Day 2 of Blogging Challenge - Morning Pages

This blog post is the second in a series of 14 (days) that will be used to reJumpStart my blogging habit. I started a few years ago and lost interest (and the habit) of blogging. I was looking for a way to encourage and prod me to start this habit again. Maybe this will get you thinking about blogging again or for the first time. Found this inspiration as I was reading blogs. I hope you will follow me and provide me with moral Internet support.

Recently, I started to use a habit talked about by Julie Cameron, author of The Artist's Way called 'Morning Pages', this is a practice of writing three pages each day in a stream of consciousness approach.

You are supposed to use paper and pen, and just write whatever comes into your whether it makes sense or not. There is not a science to three pages, I think it is somewhat arbitrary, but it works. At first I was not sure about the paper and pen part as I have been attempting to minimize paper. After a few weeks, I am good with it and I think it helps to get the thoughts out on to paper and then know they can be destroyed. I decided to use legal pads single sided, with a specific pen each day. I start mine with “Good Morning TT (Terrible Ted) and then write away. I also have found that my penmanship is terrible, and thought that this may get better. I actually see that it isn’t and maybe that is okay because no one can read them, even me. I think it is okay given that you are not really supposed to read them again from what I understand from Cameron. They are meant to flush your mind of whatever is in there, negative thoughts, frustrations, what is bothering you, blocks to whatever you may be trying to accomplish. I think being liberated from the need to read them again. I have about 3 legal pads filled up right now and I would expect to throw them away. Cameron recommends not reading them for at least a few weeks. I don’t think I could make sense anyway.

I will admit that I have not been able to do these every day and first thing in the morning. I have quit beating myself up about and try not to have a guilty conscious when I miss a day.

Writing first thing in the morning and the earlier the better seems to help as well. I seem to feel better if I do this before anyone is up and I clear my head before the day starts. Also, you don’t have to explain what you are doing and you can minimize interruptions. I am finding that I can finish these in less than 30 minutes sometimes 20 if I just write and never lift the pen.

If you want to know more about the practice and read what others have learned from using this habit. I would recommend doing a Google search for "artists way morning pages" and check out some of the many articles that have been writing on this concept. Here are a few links as well to get you started. One is a video from Cameron’s site. The Guardian published an article here, and INC Magazine wrote about the advantages of the Morning Pages routine in “Why It’s Worth Making Time for This Lengthy Morning Ritual”