Do you ever have those days where you wake up so happy and have so much energy for the day? You probably wonder what you need to do to keep these days going on for longer. Or maybe you have and I would love to hear all about it, to learn from you. Well I have days that tend to be on both extremes. Those that give me a burst of energy and those that make me wish I was rich enough, to just stay in bed.

I realised when I am stressed I have more of the stay in bed days and I wanted to change that. My love of learning which is one of the 24 character strengths that the optimists have, led me to morning pages. Morning pages is a habit that once you embrace, you tend to have more days of energy and vigour.

The mental dump 

I have been keeping morning pages for the last 30 days and I can say it is one of the things I look forward to, knowing that I will be happier. Morning pages have become a mental dump that creates room for the things that are good and fulfilling for my soul to thrive. It is a technique based off the book, The Artist’s Way Workbook by Julia Cameron.

Julia recommends writing three pages of handwritten stream of thought first thing in the morning. Handwritten is meant to minimize the amount of distraction that could come with writing on your laptop or on your phone and to go deeper into your mind. One should not confuse this with a diary where you account for the things that have happened and neither a to do list.

Morning pages are the thoughts in your mind there and then.

The process is more important than the product

You should allocate this practise to a specific notebook, standard A5 size or 5 by 8 inches will do. This ensure that you write around 200 – 300 words on a page. There is no topic to choose from, you just open the notebook and whatever is coming to your mind, you write it down. The goal is not the end product, the goal is the process.

The process of dumping your thoughts on a page at your comfort is like talking to a friend or a therapist. Whatever is in your mind, you put it down. When you think there is nothing, start the sentence, ” I do not know what to write which I think is because of ….” and keep going. Somedays you have a lot to say that you want to do more than three pages but somedays you will not have thoughts for three pages. Either way, write and finish your three pages.

When start writing, do not go back to read what is already on paper. Just keep going and do not worry about your handwriting as this is not something you present to anyone. Not even yourself.

Just keep writing.

It will start off joyous and easy as you are eager to do this. The freshness of an idea makes it easy to keep at it. The true results however, lie in the continuation of the process. I do not know why life works like this but it just does. So you have to keep going, everyday knowing that the writing is the true gold mine and not the three pages.

What you can expect will happen 

What you will start to see is a less crowded state of mind.

When you think you have so much to do or accomplish or you have so much stress, your mind and heart are heavy, morning pages will give you that ease. Writing these thoughts downs in whatever shape or form will remove the block and give you clarity.

The first day I wrote my pages, I ended up so grateful for the things that were happening or about to happen in my life. Before writing, I was feeling like my head was about to blow only to see that I need thoughts organising and sorting.

My husband even commented on how happy I was for the rest of that day.

When you feeling lighter, you can take on more tasks to achieve your goals for the day and by default making you more productive and sure of yourself. The more you write the more you meet yourself and become aware of who you are and what you are about.

You are no longer anxious due to the pressures of life that come with not knowing what the true issue is.

You will get to the root of your issues sooner than later. If you find there is always that one nagging thought that keeps appearing in your writing, then you can unpack it and get to a solution sooner. The solution could lie within you or you will get ideas of where to get one.

You too deserve joy and happiness that comes from this process.

I absolutely recommend you give this habit a go and you will see parts of you you have not met yet. All the people you admire, are most likely sorting and organising their thoughts too through the morning pages.