Trying a New Way to Process My Thoughts (and It’s Already Helping)

I spend SO MUCH time trying to process my emotions and communicate them to the people in my life. It’s not just the processing itself—it’s the endless organizing, structuring, and translating so that it makes sense to others. And it’s exhausting. I end up masking and unmasking constantly, trying to figure out how to say what I mean without losing myself in the process (self-abandoning — neglecting my needs for food and hygiene and nature and actual human connection).

A couple of days ago, I started experimenting with something new, and it’s already feeling like a breath of fresh air. I’ve been using an AI tool (DeepSeek, in this case) to help me brain dump, organize my thoughts, and craft messages to loved ones when I want to share with them my experience (in a way that’s tailored for them and not my journal) and also validate and express gratitude for them.

Here’s what it looks like so far: I record voice memos in my car (my favorite safe space for verbal processing) and let Apple transcribe them. Then, I take that text and feed it into the AI. It helps me turn my ramblings into coherent journal entries that actually capture what I’m feeling. It’s like having a second brain to help me make sense of the chaos. I even have it put the random action items and ideas I spout in their own sections that I may have once made myself when I’m feeling extra, but that I never stick to long-term while journaling because sometimes I don’t have the bandwidth. And I don’t know about you, but my brain LOVES a consistent format and is also pretty much incapable of sticking to one without help like this.

I’ve also been using it to craft messages to people in my life. I just tell it I’m about to share my journal entry and then I’m gonna ask it to tailor messages based on that information. I have even taught it to ask me clarifying questions to make sure it fully understands me before it tries a first draft and to not ask me more than one question at a time, but to let me answer each question and when it’s done, it can give me the original thing I asked for in the first prompt.

That said, it’s not writing for me—it’s helping me structure my thoughts so I can say what I mean without spending hours overthinking every word. The best part? It’s cutting down on so much of the time I usually spend masking and unmasking. I don’t have to agonize over how to translate my experience into something “digestible” for others. I can just… say what I need to say, in a way that feels authentic to me.

Now, full disclosure: this is super new. Like, I’ve only been doing this for two days. I’m still figuring out how to refine the process, and I’m sure I’ll tweak things as I go. But even in this short time, it’s felt really nice to have a tool that takes some of the mental load off.

I’m excited to see where this goes and whether it’ll keep working for me as I play around with it more. If anyone else has tried something like this, I’d love to hear about your experience! Or if you have questions about how I’m using it, feel free to ask.