Voicing the Storm: Allow Your Subconscious to Talk

When life presents us with a storm, we can feel a maelstrom of emotions that overtake us. We can become overwhelmed. Frustrated. And feel like yelling. Or maybe, crawling away into a hole.

And all of these feelings are completely okay.

Staying calm amidst a storm doesn’t always mean that you perfectly have everything buttoned up. In fact, let go of that mindset. Allow the chaos that storms create.  

And then, settle into the moment.

Because after the initial chaos, perspective can emerge. You’re able to take a reprieve and pause. And lean into feeling sand experiences that perhaps didn’t exist before the storm. Instead of bottle up how you feel — or disregard your emotions — give them space to exist.

Recognizing your feelings can bring a wave of benefits. You can more easily problem solve, minimize that emotion’s power over you, lower your anxiety, among other benefits. From there, put a name how you feel. By doing so, you can make those feelings less intense, and thereby, easier to manage.

One effective way to communicate your emotions is to write them down. The simple process of writing how you feel supports your wellbeing. Your blood pressure can lower. Your immune system can strengthen. Done for a long enough interval (like for weeks in a row), you can even decrease depression and help heal trauma.

A particularly effective method is: freewriting.

Freewriting is a technique that lets you tap into your thoughts, feelings, and ideas free of the constraints that your judgments create.

The goal with a free write is to uncover perspectives that perhaps you never allow to live because you’re instantly editing your own mind. You’re judging how your emotions. You’re forming an opinion before you even give your feelings and thoughts a chance to exist.

When you free write, you open up to your subconscious. And this is a powerful place to tap into, since 95% of our cognition — how we make decisions, how we act, etc. — lives in our subconscious.

So, how do you free write?

The goal is to write anything and everything that pops into your mind. You never stop to question a thought or fix a misspelling or any other reason. In fact, the messier, the better.

You can use a prompt — or, you can just start writing. The choice is yours. And set a timer. Give yourself 5 or 10minutes. Once you hit start, just write. Don’t stop until the timer is up. Truly, never lift that pen from its page. Simply write whatever thoughts are in your head. If your first thoughts are, I don’t know what to write. My mind is blank… Okay! Write that! And keep going.

Write whatever comes into your mind. Never once lift your hand to pause and think. Because once you do, you’ll start judging your voice. You’ll form an opinion on your words and thoughts. And that filter will block your subconscious.

Once the timer is over, only then do you go back and read what you wrote. And remember: Do so free from judgment.

By allowing this vulnerability, you'll uncover a world of perspectives — perhaps that you didn’t even know were hiding within you. You can foster a sense of calm and understanding. And you can better know how to move through that storm a stronger person. Because already, you’ve become one.