Announcing the October Daily Practice: Morning Pages

You may have already heard me discuss the Morning Pages on this blog or on Facebook. This is a practice I took on thanks to Jamie Ridler last May, and I haven’t looked back! I’ve now filled 9 books and countless pieces of paper, and I would no more drop this daily practice than I would the practice of brushing my teeth in the morning.

Julia Cameron prescribes this practice in her book, The Artist’s Way as a primary tool of creative recovery (here‘s a brief description of the practice on Julia’s website). In The Artist’s Way, Julia goes into much more detail about why the morning pages are so essential and wonderful. For me, I have found them an invaluable tool for creative expression, for clearing my mind, for expressing my emotions, for venting and ranting, for getting to know myself – body, mind, heart and soul (I combine the Morning Pages with another Daily Practice of Trusting Myself), for inspiration, for higher wisdom, for finding answers, for keeping my sanity when life goes a bit mad!

It is such a fabulous practice, I cannot recommend it enough! So, it’s the Daily Practice for October 2012. To specifics then, as Julia recommends, you write 3 pages longhand every day. When you don’t know what to write, you write “I don’t know what to write”, you just write whatever is in your head – it doesn’t have to be complete sentences, it doesn’t have to be coherent, it doesn’t have to be anything – YOU CANNOT DO IT WRONG! I know that committing to writing 3 pages of longhand every day might be a bit daunting, so I’m going to remind you of one of my guiding principles: It is more important to DO IT than to do it perfectly.

So if you know you will not write 3 pages a day, write one. Or set a timer and write for 5 minutes every day. Experiment with what feels right for you. I’ve experimented with this for over a year, so here’s what works for me:

1. I use a gorgeous A4 notebook. My writing is huge, so A4 works. Julia recommends writing on paper, then putting it in an envelope…I’ve done that a few times, usually when I’m on holiday and don’t want to cart a huge notebook around with me. But I don’t like it. I prefer a notebook.

Update April 2014 – I still use A4 notebooks…but cheaper ones that I’m happier to part with…I started to run out of room in my house!) and I’m going through the gorgeous old ones to keep what needs keeping, then chuckin’ them out!

2. I don’t write in the morning. I am not by nature a ‘morning person’. I am a grouch in the morning. And if I write in the morning, I write grouchy stuff. Plus, it’s usually of more benefit to me to write later in the day when my head is full of thoughts and ideas and judgements from my day. So I usually write in the afternoon or evening to process the day. That seems to work best for me.

3. I don’t write EXACTLY 3 pages. I usually do a little more, I occasionally do a little less. I’m not too prescriptive with it, it depends on my energy on that day.

4. If I come up with an idea or a thought or a ‘to do’ that I want to follow up, I put a little post-it sticker in the book, then I come back to it a few days (or weeks if I’m running behind!) and do the things I’ve marked to do – that’s how I get my “Wisdom In You” thoughts that I post to Pinterest.

5. At the moment, I keep my Morning Pages books. This is not necessarily a good idea (for reasons of clutter if nothing else!), and it would be easier to get rid of them if they were on bits of paper in envelopes instead of books that make me happy (I’m a stationery geek, what can I say?). Julia suggests not re-reading for at least 6 weeks, then re-reading and throwing them away. I don’t. But at some point I’ll have to…unless I move into a mansion with room for hundreds of lovely A4 notebooks!  

Update April 2014 – I’m now going through my old books looking for actions and inspirations and keeping them…then getting rid of the books.  First, I have no space for all the notebooks I’ve been accumulating…and second, it does change what you say if you know you’re going to keep it – if you know it’ll be thrown out you can be more honest.  At least, that’s my experience!

The Morning Pages is a very personal practice. It is YOUR practice and you do it how YOU want to do it. But do it! Write 3 pages of whatever crosses your mind – the good, the bad, the ugly, the pointless, the silly, the grumpy, the lot! Let me know if you’re planning to join me in this Daily Practice by leaving a comment below.

Love

Donna.x