Writing Out My Mind’s Clutter
There will come a time in your life when you will feel so overwhelmed with life itself. As I mentioned in my previous story, our mind is capable of handling a few things at a time only. I am currently reading Declutter Your Mind by S.J. Scott & Barrie Davenport, which is a nice follow-up after reading Goodbye Things by Fumio Sasaki. All their advice on how to achieve mental clarity to live a better life really makes sense. From different topics about frugality, minimalism, essentialism, to finding joy, it all boils down to less is more.
Just as we need to tidy up our physical space, it is also important to declutter our mental space, where our thoughts reside. It’s not as simple as it sound, that’s why there are various techniques given by different Zen practitioners on how to gain mindfulness through meditation, which is also included in the current book I’m still reading. All of us might have different approaches to reaching mindfulness, but its essence is to live in the present moment, without worrying too much of tomorrow, or having regrets of the past. This is why I so like the lines of this song from Rameses B., Meaning of Life.
When we make music, we do it to improve your mind
To improve your character and bring us into a state of peace
Where we can understand that the point of life
is here and now
The journey itself is the point
The playing itself is the point
You will simply become, completely absorbed in sound
And therefore you will find yourself, living in an eternal now
In which there is no past and there is no future
It all becomes one doing… one happening
What is really important is what’s happening here and now. And to best enjoy whatever situation you are currently in, is to give your head some space so it can focus, and be truly absorbed to whatever activity you are currently spending time with. And in order for me to clear my head, I need to write things down, and currently its in a form of a medium story.
Some of you might wonder, especially those close friends of mine, why I suddenly start writing random topics on medium, when I have been fine spending most of my time typing in a code editor. I have various reasons why I decided to write a little professionally, in addition to what I mentioned above.
I am writing because…
- I feel like my mind is screaming, “out of storage”, and needs some space to breathe — information overload, i guess?
- I want to end 2020, with some collection to look back, in this case, its a collection of my thoughts and observations about the world I’m living in, among its many intricacies, and variances. Then I’ll have a 2020 retrospective later on, before 2021 starts.
- I want to share some of my crazy thoughts and life lessons, that might help other people, especially the younger generation (if they will find my medium stories interesting enough.)
- I just want to write, and play with words, as UX writing is partially a part of my job.
- I want to have something I can call my own, even if its just in a form of a story on digital print.
- I want to build good habits, and writing one medium story per week is one of the few habits I want to build this year.
What about you? What activities do you do to clear up your mind, for the sake of your mental health? What are your reasons for writing as well? Feel free to share them as response below.
When you truly enjoy whatever you are doing, you won’t notice that its already tomorrow. The passing time will never cause you any boredom. You might even complain why time runs so fast, that you are still not done with whatever joyous activity you are currently into. This is the state where I want to be most of the time, which is why I’m starting my journey to minimalism, and less clutter. So, I can just focus on doing the habits that are essential to my life.
Whatever you want to do with your spare time in life, do with intense focus, so you can fully enjoy the moment, and be happier. As what my cousin once told me, when I was still in college, “Whatever you are doing NOW, do it with passion.”
