A friend spent an hour or so each night listening to her young daughter essentially perform a mind dump, which means the young girl spoke on and on about everything on her mind. My friend knew that her daughter needed that exchange each night, and she patiently listened and responded when appropriate.
Why do some people engage in mind-dumping when others don't? Is this a result of the busyness of life or the fact that some have less chance to share their ideas and thoughts during the day than others? Do mind dumpers think more than others or are they less secure with their thoughts?
I've actually not thought a lot about this before, but recently when I engaged in mind dumping, I recognized how burdensome that was for the individual I lamented too. Afterwards I felt bad as I thought that, in some ways, unburdening my full mind resulted in burdening her free mind. Was that fair?
Journaling is one way to mind dump. . .you can get it out on paper, but because a journal doesn't talk back, this kind of mind dump doesn't offer valuable response, affirmation, or challenge.
Sometimes, I believe mind dumping happens because you don't take the time to resolve issues of conflict that exist, instead you perseverate hoping the issue will resolve itself, but that's no way to resolve an issue.
With those we love like the mother and daughter scenario above, we can make space to mind dump with one another--it's a valuable service we offer our closest companions. We develop a healthy way to let each other let off steam, vent, express, and question. In my house when this happens, one of us is usually engaged in a pleasing activity while the other expresses his or her feelings and quandaries. We can also help one another with these mind dumps, by looking for patterns and helping our loved ones to find different ways to deal with issues that occur repeatedly without resolve.
So sometimes a mind dump is a just right action, but at other times it is a sure way to strain a relationship or avoid a better strategy to solve a conflict or stressor. I want to think more about this?