How to do Morning Pages
There are numerous bloggers who use morning pages as a way to stimulate creativity, thoughtfulness and mindfulness. Writing just a few pages of your streaming consciousness can help dramatically with your creative mindset, no matter how bad your writers block is!
You may also find that a lot of people use it as a form of therapy, something that can be used to express thoughts and feelings that would otherwise be difficult to convey in any other form. It all stemmed from a book written by Julia Cameron in 1995, which highlighted the benefits of writing morning pages.
So why should you do it and how?
Why do morning pages?
- It helps to clear your mind at the start of the day
- It eases anxiety
- It helps to focus your mind for the day
- It helps you to find some answers you may be seeking
- It can help you to process bad or hurtful past experiences
- It can help to relieve writers' block
- It's like keeping a diary, but often, it can run a lot more deeply
How to do morning pages
Morning pages are super simple to do. Basically, you should aim to write up to three pages of your streaming consciousness every single day, preferable at the start. You will often need a prompt to get your writing, and you shouldn't take long breaks from it either. Write what you're thinking in that moment and don't break from it. If you're thinking of writing morning pages, then here's how you can do it!
Buy a good quality notebook that feels good to write in
The aim of morning pages is that you're supposed to want to write them. Buy a good quality notebook and a decent pen to start writing. You may even find that you look forward to writing in it everyday, as opposed to pulling a scruffy notepad out from under your pillow.
If you need to, get up earlier
This will take a small amount of time out of your day and you have to write morning pages (as the name would suggest) in the morning. If you have no time, get up earlier. It won't take you long to write three A5 pages, so even ten or fifteen minutes earlier would do the trick.
Open up a clean page in your notebook, add the date in the header and start writing
Write anything that comes to mind. It might be that you're worried or nervous about something you have to do that day. Maybe you're doing something super exciting and want to talk about that! Maybe you're on holiday, perhaps write about your plans for the day. If you're super tired, write that you're feeling tired. The possibilities are endless with morning pages. There are no rules, just write what you want, but try not and exceed three pages.
Only reflect back on your writing after a considerable amount of time has passed
There's no point looking back at what you wrote last weekend. Instead, wait for a few months, or even a year before reading back through your previous morning pages. You can use it to see how far you've come, it's a highly emotional experience, but it's definitely one worth waiting for, trust me!
Keep your notebook safe and don't let anyone else read it
It's highly personal, much like a diary. No one else needs to read it, you don't even have to let anyone know that you're doing morning pages. Keep it in a safe place and prevent people from reading it. Your thoughts should remain private, no matter what they are! So don't feel pressured to share any of it.
***
Let me know if you'll give morning pages a try, or if you already do them. Keep your eyes peeled for another morning pages related post soon, where I'll share some prompts with you. I will see you again really soon with another blog post!
***
WHERE TO FIND ME
PREVIOUS BLOG POST
COPYRIGHT INFORMATION
This is a great post. I usually write in the evening but in MS Word but would like to try writing in a notebook
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment! I don't think it always matters where you write your morning pages, or when you write them (despite the name, haha). It's just important that you enjoy doing it, and that's all that matters :) I hope you have a great weekend, Tammy! X
Delete