I've written three pages, by hand, every morning for seven years.
And I want to know: What is everyone doing with their mornings?
Over the last seven years, I have maintained the habit of getting up and writing Morning Pages immediately upon waking. It’s a ritual. I make a coffee first (I’m not a monster) even though I know you should drink a litre of water, wait an hour, and eat some real food, all before caffeinating. But I lack self-control in some areas of my life, the main one being “doing what I want.”
This may be a little uptight, but I firmly believe that Morning Pages (per The Artist’s Way by Julie Cameron) must be three pages of stream-of-consciousness writing done by hand. Folks call all sorts of writing practices “morning pages”. They would be wrong. But that’s okay.
Sure, there have been phases when I let things slide. While my mom was dying was one of those times, but even then, I kept it up pretty steadily. Having the daily outlet to release the repetitive thoughts was good. Sometimes, writing about traumatic experiences while they are still happening is just too much.
I did a pretty good job giving myself lots of grace during that time. Sometimes you just have to say “fuck everything” to be okay. And to be able to appreciate that everything is temporary. The concept of impermanence can be tough to accept at times, but it can also be very freeing.
Anyway, I want to know what everyone else does in the morning because I’m nosy. Is your morning routine always the same? Do you do certain things in certain orders? Or do you just have a couple of non-negotiables?
To wake up and not have the anchoring act of doing Morning Pages?
Weird.
Lost.
Floating.
Maybe only a few people are reading this.
But if you are one of those people.
I want (need!) to know…
How do you spend your mornings?
As always, thank you for reading this, for being here, and for indulging in my nosiness.
I've also been writing morning pages for about a year now after reading the Artists way. And it's been a very transformative morning ritual (on top of a lot of other morning practices I do like meditation and breathing practices) I have literally become an artist in large part because of this practice producing my first artwork ever and landing my first gallery show within a year of starting.
I drink a liter of water lol! Feed the cats and then I meditate for 11 min, 15 ish min of kundalini by followed affirmations and journalling some days. Have been doing 950 words of typed morning pages to try something new.