Stillness

My mind was empty. And my first reaction was fear.

Recently, I was on vacation in a cottage by a lake. Journal in hand I walked to the dock, sat in a Muskoka chair, opened my journal to write down my thoughts, and found something peculiar was on my mind. Nothing.

I had nothing on my mind.

The well had run dry, and my first reaction was fear. But my second reaction was happiness. I felt a certain stillness sitting by that lake with the blank pages of my notebook that I hadn’t felt in a long time.

Sure, no ideas were vying for my attention, but equally so, there were no worries, no stress. I felt for the first time in a long time some sense of peace. Truly at ease with the world.

The well being dry wasn’t an indication that my creativity had left me. It indicated that both my creativity and fears were no longer compulsions. Instead, I could draw upon them as needed. I could be intentional with what was on my mind.

Later on, I managed to have a productive session with my notebook, but only after thoroughly enjoying my stillness by the lake.

After reflecting on this, I believe there are three main reasons for this stillness. Actions that anyone can take that I believe can reduce stress.

I. Frequent Journaling

For over a year now, I have been journaling consistently—often multiple times per day. These journal entries range from passing thoughts to long-form reflection on experiences, memories, or concepts.

Whenever I feel emotional discomfort, I journal to get to the root of the issue. And being diligent about addressing my thoughts as they happen meant I had nothing stewing in my mind while I sat by the lakeside.

II. Idea Management

As I’ve become more serious about sharing my ideas, I’ve become more organized in storing them. As ideas come to me, they’re neatly tucked away for use later.

Keeping everything organized in this way, and most importantly, storing it outside of my brain, means that no loose ideas were rattling around my mind, fearful that they’d be forgotten. I could feel the security that all of my previous thoughts worth taking down had been. Only new thoughts needed to be addressed.

III. Task Management

Last, but perhaps most important, I’ve started being more diligent about task management. Currently, I’m using a simplified version of GTD.

The most important tenet of that system, and similar to the idea management point above, is taking these tasks that are polluting your mind, and entering them into an external system.

If you are diligent with this, then you no longer need to worry that you are forgetting something important. Everything that you need to get done that you know about is stored elsewhere. No longer are these worries top of mind.

The key principle is this: Our minds are good at thinking. Everything else should be stored elsewhere.

Tasks, ideas, notes, thoughts. Organize these things in a system you can trust and you’ll no longer worry about keeping them all bouncing around in your brain. When you want to sit down to think, you’ll be able to pull them up, intentionally.

And then, when you want to sit down by the lake and enjoy the sound of the waves hitting the dock, you won’t need to wonder if there is an email you forgot to reply to.

2021-08-28