Writing: Why I HEART Morning Journaling

In my work with graduate students and life coaching clients, I talk a lot lately about writing - its purpose and how to do it by letting go of fears of perfection and the like.

There are many ways to use writing as a tool for processing, visioning, organizing, brainstorming, and lots of other –ings, including HEALING.

As I’ve mentioned in my last post, I’m working my way through Cameron’s book/program called The Artist’s Way. I am in week 4 of the 12 total. I am all sorts of loving it, all the shit and memories AND also the fun and freedom of creativity.

What I want to share today though is the one non-negotiable part called Morning Pages because guess what? They are done in the morning. Let’s call them MPs.

MPs as I practice them, and we refer to them in my little group, are vomit pages. They are
unstructured,
unprompted,
free flowing,
let it all go,
unfiltered,
unedited,
you get the picture, pages.
Their focus is a complete lack-of-focus focus.

Here’s my process:

Wake up.
Put on glasses to see.
Sleepily grab journal and pen.
Turn on the least amount of light as to not wake the kiddo.
Write down dreams first (that’s my addition because I track my dreams for lots of reasons).
Then start writing what comes out.
[Sometimes it’s yesterday, or today’s worries, or to do’s, or complaining about writing MPs or being interrupted writing them, or, occasionally, the making sense of something I was processing the day before.]
Write for 3 pages at least (as per instructions) or until empty.
Then get up to make coffee, and
Start the rest of the day.
[There’s also lots of distractions in there which I’ll write up separately.]

I have been recommending MPs to people all over the place.
I love so much about this process.

I’ve gained:

·      Honesty. I can’t bullshit myself on these pages. I mean, why? What purpose would that serve. The MPs are just for me. She doesn’t even recommend rereading them, at least not at first.

·      The stories I tell myself. I can’t bullshit myself. Did I mention that already? If I keep repeating the same thing in my writing, I will notice the story that I keep telling myself at some point and get so sick of it, I’ll stop or change.

·      A reset. An empty brain. I get to vomit out all sorts of things. And over time, I start to notice patterns, like the same ole stories I tell myself. And even create a new action plan for the day afterwards.

·      Attention to bad habits. They highlight my patterns and tools of resistance and avoidance. For example, while writing, I look down and notice that I’ve picked up my phone and am on Instagram and am avoiding writing about something. I have so many good distractors that I’ll blog that next.

·      The big reveal. I have been journaling in the morning for a couple years now, but these pages allow big reveals to clear out and be acknowledged in writing. It’s an early step in healing wounds. This is such a HUGE point - daily writing can bring up those wounds and be a part of healing that letting them come into the light.

Have you done or do you do Morning Pages or some version of those? How has writing in this free style helped you?

Or if this sounds scary OR intriguing and you want some support, contact me. I love this stuff!! Writing is my JAM, as the youngsters say (or as I like to pretend they say).