There are just a lot of things to think about, and sometimes they get in the way of doing other things, like being creative and making art.

So I decided to try something that might help with that.

This is the book The Artist's Way, and in it, Julia Cameron talks about the daily practice of morning pages.

Three pages of daily longhand stream of consciousness, written first thing upon arising.

There are a lot of people who have claimed that morning pages change their life.

So I thought I would commit to 30 days of writing morning pages to see if they might change my life, too.

The first week went by pretty easily.

Alright, week one check-in.

I'm feeling very optimistic about writing morning pages, and I definitely see how they can be really helpful.

I've always enjoyed writing out my thoughts, it helps me sort through whatever's been going through my mind lately.

And doing it in this way feels a little more productive than writing in a typical journal.

Morning pages are meant to be a simple practice with big results.

The pages are simple, yet profound.

We discover an inner voice that speaks to us with greater and greater clarity.

Now while there is no wrong way to do them, you can do whatever is best for you, there are some aspects to consider so that you get the most out of them.

As I mentioned, morning pages should be done daily and first thing in the morning.

This is because the pages are not meant to be a recounting of what happened in the day you just had.

It's not like a journal or a diary where you document the events of each day.

It's a way to clear our minds and prepare us for the day ahead.

They give us space in our brains so that we can approach the rest of the day with more clarity.

Check-in number two.

So I've been doing morning pages for two weeks now, and I've managed to keep up with it everyday making sure to write at least something.

It has been really helpful when there is something immediately that I've been thinking about a lot that I need to work through, and it helps a lot to write it down, but when there's not something that's immediately on my mind, I feel like it's a chore.

But with that being said, I still feel like it's important to do it everyday as a daily habit rather than just the days that you feel like doing it.

Even when it feels like pushing a boulder up a hill, having the daily practice will prepare you for being creative.

This is because discipline is an often overlooked but key aspect of living a creative life, and no matter what it is you write, keeping up with the daily habit will produce benefits as well.

Which brings me to my next point.

What does it mean to write stream of consciousness, and why is it important?

As I mentioned, this is not a journal.

Think of it more like a brain dump.

A way to rid yourself of those unwanted thoughts living rent-free in your brain.

Thoughts like what Julia Cameron calls mental static.

That pesky voice that follows you around saying things like, you need to sort the laundry, or don't forget to buy some pasta.

These are just noise.

They cloud your thoughts and keep you from focusing on your priorities.

You may also find yourself using morning pages for venting and ranting and whining.

That's normal.

They can be used to take those negative thoughts out of your brain so that you're left with the optimistic and hopeful thoughts for the rest of the day.

That's why morning pages are unique.

They're not meant to be high art.

You're not trying to write something profound.

In fact, it's best to avoid any kind of perfectionism with these.

They're meant to be messy, so you may end up writing sentences that are only half-finished or that don't make any sense.

Or you may write pointless things like, I don't know what to write.

You also shouldn't let anyone else read these, and you probably shouldn't go back and read them yourself.

You write them, and then you're done with them.

The third recommendation is that you write three full pages in longhand.

Now, if the idea of writing that much seems daunting, use a smaller book.

The goal is to commit to finishing three full pages, no matter how much writing that actually is.

However, Julia Cameron does believe that three pages of eight-and-a-half-by-eleven paper is the most ideal.

Also, the book itself isn't that important.

Just as long as it's one dedicated to your morning pages and nothing else.

So you might be wondering why you have to use a pen, when it's the 21st century and we have computers and even phones we could use.

If that's what's best for you, write your morning pages digitally.

However, you will see more results if you write them in longhand.

This is because longhand requires us to slow down.

And by slowing down, we connect to our emotions and our intuitions.

Writing things down instead of typing them makes our words carry more importance.

It's not easy to delete or backtrack on what we are saying.

It takes more time, and it doesn't allow for editing.

Typing may be less time-consuming and more efficient, but efficient doesn't equal better in this case.

Writing by hand allows for more reflection and self-awareness, and you're less likely to be emotionally detached from the practice.

There are definitely days where it feels very helpful to just get whatever is on my mind onto the page.

And then there's days where it's like just pushing through.

It's like walking through mud.

It's not fun.

Page two almost always feels like a chore.

On page one, I can write whatever is immediately on my mind.

And then page two is like, what do I write next?

What do I write next?

And then I'll usually come up with something and fill up page three.

But page two is hard.

It's important to know that you're not always going to be in the mood to do your morning pages, so it's best to set everything up beforehand so there's less resistance.

You may find that having a specific spot helps, somewhere that's comfortable and free from distractions.

Or you may want to silence your phone, grab a drink, or even feed the cat ahead of time.

You may prefer to have some music playing in the background, something free from lyrics so it doesn't call your attention away.

I find that headphones are the best option to keep me from getting distracted.

Okay, check-in number three.

I think that I'm at a point now where I'm really starting to see the value in this in almost any way, even when I don't have as much to say.

I think it's becoming a little easier for me to find something to say.

I felt a lot better about doing morning pages this week than I did last week.

I was feeling really frustrated last week, and I think it's because I wasn't in the right mindset whenever I was sitting down.

I was in this kind of impatient, I just want to get this over with type mindset.

And this week I really tried to make sure that I was setting aside this time and being very intentional with this is what I'm doing right now.

And so it was a lot easier for me to sit down and relax and not feel frustrated and not feel like this was a chore or something that I had to do.

I just enjoyed my time as I was doing it.

All of this may sound like a lot of work, and you may be thinking, I don't have time for that.

But the benefits far outweigh the time used.

By getting up 30 minutes earlier or by putting away social media for an extra 30 minutes, you could be freeing up time for something that will improve your whole day or life as many people claim.

When Julia Cameron is asked why she writes morning pages, she says, There really are so many benefits that come with writing morning pages, though, and I don't think I could even list half of them.

But I will tell you about some of the ones that I experienced the most.

The first and main benefit I had from morning pages is the clarity.

Being able to dump all of my noisy thoughts onto the page made room for more important thoughts.

This made my day feel way less overwhelming.

Kind of like having a clean desk to work at.

The second benefit was problem identification and solving.

A lot of times I have a problem lurking in the back of my head that is affecting my day, but I either don't have a way to solve it, or I don't even know what it is so that I can solve it.

When I sit down and write stream of consciousness, the problem tends to reveal itself.

The third benefit was the improvement of my stress and anxiety.

A lot of my worries come from things that I can't change, but they still roll around in my brain.

When I put them down on paper, it takes their power away.

Sometimes once those anxieties are on the page, I realize they're something that I won't even be thinking about 10 days from now.

The anxieties shrink.

They're way less consequential.

The fourth benefit is having a place to rant.

I can be negative and complain if I need to, without affecting anyone else.

And a lot of times, once I do that, the pages hold up a mirror back at me.

This provokes me to have grace when I need to, or to examine why those things are bothering me.

With understanding comes the ability to manage my emotions.

I do think it's important to note, however, that you don't want to develop a habit of complaining.

So be careful about making negative statements.

My fifth benefit is productivity, decision making, and goal setting.

One of my biggest problems is being able to prioritize tasks.

When your to-do list is long and just glaring at you, it's overwhelming to try and pick what you should do next.

What I noticed with morning pages is that the most important things would repeat themselves in my writing.

If there was something I was putting off, I would be able to see that and start examining why.

If I felt stuck, I could debate my next step.

I could debate the pros and cons of something I was considering doing.

Sometimes I would learn that there is something that I have been wanting to try that I have never considered before.

Things tend to pop up in the pages and urge you to give them a chance.

Morning pages may hold insights and intuitions that startle you.

Typically, they puncture denial.

That brings me to my next benefit, which is discovering what I like and what I don't like.

Crazy as it seems, sometimes we don't know what we like.

Sometimes we don't have an answer to how we want to be spending our time.

This could be in the broad sense, as in feeling lost or looking for meaning and purpose.

Or it could be smaller, like discovering you enjoy baking cookies in the shape of cartoon characters.

It's easy to be so wrapped up in our day-to-day lives, our routines, and our work, to the point that we don't even know what things bring us joy and what things drain us.

Once you realize that you keep talking about cookies in your morning pages, you realize that you might want to start making time to bake.

Finally, the seventh benefit I got from morning pages is creativity.

Morning pages themselves are not art.

But they do help us with art and creativity indirectly.

Although the content of morning pages seems to have nothing to do with art, they often move us first to more artful lives, and then to art itself.

This could be by quieting the inner critic that keeps telling me I can't do something, or because I'm being less analytic with these pages, I'm able to be more imaginative, almost like being a kid again.

Also, as I mentioned earlier, they help with discipline in your creative practice.

They help with creative blocks.

They give you a chance to find new ideas.

And since people are more creative in the morning, getting up first thing in writing allows for more opportunities to catch these new ideas.

And that's how it feels.

While you're writing morning pages, new ideas seemingly pop up on their own, and you get to pluck them from the pages.

The morning pages teach logic brain to stand aside and let artist brain play.

I could definitely go on longer talking about the benefits of this simple exercise on your life, but I will leave you with those seven.

Definitely check out the first few chapters of the Artist's Way book by Julia Cameron if you want to learn more.

Alright, it's been 30 days, so this is my final check-in.

I can't say that these have been life-changing for me specifically, I know a lot of people call them that, but I will say that I plan to continue to do these indefinitely.

I think that they are very helpful to my life.

It has been great for removing all that static in my brain, all those other thoughts that I don't want to deal with all day, so that I can just start focusing on the things that I want to be creative with.

It really is just so helpful to get all of the noise out of your brain and get it down onto the paper so that you don't have to think about it, that open your brain up to all the creativity that you can be doing.

The prompts have been helpful.

I've checked a few online and used those, and then I made my own list.

And those are things that I gravitate towards writing about anyways in my morning pages, so it has been helpful to just have that kind of specific focus for the day of what I'm going to write about.

What I have discovered over the past 30 days is that morning pages clean out all the clutter in my brain.

It's a personal and private way for me to express myself without censorship.

And because of that, I am able to understand myself better.

What I like, what I don't like, what I want, what I don't want.

Morning pages uncover interests and opinions and enthusiasms that I didn't even know existed.

It also helps reveal problems, and then sometimes answers to those problems.

Morning pages are a tool for discovering where you are, where you want to go, and how you want to get there.

I highly recommend morning pages for anyone, whether you're an artist or not, and I hope you give them at least a 30-day chance.

If you are considering trying out morning pages, I created a free prompt list that I will link in the description.

Thank you so much for watching this video to the end.

If you found it valuable and you'd like to support me, don't forget to give it a like, and I hope you have a great rest of your day.