
Better than meditation: free writing - jodyribton
https://medium.com/better-humans/better-than-meditation-12532d29f6cd
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Madmallard
I've always likened meditation as teaching yourself to become more resilient
to emotional turbulence. Free writing seems like it would not help too much in
this regard, at least any more than say cooking, playing music, or any
activity like that. If you get a random thought while free writing and write
about it that increases your investment in that thought and I'm sure if you
continue stream of consciousness writing on some of the more bothersome
thoughts you might have problems with the activity. In meditation, it's more
about noticing you had a thought and then letting the thought go. The whole
goal is to teach yourself to not become invested in the battery of thoughts
and emotions that can come with each day.

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chillingeffect
I experimented with some free writing recently on vacation. I was very
apprehensive bc I was ashamed and afraid to think the things I thought.

But I found it was immensely valuable to me. I wouldn't obsess over the rules
like pen vs. typing. And I do think it's different from playing music or
cooking because of the verbal layer.

Writing down your thoughts blazes new trails, modifying your subjective
experience.

By free writing, I don't mean, random, I mean, not directed toward publishing
or even paragraph/prose structure. A thin editing layer between raw thoughts
and written/typed media.

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davidjhall
Good article -- slight nitpick: he talks about free writing via typing (
because of his great website 750words) but Julia Cameron has always advocated
writing free hand to slow down and be closer to each letter, each word.

Not sure if Natalie Goldberg had the same restriction.

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chillingeffect
I support the author and his journey.

He's not yet aware that his freewriting revelation comes on the back of months
of consistent meditation. He's almost saying "pedaling a bike is better than
inflating the tires."

The big picture is: The way to thrive as a human is with a battery of self-
development and self-awareness habits, such as, but not limited to, meditation
and freewriting. Even these are just templates for you to embellish. Saying
one is "better" than the other is probably just b8.

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Dowwie
Atom editor has a word count package and within it the option of setting a
threshold-- 750 words. A progress bar grows as you type towards your goal.

Thank you, atom community :)

