A Morning ritual I know you’ll love

Last year, as we entered into lockdown I started Julia Cameron’s The Artist’s Way. This is a book that I recommend to all of my clients, all of my friends and family. I will talk about it to anyone! I have mentioned it in my newsletters and here in the journal too. It is a beautiful book, which helps you to not only reconnect with your creative self but also you! Personally, I think that this is a book for all of the mothers, hell, all parents! As you grapple with finding your space within your new world, but more of that in another post!

One of the keystones of The Artist’s Way was something called Morning Pages. This has become a constant for me in my morning routine. It is so incredibly powerful but ridiculously simple too - it’s the simple ones you need to look out for because we always underestimate them!

WHAT ARE MORNING PAGES?

Ok. So it’s what you make it. I’ll explain, it is basically just a stream of conscious writing. You are dumping out whatever it is that’s in your head. It can look different as your week progresses. It doesn’t have to follow a particular format. It’s all you!

Now, I’ll be honest. At first, I deviated. I didn’t do it in the morning and it didn’t work that well for me. I told myself I was too busy. It was lockdown, I had two babies under 4 years old, and that felt that sleep was optional. How do you throw in a morning routine that includes meditation and writing?! With a little gentle but firm guidance though, I made it a priority and wow, what a result. When I started, we as a family had hit cold, after virus after infection! I was angry, tired, sleep deprived and freaking out as we were entering another lockdown. The ground beneath me felt pretty damn shaky.

I got up earlier, grabbed myself a decaf (which if you know me is outrageous in itself), I sat at the dining table in that moment of silence before the house came to life and I wrote. I purged those thoughts, feelings, fears. Gabrielle Bernstein calls one of her versions, ‘Rage on the Page’ and yep, that was what it felt like and I loved it. To start with, it can feel a little scary, writing out all your thoughts and feelings. It’s not necessarily a familiar feeling. Often, we shy away from big feelings. Beat them down and hide them. Doing something like this feels like perhaps you are inviting in the negative and scary - but stick with it. Get rogue, feel those feelings, release them. You’ll come to see them differently over time. You’ll come to realise that your thoughts and feelings are not you, they are simply moving through you. You aren’t calling in anything scary either, in fact the opposite.

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Well, you grab a pen, ideally one you love. A dedicated notebook (so that you keep it all together). You grab a seat and you write out 3 pages. You write down whatever comes to mind, whatever flits through your brain. Thoughts, feelings, even a do-to list if that’s where you need to start. It doesn’t matter. You don’t need to edit, you don’t need to spell check. You don’t even need to be able to read it! The goal, is to just get it out of your head and onto that paper.

You are clearing your mind, heart and spirit, leaving room for the things that you want. Don’t let anyone read you pages either. They are only for you - this is important because you don’t want to censor it. You have to be truthful. You have to be honest. You have to write it all.

Once I have filled a notebook - I burn it. I see it as a sense of release but ultimately do as you wish.

I hope that you give it a go, try it out. Perhaps you’ve had this practice and let it slide. Try picking it up again. Perhaps you have an established practice - tell me all about it! Leave a comment below

K x