Julia Cameron came up with a genius idea called ‘Morning Pages.’

It’s not reading 10 pages when you wake up every morning.
It’s not ripping 10 pages of your favorite Bible story out of the Bible every morning.
It’s also not ringing up your buddy 10 times to get his attention first thing in the morning.

Okay—this is an article, not a game.

Morning Pages—frankly have and will probably always be, one of my secret sauces to success.

When you wake up, your mind is both a blank canvas and a loaded paintball gun. There is the inner engineering for coming up with some of your most precious, clear, and creative ideas and there is the mess of all the things from yesterday’s playing in your brain (hate to break it to you, sweetheart, but 90% of your thoughts—unless you do things like Morning Pages are a replay of yesterday and will continue to be for your whole life). There is a need, therefore, to shoot all of your special colors at that blank paintball wall and see WTF comes up.

This is Morning Pages.

It, simply put, is an exercise of writing until you’ve filled up 3 pages.

You pick up a pen and just see what comes out.

But there are some very key rules:

  • you may not premeditate what you write (Organizer’s challenge)

  • you may not analyze what you write (Cerebralist’s and Poet’s challenge)

  • you may not edit your words as you go (Perfectionist’s challenge)

  • you may not re-read it (Judge’s and Authoritarian’s challenge)

and you must…

  • throw “proper” writing rules out the window—grammar, punctuation, spelling, formatting (Teacher’s Pet challenge)

  • be authentic—writing from the heart

  • commit to it as a daily practice

  • do it first thing upon waking (or close to it…capture hour #1)

  • do it sans distractions

  • write long hand (no chomping away at the keyboard)

Sometimes, you’ll feel supercharged and have an emotion that just needs to be untethered and expressed.
Sometimes, you’ll need to sort out a conversation you need to have with someone else on the page first—at least the blocks that are preventing you from having the conversation.
Sometimes, you will have zero ideas, feel completely empty in the head, and have no motivation to start.

TRUST. THE. PROCESS.


As you go, often times, some of your most vivid childhood memories peek through and you are like “where the eff did that come from…so glad I remembered it!”
As you go, often times, some of your craziest imagination’s productions spool out and you enter a fantasy land where you are kind of reveling in this blissful state.
As you go, often times, you get in touch with a tender and loving feeling for yourself buried beneath the judgmental thoughts.

OK, OK…so I’ve painted a really glorious, Pollyanna expectation for morning pages, have I?

Getting in touch with your real feelings, real beliefs, real moods however…isn’t all fresh squeezed juices and all-you-can-eat pancakes. It requires a lot of digestion power…a lot of grit, a lot of self-vulnerability…that is, your bravery to really see and feel what YOU really see and feel.

Building on this paradox of dark and light that are embedded in the practice, I’d like to do something I rarely do—fore gift you a list of myths and truths about Morning Pages. Usually I am the gal and coach who is like “go right in and experience it for yourself.” I don’t like my biased perspective to color your fresh embarkment on the journey. So, as you read, know that this in what I have discovered in my experience, and it may not be yours.

Morning Pages: Myths and Truths In My Experience

Myth #1: You will want to everyday. Every beginning will be a fun, bushy-tailed, bright-eyed bunny-lovin’ experience of hitting the pages like you’d hit the court for a game of pick-up basketball. You’ll feel the innate drive and physical energy to fill up three pages with your hand.

Truth #1: Everyday will be different. Some days, you will wake up feeling that drive and energy, hand and wrist in peak condition, to fill up three pages with your hand. Some days, you will need to dig deeper to contact the reason why you are doing the thang. Some days, you will be a bunny chasing the carrot of the gems you unlocked last week doing MP’s.

Myth #2: You will die.

Truth #2: You will not die. I mean, not from this practice lol. Getting in touch with your feelings is hard work and getting to know your shadow sides is uncomfortable at times, but just like Kanye said “that, that that which don’t kill you, can only make you stronger.” The shadow can be recognized when you are triggered by the behavior of someone else…it’s pointing out some aspect of yourself that you have not yet accepted or integrated. When you embrace and sew in and possibly join in dance with your shadow parts, you will be a stronger person, because: a) you will realize those parts are your superpowers masked by traumas that tucked them away and they deserve to shine in the world and b) you will navigate the world with a more wholesome presence.

Myth #3: You are writing your life’s masterpiece

Truth #3: This is not about putting together a perfectly polished paper. This is about —as a creative (which we all are), putting your creative self in motion. Breaking out of the confines of the role you will go play in the world for the day, and being the messy expression of yourself you truly are.

But, truth be told, this is part of writing your life’s masterpiece.

Myth #4: You have to have something profound to say.

Truth #4: Firstly, you are already judging your own thoughts. Sometimes, you just start writing “I really don’t want to write, I really don’t want to write…” and then, more and more of your subconscious pours through. You’ll be shown what you really are focusing on and what you really need to clear or alchemize from your mind. It’s a huge gift.

Here is Julia Cameron herself explaining how to do Morning Pages, and a great primer video to kick off your MP Journaling Journey.