a healthy mind and body. Taking out at least 30 minutes daily for exercise helps relax the mind and start afresh. Therefore, it is important to inculcate a healthy exercise routine in your life.
(A) Acknowledge:
It is important to acknowledge your thoughts and give time to your emotions, sit with them and see how you can cater to them.
(T) Track Thoughts (Brain Dump):
Tracking thoughts is helpful in relaxing the mind. It helps to identify emotions associated with those thoughts and aids in figuring out ways to deal with them. Brain dumping is one of the powerful techniques to help manage mental health in this regard.
What is Brain Dumping?
A brain dump is very similar to journaling with the only difference of time limit. In journaling there is no time limit to pen down the thoughts whereas brain dumping is time specific. The idea is to free up the space in one’s mind and allow them to think more creatively and productively. It gives the mind clarity and helps organize thoughts. Additionally, brain dump also helps in improving one’s mental health and ability to get the maximum capacity of their brain’s working. It is known to help people with anxiety or overthinking.
Also read: https://www.reviveresearch.org/blog/how-to-help-someone-with-ocd/
How Does Brain Dumping Works?
Brain Dump is basically an act of writing down one’s thoughts on a piece of paper to make space for new ideas and encourage creative thinking. It helps to clean up the mind and organize thoughts. Brain Dump is considered one of the most powerful mental health tools by its proponents to improve mental health. Here is how it works:
- Know your purpose: It is important to know the purpose of your writing in the very first place. Some people do it on a daily basis whereas others do it occasionally which is fine as well. You do not have to have a reason for writing down your thoughts.
- Gather necessary tools: This refers to a pen, pencil, and paper to write your thoughts on to.
- Activity: Write everything down that comes to your mind related to the topic you chose.
- Organize: Create an order of activities in which you would like to address them.
- Prioritize: In this step, you have to critically analyze the list and prioritize.
- First tasks: Try to get small wins right away as it motivates you to do better.
- Big tasks: Create a list of bigger tasks and a timeline to achieve them.
- Step back: Leave your list for a while and give yourself a break.
Types of Brain Dumping Techniques
- Start of the day brain dump: At the beginning of the day, take a notebook to write whatever comes to our mind. There are no rules. You can free up the space in your mind by writing down all the tasks that you have in your mind for the day.
- After learning brain dump: This is helpful in educational research as a reclamation practice. When you have learned something new, it is believed that writing down your learnings helps in retaining the information more.
- Gratitude brain dump: It helps in recalling all the good things in your life. You set a timer for 10 minutes and jot down whatever you think you are grateful for. In this way, one focuses on the positive aspects of one’s life.
Takeaway
Keeping up good mental health is as important as maintaining physical health. It is therefore important to keep a check on yourself and focus on your mental health. Brain Dump is a useful technique for organizing your thoughts and planning your days to be more productive and creative. It also reduces stress and effectively declutters the mind, yielding more productivity.
