A Restless Mind, A Cathartic Solution

Today I had a lot on my mind. Nothing in particular and nothing that would interest you, but it was simply an abundant overflow of thoughts that flitted around in there. I couldn't handle it. I thought about how messed up the world is and how we're all going to die and all those wonderful positive thoughts of death and short life bubbled up. (Attention to sarcasm. I am well aware that they are not positive.) Then there was guilt and regret that slipped into the mix, which brought back dreaded memories. Overall it wrecked me. It wrecked me to the point where I just didn't care anymore. I mean, how do you free yourself from yourself?
So I opened up Microsoft Word and started typing. I typed for maybe half an hour straight. Whatever came to my demented state of mind was recorded. Unfinished sentences, horrible grammar, regrets, feelings, emotions, lies, truths, wishes, and so forth. After maybe about a single-spaced page and a half my mind grew quiet with the occasional thought lazily floating by about the weather or the need of a bodily function. I sighed out of relief and closed my eyes. The peace that followed was meditating.
I was at ease, totally content.
This is known as free association. In this case, it's a psychological technique that writers use to clear up the mind. No censorship. No grammar or spelling. No coherence necessary. Now some people like to reread what they write, others simply write it to unclutter their minds to clear up room for more focused writing. It's your decision whether you want to see the incoherence that flooded up your mind. For me personally, I wanted to unclutter to free up room for some hardcore novel writing. Rereading all of that will just drown me in those thoughts again. I saved the file though so I could read it some other day.
Another brilliant idea for using this technique is to let your imagination run wild. Give yourself a topic to write about and just write anything that comes to your mind. If it sounds creative and constructed, that's definitely a bonus, it doesn't have to be though. Once you feel like you've done what you can, give yourself a moment before rereading it. I've done this a couple times and found that in this reverie of writing I sometimes find some sentences that are pretty unique with interesting words and metaphors to complement them.