Habits the Q Gave Me: No. 2 “Morning pages”

“Morning pages” — ft. an oldie of my angel puppy who would always write with me.

I’ve always been a mega journaler – If my heart is splitting in half. If my crush confesses I’m actually his crush like a freaking Christmas Hallmark movie IRL. If someone was a jerk at work and I spend my lunch crying in my car. I’ve written the “oh wow” days down since 6th grade.

Most of the time though, my journal is kinda like a crystal ball. If I don’t know what to do, I can start a page confused and often end it with marching orders from me to me.

It’s how I pray. Think. Grieve. Celebrate. Reconcile.

But “morning pages” …were foreign to me.

PROCESS (via “The Artist’s Way”): You sit down and write 3 pages first thing in the morning without fail, recent magical Blockbuster kiss or not, every single dang day. It’s stream of consciousness, even if it’s just saying you don’t have anything to say over and over again!

GOAL 1: ⭐️ To get all the good & bad out of your brain so you can move forward with your day and with your creativity without carrying anything around. It’s like when you need to remember ingredients for a recipe on the way to the store. Your mind is 10% somewhere else holding onto that info, but if you write a list you can relax and use that subconscious for something more sparkly… or at least more useful.

GOAL 2: ⭐️ To get into a practice of not being in the mood to create but creating anyways. Creativity (and *especially writing) is a discipline. It’s like going to work. Going to the gym. Cooking dinner. You do it on the days you’re feeling like Elon Musk + Arnold Schwarzenegger + Martha Stewart *and* on the days you’re feeling like a potato-face slug.

Too often I sit down to do something creative and if I don’t immediately feel like a big invisible wizard bippity-boppity-boo-ed some creative windfall into my imagination, then poof –– game over, get one eye scrolling through social media and the other trained on Keeping Up With The Real Housewives of HGTV.

But it doesn’t and shouldn’t have to be reliant on a self-created Dumbledore. That’s just another excuse.

I’ve noticed such a difference in my discipline to create and also in my heart’s general levity since doing morning pages.
The Q has included a lot of both buckling down (read: not farting around) and a lot of ouch to process.

That all said — this habit gets all 5 of my stars. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️