The Romantic Way

Three pages, longhand, stream of thought, every morning, religiously. That’s what morning pages is. It’s not hard, but it’s nearly magical. Most things in life that have the most profound effect on fulfillment and joy are simple, free, and require consistency. I’ll show you a little of my journey with morning pages.

It’s a bit like clearing the crud out when you get up in the morning. I started a few years ago after reading Julia Cameron’s Artist’s Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity, and with the exception of a few weeks here and there battling with myself and with time, I’ve poured my morning onto the pages each day upon rising. Some of it’s even intelligible, but that’s really not the goal of this practice. The goal is to free your mind and soul, validate yourself, your thoughts and ideas by committing them to the page, and pausing long enough to engage with your own creativity and emotions. That and more is what the simple practice of morning pages achieves.

Making the simple complex is commonplace; making the complicated simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.
Charles Mingus

Morning pages is an incredibly simple practice. And I call it a practice, not an exercise because there’s really no particular form or technique. Three pages, stream of thought, longhand, every morning. That’s it. What do you write about? Nothing in particular, just whatever comes to your mind. It’s not a work of art or a piece of fine literature. No one’s going to read it — not even you.

Some days each new line resembled the last line.

When I first started writing morning pages, I corrected my grammar and spelling and tried to make the stuff at least intelligible. I was even concerned about neat handwriting. After a couple of weeks of that nonsense and a few breaks for self-pitying discouragement, I returned to the page in the morning, sleep in eyes and coffee in hand to put my heart on the page.

Some days, my page was tear stained. Some days each new line resembled the last line. Some days very interesting things emerged on the page which startled, intrigued or even frightened me. I’ve learned to know myself, love myself, be bold and courageous through my morning pages.

I now look forward to meeting myself each morning over coffee on the pages of my tattered notebook. My current notebook is ragged and stained. Soon I will bid it farewell and begin a new morning pages notebook as this one is nearly full. I have a special pen I like to use that’s bold and black. I can see it easier in the morning and it scrawls well. Blue ballpoint ink doesn’t look so well for me when it’s messy. I like my messy writing in bold black. It’s just my morning pages preference. You’ll find yours.

All you need to begin morning pages is a pen, spiral notebook and enough time to write three pages, stream of thought. I didn’t use the morning pages notebook pictured to the left, but I think it’s really good for beginners to build a little confidence and get started on the right track. I thrive on struggle. If you don’t, maybe you’d like to try Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages Journal. Just click on the link to the left to get more info.

I hope you’ll give it a go. If you do give it a go, give it a go for at least a month so you have a chance to see the results for yourself. It will take that long to develop not only an appreciation for what morning pages does for your creativity, confidence in your art and clarity of thinking, but also for how you look forward to meeting yourself each morning and find that you really like yourself.

It’s a great practice for the romantic way. I hope that I’ll see you along it. Start morning pages tomorrow morning. You’ll be glad you did.

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