Coping Skill of the Week: The Brain Dump

When everything feels tangled in your mind, ideas, deadlines, worries, emotions, forgotten tasks, the most powerful thing you can do might also be the simplest:

Dump it all out on paper. No judgment. No editing. Just get it out.

This week’s featured coping skill is the Brain Dump, a practical, evidence-informed strategy to reduce mental overload, improve emotional clarity, and help your nervous system catch up with your schedule.

Why a Brain Dump Works When You're Overwhelmed

That’s cognitive overload, and it leads to stress, irritability, indecision, and mental fatigue.

A Brain Dump gives your brain an external hard drive, a safe space to drop everything, unfiltered. It’s not about organizing. It’s about offloading.

How to Do a Brain Dump

Time required: 5–10 minutes

Tools: Notebook, sticky notes, or app

Mindset: This is just for you

Set a timer (or don’t).

Grab pen and paper.

Write down everything: tasks, feelings, questions, random thoughts.

No editing. No censoring.

Stop when you feel a little lighter.

(Optional) Sort or prioritize afterward.

Why This Skill Matters

Brain Dumps support:

Clarity during emotional overload

Executive functioning during burnout

Emotional regulation when you feel mentally chaotic

Sleep quality when racing thoughts keep you awake

Try Pairing It With…

Cooling Breath (Sitali)

A short walk or stretch

A mantra like “It’s safe to let go”

The Takeaway

You don’t need to organize everything to feel better. You just need a place to put it down.

No rules. No right way. Just relief.

Brain Dumps aren’t about solving everything.

They’re about making space for the solution to show up.