Author and creativity expert Julia Cameron espouses what she calls “Morning Pages” to help “provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand.”
What are Morning Pages?
It is a style of journaling wherein you produce three pages of longhand writing about anything at the beginning of your day. You can even say something to the effect of, “I have no idea what to write.” Just write whatever is on your mind for three pages.
What is the point of this? Why in the morning?
Cameron says it has been her experience that writing sweeps away the cobwebs of negativity. “What they do,” Cameron says of Morning Pages, “is clear your mind.’
According to Cameron, it is best to write down what you think at the beginning of your day. That way, you have captured the idea before other obligations take over your time.
Thus, if you work a night shift and you wake up at 6pm because your work day starts at 8pm, then your pages should be done sometime after 6pm. It is not an exercise elusively when the sun rises; it is really a Start-of-Your-Day exercise, whenever that might be.
“What I find is when you put the negativity on the page,” she says, ” it isn’t eddying through your consciousness during the day.” This exercise frees you to appreciate the little miracles and other good things during the day.
Tips?
Cameron gives a few tips on her website Julia Cameron Live – “A lot of people think [Morning Pages] should be artful. I say ‘No! They should be whiny, petty, grumpy – whatever you happen to be.'”
Further encouraging the practice, she says, “There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages– they are not high art. They are not even ‘writing.’ They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only.”
What do you think of Morning Pages? Have you tried them? Do you have your own version of Morning Pages?
Peace,
Deborah