Night Notes: Your Guide to Creativity
by Kinga Lewandowska
It’s dark outside, you are safely tucked in bed, and nearly drifting off. Your brain, however, has other plans. Inside your head a party is about to begin and it will be on until the early light of dawn (or whenever you plan to wake up from slumber). Whether you’re a morning bird or a night owl, evening time has the potential to equip you with insights you never dared to dream about before (pun intended). But only if you know how to fine tune your brain. We can help you with that.
Enter, Night Notes – our brand new journal, handmade with love and first of its kind, designed to help you make the most of the late PM hours. On the pages of this blog we’ve praised the power of journaling more than once, and jotting down ideas and thoughts will certainly work to your benefit at various times of the day. However, nighttime gives our brains a special kind of freedom that normally hides from sunlight. Here’s how to unlock it.
Dreams
The world of dreams is a magical land where our brains go to make sense of the events of the day. There’s a reason we spend about one-third of our lives sleeping – it’s not only necessary for our survival but also for proper cognitive functioning. Memories, emotions, feelings, and facts all get processed when we’re snoozing. And when it comes to dreaming, logic and reason take their time off to allow the more abstract parts of us to get a word in.
Dreams are windows and bridges to our subconscious, to layers of ourselves we didn’t know we had. The more effort you devote to remembering your brain’s stories in the morning, the more you’ll be able to understand who you are. Write your night visions down right after you wake up in as much detail as you can to train your brain in retaining them better in the future.
Dream dictionaries aside, your brain can communicate with you to deepen your self-awareness and bring focus to what matters to you most. Let it share its stories from the dream world on the pages of the journal.
Ideas
Ideas are free spirits. They never adhere to rules, nor are they restricted by any limits. They come and go as they please. Some of them are strong enough to consume your every thought, others are ephemeral like a gust of wind. However, we can make them stay with us for as long as we like by keeping a record of every strand of novel thinking that weaves inside our heads.
Since ideas like to knock on our doors when we least expect them, keep your Night Notes journal on your bedside table so you can easily grab it when inspiration strikes. When our brains go through a cleansing phase, getting rid of any obsolete thoughts that clatter our minds and prevent us from falling asleep, new insights and visions might come to the surface. Jot them down immediately to root them in reality so they can bloom later on.
To-dos
What we can do for our brains in terms of thought minimalism is transferring our to-do lists from our minds onto paper. That’s where the Night Notes journal has you covered again. Preparation prevents poor performance, therefore, we always advise planning ahead. But this ritual is especially worth implementing to reduce nighttime anxiety.
During the day our minds can be like a Formula 1 race. Millions of thoughts rushing to the surface, intermingling and intertwining into bigger and smaller knots of stress. We need to store so much information in our minds, respond to so many stimuli, that sensory overload is a major issue to many of us. Substitute your evening doomscrolling with mindful planning. Free your brain of all that you need to remember for tomorrow and you’ll make room for dreams, ideas, and musings.
Creative Musings
Creativity doesn’t operate according to your circadian rhythm or a 9-5 schedule. Firmly connected to imagination and inspiration, it needs freedom to thrive, no holds barred. You might easily find yourself waking up in the middle of the night for a bathroom trip and being suddenly hit with a creative idea then and there. And that’s what’s exciting, no rules.
Let go of control, throw expectations out the window, and let your thoughts and feelings be. Nighttime is for tranquility, reflection, and unburdening your head without distractions. The creative musings part of our journal is for letting your intuition guide you. Write down your favorite poem, doodle, fold corners into secret pockets, note down an affirmation that resonates with you, put an autumn leaf in between pages – whatever you deem worthy of experimenting with – keep it in the journal. It’s here to serve you.
The Magic Hour
Nighttime is the perfect part of a day for magic to gently tap on your window. Use the evening hours to connect with your subconscious, make room for ideas and dreams, relax, and get inspired. As a twilight ritual, Night Notes will help you sleep better and wake up with renewed vitality. And just like there are more than one ways to rest, there is no right or wrong method to use our journal. Make the most out of each section whenever and however it feels right to you.
Moreover, you can grab any blank notebook. Simply follow the practices described in this article and you’ll navigate through magic hours with as much peace, wonder, and depth.