The Morning Pages Challenge

Morning Pages - A Clearer Mind, Better Ideas & Less Anxiety

What are morning pages?
Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, ideally done first thing in the morning.

There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages– they are not high art. They aren’t even “writing.” They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page…and then do three more pages tomorrow.
source


Benefits

1. Morning pages enable you to clear your mind. When you wake up, your mind is swimming with thoughts from the previous night. When you write off the top of your head first thing in the morning, the words that spill out onto the blank page will no longer be taking up space in your brain, and you can approach the rest of the day with more clarity.

1. Morning pages allow you to process emotion. Life can be overwhelming. On top of personal stress, we are bombarded with heavy information in the news—some of it tragic. It’s okay to grieve and process these stories. Morning pages give you the space to do this, freeing your mind from information that can weigh you down and affect your productivity and your life.

1. Morning pages unleash your creativity. Being creative takes discipline. Making the time to sit down and write that novel or short story often gets pushed aside. By writing morning pages, you’re establishing a routine that will help you find a way to make time for your creative self. Once you get into the habit of writing morning pages, finding the time for your creative endeavors will come easier.

1. Morning pages silence your inner critic. Before even putting pen to paper, writers can be their own worst critics. Stream-of-consciousness writing accesses only what’s on your brain at that moment, leaving no room for self-criticism.

Make sure to do it longhand
For morning pages, write longhand only. Writing with pen and paper takes time and allows you to process what you're expressing. Also, longhand takes longer to keep up with your thoughts which leaves no time to edit what you write, a key component of morning pages source


Do it every day for a month and evaluate what it did for you!

Edit: Oops, sorry about that. I think this should've gone under "self improvement" rather than here perhaps.

 

Day 1/30

Really felt great at the end of page three, parts of it just sucks because it takes some time to write three pages longhand.

A lot of good things came out of it honestly just the first day, ideas about how I should structure my life, emptied out some thoughts I didn't want running in my head for the day as well and some positive affirmations & gratitude about myself and my life.

 

Thanks for noticing! I fixed the link now

I think longhand is a really important factor in this actually and all the people that are talking about doing morning pages say the same, here is a quote from the author who came up with the idea of morning pages about longhand:

Do the pages really have to be longhand?
Yes. Typing Morning Pages may give us more speed— but will give us less depth. Writing by hand connects us more intimately to our thoughts, and paradoxically is more efficient in terms of getting in touch with ourselves and opening the path to our most authentic selves and the day at hand.
https://juliacameronlive.com/2017/09/18/morning-pages-faq/

And about doodling, I don't think that would work because it would take too much time to just draw something that popped in your head and the whole idea is to write every thought that comes in your head and just keep rolling and rolling with it.

 

Day two. Nothing special, felt good to write some stuff out, flush it out.
Tomorrow I will incorporate more in my pages about how I will take on the day emotionally, more affirmations and more gratitude.