Grab a piece of paper, or spiral notebook. (Writing, rather than typing seems to be more effective due to its tactile nature. While digital media can work, handwriting allows you to be more expressive.)
- Assess your level of discomfort with your discussion topic on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 being not at all, and 10 being over the top. Write that number on the top of your page.
Set a timer for 10 to 15 minutes.
Write continuously without stopping. This is like a brain dump designed to help you move your thoughts, underlying feelings, and ideas from your brain onto paper. This is a dynamic process. The more you write, the more ideas will surface. Write down everything. No thought is off limits. No censoring. Just write until the timer goes off. These writings are for YOUR EYES ONLY. You will NOT be sharing this with anyone.
Keep Going as Needed. When the timer goes off, if you are still vigorously writing, keep going until you feel there is no more to say.
Reassess – When finished writing, reassess your discomfort level. Compare to your original number to see if this process has lowered your anxiety. If not, keep going. Or set aside a time to continue later. (Some topics definitely require more time.)
Transfer Salient Points – Often as you dump the chatter, you will find that interesting new ideas emerge that you hadn’t previously thought of. Transfer any useful insights into another notebook or Word Doc. These can function as starting points for you to build upon as you further prepare for you your upcoming conversation. Only transfer useful information, as for the rest …
Let it Go! – Tear up or delete your original writings. Your Process Writing is not for anyone else’s eyes, including yours! Remember, its purpose is to get intruding thoughts out of your head, so that you are not blind-sided by your emotions and can think more clearly.
That’s it. You can use this process any time your brain gets caught in an unproductive thinking loop. Ultimately this can become your go-to process to access higher level thinking. Remember, our brains are truly problem-solving machines. They don’t want to stop until the job is done. Process Writing is a dynamic means to help you access and work through emotions and access underlying stressors that you may not be aware of.
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