Morning Pages

CreativityPersonal

Aug 9

I’ve been writing “Morning Pages” for about two years now. It is a practice that has anchored me, grown me, helped me pray, and taught me what it’s like to creatively commit without any expectation of outcome. It’s like a morning cleaning for my brain, my soul, my mindset - a place to just dump it all out without any worries of what may be written on the page.

A lot of people say “morning pages are magic” and I think that the magic lies in getting to know yourself, your thoughts, and the whisperings of God over time. When you write these pages every day and pay attention to what is going on inside of you, healing does happen.

It’s a practice from The Artist’s Way -- a book that has really, really, really helped me. I can’t recommend it enough. Julia Cameron, the author, writes about Morning Pages here.

I’ve been asked frequently how I write them or what is in them and the answer could not be more simple.

It goes like this: I make my coffee and open my computer as soon as I wake up, I open Notion (the app I use to journal - more on that later) or my Apple Notes app and I just start typing. I write whatever comes to mind for about 10 minutes. It’s free flow thoughts and writing. It typically starts with stuff like “I had a weird dream.” “This coffee is good.” “It’s hot outside.” “I’m worried about ___.” They’re very simple. The charge is only: write freely, honestly, and badly if you need to. And write them everyday.

The “technical rules'“ of Morning Pages is that you write them by hand and you write three pages. I found that when I type them, it reduces the friction and temptation to not do them. My cardinal rule when working on my creativity is to reduce any friction that is keeping me in the way of commitment. So I type them. I also love that I can search them for keywords and easily reference what was happening in my life or what I was thinking about when I woke up at different times along the way.

When I first started in 2022, I created a folder in my notes app on my computer and created a new note each day. I simply titled the top with the date and wrote whatever came to mind under it.

For all of 2023, I’ve used Notion to track my personal goals and journaling. I have a folder called “journal” and I create a new page with the date as the title for each day of morning pages. Notion is great because you can add emojis, tags, and templates to your journal. I created a template for my morning pages with a prayer I like to say everyday and other creative reminders / affirmations that I try to make daily. It’s been so helpful! See screenshots below.