As I was trying to come up with some catchy title for this post, I realized it had been six months since I first started doing morning pages. SIX MONTHS. Am I at that age now that time flies by remarkably fast? Don’t tell me if I am. I don’t want to know. Let’s step away from the cliffside of an existential crisis and get back to the task at hand. My experience with Morning Pages.

What the heck are morning pages?

Morning pages are from The Artist’s Way and I’m not going to lie to you, I read about the daily pages and was like, “Yep. I’ve read enough.” I haven’t finished the book and I really don’t even know what the ultimate long term goal of morning pages is, but I was all in. Six months ago I was in a place where I didn’t know just how badly I need to write every single day.

So the gist of morning pages is this. Write three pages, longhand, in the morning before you get into the nitty gritty of your day. They can be about anything, they can be about nothing. Just fill those three pages with whatever handwriting the gods have given you.

What I’m doing differently…

So for the first two months I was fanatical about writing these pages first thing. I would wake up an hour earlier than usual every single morning to get them done. Sometimes they would go quickly and other times I would struggle. Now, after six months and four filled notebooks, I’m not so rigid with myself. My goal is to still write three pages each day, but I’m much more flexible on the timeline. I’m giving myself a bit of grace, and I find the results of my writing to be much more fulfilling.

I find that I am not rushing to get them done before a meeting or getting ready for the day. I’m letting my mind have the time to wander and settle on different thoughts I may not have gotten to first thing in the morning. I’m also a very slow to wake type of person. I don’t think I’m fully all there until at least an hour or two after waking up and starting my day. Plus I tend to go on quite regular Starbucks runs and if I’m being a stickler for the rules, I wouldn’t be able to do that before I started writing if I followed the pure morning pages method.

Will I keep doing them?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is I find a huge sense of accomplishment after I finish the third page and close the notebook. I weirdly enjoy looking at the four completely full notebooks on my shelf knowing I scribbled my thoughts in them to their fill. I have days where I feel like I’m making huge breakthroughs and understanding my thoughts and emotions. I communicate said thoughts better with my partner. Since I write every day I don’t feel pressured to always have to write about the big stuff, but can romanticize the small stuff too.

Should you do them, too?

The short answer is yes. The long answer is I find it to be a cheaper form of therapy. One that I can do on my couch in my sleep shirt where I can really just spend time with myself. I’m not a religious person, but I feel like its akin to sitting down with a bible to spend time with God if that’s what you believe. It’s meditative, head-clearing, and a sense of accomplishment at the start of every day.