Writing Exercise - Stream of Consciousness Flow

Stream of consciousness writing is a technique that can be incredibly valuable for a variety of purposes. Some may refer to it as "brain dump" writing because you are letting anything come through your mind and onto the paper. I think stream of consciousness writing is a little more focused though because you are usually starting with a certain thought, emotion or object.

Reasons why someone might want to do a stream of consciousness writing session:

They are feeling stuck creatively
To explore their consciousness for creative ideas and thoughts
Want to work through anger, hurt or resentment
In a bad mood or funk, but they aren't sure why
As a mindfulness exercise to balance them within their day
To direct their mental focus to a certain project or task
As a way to spark creativity before they start a longer writing session

Start with breathing and centering your body

You will get more out of your writing session if you can slow things down a little first. We often have twenty different things we are juggling in our brain and so if we can quiet our minds and release some tension before writing, it will help us to dive in deeper during the session.

I often will set a timer for two to three minutes and just do a quick body scan. Focusing on relaxing each body part - starting at the head and working down to the toes. I also try to deepen and soften the breath with each new body part I move to during the scan. This is just a simple way to release tension and center your mind so that you are prepared to write.

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Choose your prompt

The best way to choose a writing prompt is to first ask why you are doing a stream of consciousness writing session to begin with. Perhaps you are feeling blocked off creatively and want to explore that more closely. In that scenario, your prompt could simply be the name of the project you are feeling stuck with.

Perhaps you are feeling angry or frustrated. List out your emotions and then let your mind relax as you let all of the emotions pour out onto the page.

One of my favorite reasons to do this exercise is if I am in a bad mood and I don't know why. I have been amazed at how many times the answers have literally materialized on paper once I give my consciousness the space to breath and communicate with me.

This writing style can also be a great mindfulness practice or type of meditation. When i'm just using it for this purpose, I will often pull my prompts from the most random places! You can look around the room and choose an object - let's say a clock - and then begin writing. A fun option would be to open up a random book, choose the beginning of a sentence, and then finish the sentence as a way to start the writing session.

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Set a timer

You could go without a timer and simply write until you are done, but I personally like knowing that there is a start and end point. I generally like to do a five minute session. This is usually enough time to move past my "hectic" brain and sink in a little deeper - but it isn't so much time that it feels overwhelming. Keeping it short also means I can fit it into random moments in my day, without it feeling like a big time commitment.

Experiment around with different amounts of time to see what works best for you. It may even depend on how you feel that day.

Let it flow without judgement

This is the most vital key to the whole process. From the beginning, you have to just set the intention m that this is for your eyes only and will never be shown to anyone. You also have to accept that it will end up being the most random, crazy, grammatically incorrect thing you may ever write. If your mind jumps to a new thought... there is no need to finish the sentence on your last thought... just keep rolling with it!

You may find that just random words come to you at first, and then it ends up forming into sentances.

I did a stream of consciousness writing exercise in a meditation class tonight, and our prompt was "Go". My writing was all over the board from random words to song lyrics to my current struggles and thoughts. The writing morphed and changed as I went. It was really interesting to read it after the timer went off to see the journey of my thoughts.

Conclusion

I hope you found these tips helpful and decide to give it a try. If you have tried this style of freeform writing, I’d love to hear your experience and wether you found it helpful or not!