Name: I tried writing morning pages for 30 days
Uploaded: 2024-08-21T12:24:48.000Z
Duration: 13 min 30 s
Description: Thousands of YouTube videos with English-Chinese subtitles! Now you can learn to understand native speakers, expand your vocabulary, and improve your pronunciation...

Adverbs of frequency

Sometimes, this is how my brain feels, and sometimes it feels like this.

Gerund

There are just a lot of things to think about, and sometimes they get in the way of doing other things, like being creative and making art.

To-infinitive

So I decided to try something that might help with that.

This is the book The Artist's Way, and in it, Julia Cameron talks about the daily practice of morning pages.

Three pages of daily longhand stream of consciousness, written first thing upon arising.

There are a lot of people who have claimed that morning pages change their life.

So I thought I would commit to 30 days of writing morning pages to see if they might change my life, too.

I'm feeling very optimistic about writing morning pages, and I definitely see how they can be really helpful.

I've always enjoyed writing out my thoughts, it helps me sort through whatever's been going through my mind lately.

And doing it in this way feels a little more productive than writing in a typical journal.

Morning pages are meant to be a simple practice with big results.

We discover an inner voice that speaks to us with greater and greater clarity.

Now while there is no wrong way to do them, you can do whatever is best for you, there are some aspects to consider so that you get the most out of them.

As I mentioned, morning pages should be done daily and first thing in the morning.

This is because the pages are not meant to be a recounting of what happened in the day you just had.

It's not like a journal or a diary where you document the events of each day.

It's a way to clear our minds and prepare us for the day ahead.

They give us space in our brains so that we can approach the rest of the day with more clarity.

So I've been doing morning pages for two weeks now, and I've managed to keep up with it everyday making sure to write at least something.

It has been really helpful when there is something immediately that I've been thinking about a lot that I need to work through, and it helps a lot to write it down, but when there's not something that's immediately on my mind, I feel like it's a chore.

But with that being said, I still feel like it's important to do it everyday as a daily habit rather than just the days that you feel like doing it.

Even when it feels like pushing a boulder up a hill, having the daily practice will prepare you for being creative.

This is because discipline is an often overlooked but key aspect of living a creative life, and no matter what it is you write, keeping up with the daily habit will produce benefits as well.

What does it mean to write stream of consciousness, and why is it important?

A way to rid yourself of those unwanted thoughts living rent-free in your brain.

Thoughts like what Julia Cameron calls mental static.

That pesky voice that follows you around saying things like, you need to sort the laundry, or don't forget to buy some pasta.

They cloud your thoughts and keep you from focusing on your priorities.

You may also find yourself using morning pages for venting and ranting and whining.

They can be used to take those negative thoughts out of your brain so that you're left with the optimistic and hopeful thoughts for the rest of the day.

You're not trying to write something profound.

In fact, it's best to avoid any kind of perfectionism with these.

They're meant to be messy, so you may end up writing sentences that are only half-finished or that don't make any sense.

Or you may write pointless things like, I don't know what to write.

You also shouldn't let anyone else read these, and you probably shouldn't go back and read them yourself.

You write them, and then you're done with them.

The third recommendation is that you write three full pages in longhand.

Now, if the idea of writing that much seems daunting, use a smaller book.

The goal is to commit to finishing three full pages, no matter how much writing that actually is.

However, Julia Cameron does believe that three pages of eight-and-a-half-by-eleven paper is the most ideal.

Also, the book itself isn't that important.

Just as long as it's one dedicated to your morning pages and nothing else.

So you might be wondering why you have to use a pen, when it's the 21st century and we have computers and even phones we could use.

If that's what's best for you, write your morning pages digitally.

However, you will see more results if you write them in longhand.

This is because longhand requires us to slow down.

And by slowing down, we connect to our emotions and our intuitions.

Writing things down instead of typing them makes our words carry more importance.

It's not easy to delete or backtrack on what we are saying.

It takes more time, and it doesn't allow for editing.

Typing may be less time-consuming and more efficient, but efficient doesn't equal better in this case.

Writing by hand allows for more reflection and self-awareness, and you're less likely to be emotionally detached from the practice.

There are definitely days where it feels very helpful to just get whatever is on my mind onto the page.

And then there's days where it's like just pushing through.

Page two almost always feels like a chore.

On page one, I can write whatever is immediately on my mind.

And then page two is like, what do I write next?

And then I'll usually come up with something and fill up page three.

It's important to know that you're not always going to be in the mood to do your morning pages, so it's best to set everything up beforehand so there's less resistance.

You may find that having a specific spot helps, somewhere that's comfortable and free from distractions.

Or you may want to silence your phone, grab a drink, or even feed the cat ahead of time.

You may prefer to have some music playing in the background, something free from lyrics so it doesn't call your attention away.

I find that headphones are the best option to keep me from getting distracted.

I think that I'm at a point now where I'm really starting to see the value in this in almost any way, even when I don't have as much to say.

I think it's becoming a little easier for me to find something to say.

I felt a lot better about doing morning pages this week than I did last week.

I was feeling really frustrated last week, and I think it's because I wasn't in the right mindset whenever I was sitting down.

I was in this kind of impatient, I just want to get this over with type mindset.

And this week I really tried to make sure that I was setting aside this time and being very intentional with this is what I'm doing right now.

And so it was a lot easier for me to sit down and relax and not feel frustrated and not feel like this was a chore or something that I had to do.

I just enjoyed my time as I was doing it.

All of this may sound like a lot of work, and you may be thinking, I don't have time for that.

But the benefits far outweigh the time used.

By getting up 30 minutes earlier or by putting away social media for an extra 30 minutes, you could be freeing up time for something that will improve your whole day or life as many people claim.

When Julia Cameron is asked why she writes morning pages, she says, There really are so many benefits that come with writing morning pages, though, and I don't think I could even list half of them.

But I will tell you about some of the ones that I experienced the most.

The first and main benefit I had from morning pages is the clarity.

Being able to dump all of my noisy thoughts onto the page made room for more important thoughts.

This made my day feel way less overwhelming.

Kind of like having a clean desk to work at.

The second benefit was problem identification and solving.

A lot of times I have a problem lurking in the back of my head that is affecting my day, but I either don't have a way to solve it, or I don't even know what it is so that I can solve it.

When I sit down and write stream of consciousness, the problem tends to reveal itself.

The third benefit was the improvement of my stress and anxiety.