The Pensieve Diary

Some magic is real.

In the Harry Potter books, Albus Dumbledore uses a rare magical device called a Pensieve to remove his thoughts and memories from his mind.

By pointing his wand at his temple, he extracts something that looks like “light made liquid — or like wind made solid” – and places it in the Pensieve.

Later on, he examines these thoughts by visiting the memories in person, reliving them as if he were there again.

I was always fascinated by this, because it would be so great to remove some of the thoughts that take up too much space. And to retrieve them once you’re ready to deal with them.

It turns out such a thing exists: we call it a diary.

There are many different ways to write a diary, but today I want to talk about what I call the Pensieve Diary.

It’s something you use only when you need to (instead of every day like a normal diary).

Anytime you find yourself thinking about something over and over again, or there is something on your mind that is stressing you out, you can use the Pensieve Diary to get more clarity and peace of mind.

Take a blank piece of paper (or an empty document), and write down exactly what is bothering you and why. It’s just like telling a friend about it. From there you can think about what you can do about those thoughts, such as seeing that you don’t have to worry.

When you’re done writing, you’ll find that your mind is much calmer and clearer. It feels just like extracting the silvery light from your head. And best of all, you can revisit those thoughts whenever you’re ready to deal with them.

This is an excerpt of a post on Mental Garden, a regular newsletter designed to help you become a better human through guided introspections. Read the full post and sign up now.