Reducing noise through journaling
#31 - 04.18.21
Brother -
I'm in the process of "de-uberizing" myself at the moment… at least trying to. My access was cut to all of the company systems this past week, right as I began my quarantine in a Minsk hotel.
You'd think this would have been the perfect opportunity to start focusing on personal growth with this newfound time. My issue is that noise quickly filled the void. Despite having virtually no obligations, I found myself "busy" at all times with menial things on the computer. Usually, a Twitter or Reddit deep dive into the latest stock or crypto craze...
My unemployment was supposed to be relaxing, but I continued to find myself stressed where even the latest Netflix series we watched started to feel like a task to get through.
Upon reflection, I was reminded of another time I felt this sort of "busyness" last summer. When this happened, my coach helped me realize I didn't have enough "analog" in my life.
Analog can be a lot of things, but to simplify - let's say it's most things that are not in front of the computer—being in nature, meditation, reading books, journaling, etc.
Last year, Katia and I decided to take a journaling course called Morning Pages by Julia Cameron. It's simple. You journal (by hand) three pages worth of content each morning. It doesn't matter what you write, just that you do it.
As I'd write and the words started to flow, I found myself releasing noise and getting clearer with my thoughts. They say clear writing is clear thinking. What they don't tell you, though, is that it takes a lot of messy writing to get to clear writing later.
So my thoughts aren't clear yet, but I've picked up the pen and started journaling again. Let's see where this goes.
Let me leave you with a fun fact.
Ed Sheeran (musician) and Neil Gaiman (author) have a similar creative process where they view their ideas as a clogged water pipe. To open the flow, they write down their ideas. The first ideas are not great (e.g., dirty water), but after a while the pipe is unclogged, and clear water flows.
Enjoy the dance,
Nate