Have you ever done a mind sweep?

One of my clients asked me how she could switch off her brain. We have decluttered her spare room and set it up as a home office. While she was excited about it, she felt she couldn’t enjoy it. Too many questions and thoughts were on her mind.

My client is a very clever lady who has a lot going on. In the midst of changing a high profile job, she also cares for 2 young children and manages her household (no, she does not have a maid or even a cleaner). From the outside, you’d never guess how she worries about having sent off that email, when to take the kids to an animal farm or that she still needs to buy a Mother’s Day present for her mom. As my client described it, her mind is constantly on and she feels overwhelmed by her random thoughts, just like she does by her urgent reminders.

Does this sound familiar to you? To me, it certainly does and I, too, have sometimes thoughts reminding me of outstanding actions. Generally, they pop up at the worst times: In the shower, while driving, and yes, you can laugh now!

Get relief by doing a mind sweep

If your head is filled with hundreds of tiny little items that require your attention, how does that make you feel? My client felt often beaten by them and needed to find an effective way to create more headspace. The solution is an easy one: Do a mind sweep!

Get your headspace back

The idea of a mind sweep is to give you your headspace back. All these thoughts renting space, it’s time to transfer them. Have your mind focus on what’s really important and get the space back to concentrate on those items that do matter.

How to do a mind sweep

Start by finding a quiet corner, turn the TV and the laptop off. Put your phone on silence. Trust me here. Have pen and paper ready and off you go. Write everything that comes to your mind down. Everything!

It doesn’t matter whether it’s finding a restaurant to take your mom to for Mother’s Day, finding the difference in your team’s budget figures, removing that nail polish and booking a new appointment, buying more coffee and milk for breakfast, sending out these 4 emails tonight.

Write down E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G!

If you don’t have an evening to do it, give yourself 30 minutes. You may want to set a timer if you’re afraid of running late for another appointment. Take this time and write everything that is on your mind down.

What do you see?

Are you surprised by how much is actually occupying some headspace? The first time I did my mind sweep was mind blowing. Yes, I knew there’s a lot going on. Still I had no clue how many different thoughts were actually much longer on my mind than I had anticipated.

It’s okay to finally see and recognise how much you have actually on your plate.

What’s next?

It’s almost the weekend. If you can, make some time to do your own mind sweep this weekend. In our next post, we’ll show you how you can use your mind sweep and keep your head free to focus on what really matters.

With that, we’ll be looking forward to speaking with you next week. In the meantime, enjoy the weekend, make use of the still pleasant although hotter temperatures and have some fun.

Until next time,
Agni