Morning Pages – The Habit That Changed My Life

Ready to quiet your inner critic, turn off the endless to-do list, and spark some authentic creativity? Morning Pages are your new best friend!

TAKING IT BACK A BIT

Remember those diaries we had in junior high and high school? The ones where we wrote about the cute boys and hard teachers? Yep, those. The ones where we took the time to write out our thoughts, our fears, our dreams. It’s time to go back to that. No, I’m not suggesting you dig up your old diaries, unless you want a trip down memory lane.

Instead, I want you to get yourself a spiral notebook and a good pen. This isn’t for posterity and it isn’t to be pretty. This is work; the good kind that leaves you feeling accomplished and productive.

write it down

In our modern age of 24/7/365 access to news, weather, and Netflix, we also have constant access to each other. Which can end up leaving us feeling disconnected from ourselves. We’ve lost the ability to sit with our thoughts. We are constantly bombarded with sights, sounds, interactions, and distractions. We need a way to get those scrambled thoughts out of our head and onto paper; to declutter our minds and make room for our souls to appear and our creativity to take shape.

Morning Pages is a concept first introduced to me by Julia Cameron in her book, “The Artist’s Way”. Before you start down the road of thinking, “I’m not an artist”, allow me to prove that you are; we all are. Starting with the premise that we were all created, by a Creator, in that Creator’s image. Therefore, you are a creator, an artist. Maybe not the traditional kind, i.e. painter, writer, sculptor, but you are infused with creative energy. And you need a way to harness that energy.

a daily habit

The key is to write daily. Whatever is in your head. The jumbled bits of everyday life, the lists that seem to never end, even the frustrations you need to vent. The swear words you’d never utter out loud? Yep, write them down. Get it all out of your head and onto the paper.

This is not an exercise where you say to me, “Can’t I use the notes app on my phone?” Nope. There is a magical and powerful connection that happens when we use pen and paper, when we slow our brains down just a bit and form words on a page. We build the bridge back to ourselves and that requires some intentionality, some old school methods, some good old-fashioned journaling.

Julia Cameron suggests writing three pages of long-hand writing. I’ll admit, my brain doesn’t always process in complete sentences. In fact, most of the time, I end up writing lists of words. Sometimes, those words are connected, but not always. The key is to keep writing, get it all out so that you can better process what’s left.

YOUR TURN

Now the fun part…I would love to know about your experience with morning pages. Tell me how they’ve helped you. Let me know how your creativity has come to life because of your commitment to morning pages for 30 days. For me, those morning pages have helped launch this blog and reminded me where to focus my creative energies. Life-changing for this girl. 🙂