externalising the mind
Written by Desmond Olubunmi · Founder of Sunya
Transferring internal mental chaos into external physical form. The practice of disentangling your thoughts, quieting the overactive mind, and creating a physical mirror for profound self-understanding.
The mind is an extraordinary tool for execution, but a terrible place for storage.
When you attempt to hold unprocessed emotions, anxieties, and unfinished tasks purely within the mind, you create mental loops (Vrittis) — circular, repetitive thinking patterns that consume enormous amounts of vital energy and keep the nervous system in a state of low- grade stress. Journaling acts as a release valve for this overflow.
By translating the abstract, looping content of the mind into concrete words on a page, you instantly soothe the nervous system
and release the grip of the mental noise. Energetically, you are taking the chaotic elements of thought and grounding them into the physical earth of the page. By getting these thoughts out of your head, you detach from them — shifting from being the entangled victim of your thinking to the silent observer of it.
The brain dump: When the mind feels heavy, overwhelmed, or scattered, sit down and write without filtering. Do not worry about grammar or logic — simply transfer every nagging thought, fear, and unfinished task onto the page. This immediately frees up mental space, seals the energy leaks of compulsive remembering, and allows the mind to release what it has been carrying.
Emotional processing: When a strong negative emotion arises, write it out. Name the fear, the anger, or the jealousy explicitly. By defining the emotion on paper you rob it of its vague, shadowy power — you unknot the internal tension and allow the trapped energy to flow out through the pen rather than turning into bodily tightness.
The mirror of reflection: Use your journal as a tool for self-understanding. Reading past entries weeks or months later allows you to clearly see the mechanical, repetitive nature of your conditioning. You will realise that the problems that once felt like the end of the world were entirely temporary. This shatters the illusion of the mind’s absolute truth.
Architecting the future — scripting: Do not use journaling only to clear the past — use it to anchor the future. Tie this into your Conscious Creation practice. Write down your clear vision and direction exactly as you intend to manifest it. Writing physicalizes the intention, sending a powerful, organised signal deep into the subconscious.
Through the simple act of writing, the abstract and overwhelming nature of the mind becomes visible, manageable, and finite. You disentangle the knots of unconscious thinking and safely store the data of your life, allowing your mind to remain an empty, clear vessel in the present moment.
Occasional writing on the levers, the practices, and how to actually work with them.
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