Morning Pages

I have still been reading The Artists Way and am on to the section dealing with you creating Morning Pages, 3 sides of hand-written brain-dump writing. The idea being that it helps free your mind, allowing you to reacquaint with the real, creative you inside.

I feel that this will work, as I have some experience with this.

When I had therapy for depression my councillor advised me to write each day, by hand and just dump out my thoughts. It was difficult to start, but I pretended to write a letter to a friend which helped me get going. After that, I was able to write each day, freeing the insanity from my mind on to the page. Writing it by hand, with no delete key or spell-check helped give it some clarity. When you are forced not to edit and are just writing what comes to mind by hand, there is more of a connection than bashing away on a plastic machine or bright screen.

I still have the journal I wrote in, but it is hidden away. Too many bad memories and crazy thoughts are in there. Best not to let anyone else see them. I should burn it at some point.

The author of The Artists Way suggests reading through the course book first and then going back and starting the process, so I won’t begin anything right now. As with a lot of these things, I am enjoying learning the process, seeing how it works. The book is very popular and many people sing it’s praises. I like to pick it apart and see why or how that could be the case, even if I never follow through.