In the beginning of my self development process I wanted to embrace my creativity and the artist living within me . A coach advised me the book the Artist Way from Julia Cameron. The main topic of the book is morning pages.

What are morning pages?

The exercise is to write first thing in the morning 3 pages longhand during 30 minutes . That’s it. It’s simple. You write everything that goes through your mind without holding yourself back. If you want to write “the wall is white”, just write it. The pages are not to be read to anyone or even yourself. Let go of your fears, don’t be scared to be judged, don’t bother to sound good. It doesn’t have to be meaningful. Write down your thoughts and put the words on paper.

How does it work?

When you have thoughts in your brain, they vanish as suddenly as they appear It is not easy to make constructive thinking. We are easily interrupted by some external factors. With morning pages what you write is not just endless words in your head anymore but they exist on a sheet of paper. It allows you to read your life, your opinion and what’s been spinning around in your head but you didn’t pay much attention to it before. Those thoughts are hints that may reveal what you want, who you are and your needs. Haven’t you notice that sometimes you feel blocked with a problem and as soon as you write the problem down, you gain more clarity?

“Morning pages leave no corner of our life unexamined. Our dreams, our hopes, our disappointments, our pains(…). A day at at a time. A page at a time, an issue at a time, we become intimate with ourselves.”

“We connect to our emotions and our intuitions”. – Julia Cameron

Why it works

When you have just woken up, you are the most connected to your subconscious. You are beginning a new day after processing your dreams. Your brain is somehow still connected to your subconscious level before your fears and blocks appear along the day.

They are some groups who practice morning pages. People gather and talk about the benefits of writing morning pages. Thanks to morning pages, some people discovered their passion, their calling, their hobby, were helped to go through tough and light event in their life.

My experience with morning pages

I’ve decided to try it out to see if it works. I was convinced that my subconscious knew what I wanted, who I was supposed to be, so I wanted by any means to be connected to it. (I used meditation as well to connect to my subconscious.) I began this exercise in October 2014. Since then, I haven’t missed a day.

My morning ritual

It became a part of my morning ritual (more important than brushing my teeth and having breakfast). Before morning pages, I woke up just to go to work and that was depressing just to think about it. Now I wake up 30 minutes before my usual time to write. I love beginning each day of my life with those pages. I put a calm music and I set the timer to 30 min. I look out through the window (now I have the privileges to have a big wide open view on the Eiffel tower it makes it even more awesome). I watch the sunrise or the sky changing colors. And then I begin to write. A moment for myself. Sometimes before I finish, my husband wakes up and kisses me in the neck. I want to keep this habit till my very last day.

Fear to write

It help me to fight my fear of writing. I wanted to write my biography but my inner voice has always told me “You’re not a writer”. I used to fear to be judged and to be ridiculous. Morning pages made it easy to write. Those fears disappeared. It’s the best place to let myself express uncensored. I turn my self critic off. I’ve dominated this fear by just doing it every morning, it became a habit. After months of practice, I can feel when I’m inspired and I can write easily from the bottom of my heart. Now, I find the courage to write my blogposts. I’ve dared participate nanowrimo challenge to write a draft of my biography 🙂

Clear my mind from the clutter

My morning pages may contain all those petty things that I have in my brain “Like I have to call the electricity company”. It acts like a vacuum and unclutters my mind to help me to access to the deeper level. It might just be the mood of the moment : frustrated, tired, annoyed… These need to be expressed. In case of negatives thoughts. Isn’t it better that the pages receive it instead of my husband or my friends? It helped me to improve my relationships.

Raise self awareness

My morning pages were my best companion in my self-discovery: introspection, analyzing, clearing other’s purpose…I was talking only about self development. It became obvious to me that it was a passion. Before, I didn’t know it was so important to me. It helped to drive my attention to what was lying under the surface. I brought my thoughts to a more conscious level. It is a way to reconnect to my life. I visited my own soul and my own world without restrictions.

Foster ideas

After months of practice and clearing all the clutter, my morning pages became a place where my best ideas were born. I assessed and reflected about my projects. I was daring to challenge myself in my mornings like I’ve never done before. One morning, I talked myself into opening my Facebook page. I was writing down why I shouldn’t fear to be judged and go for it. Another day, I was challenging myself to submit my blogpost to be published in famous blogs.

Be open to what the morning pages suggested. Otherwise, it will repeatedly suggest it until you pay attention to it.

Find a notebook and give it a try. Tell me about it ! From the first time, I’ve never stopped the morning pages 🙂