julia-cameron – Happy little things

Today, I’m starting my sixth week of morning pages with The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. I started this book a few years ago but never finished it. The desire to try again has been lingering in my mind for a long time, and this year, I finally decided to go back to the very beginning.

I committed to waking up at 5 AM every morning and dedicating 30 minutes to writing my thoughts down on blank pages in a notebook.

I used to wake up at 5 AM before, but over the last year or two, I lost that feeling—the one that makes you want to wake up early. The only reason I opened my eyes was my alarm and the thought that I had to prepare snack boxes for my kids before they left for school. I couldn’t understand how I used to wake up earlier so easily or why I even wanted to.

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Then I realized that back then, I was actually practicing a morning routine from Hal Elrod’s book The Miracle Morning. One of the practices in that book is morning pages, but at the time, I didn’t feel like doing them.

Anyway, I decided to give it another try—30 minutes from 5 AM to 5:30, just writing my thoughts down in a journal. Sometimes, we need time and give something a second chance. It happens to me in different ways.

Filling the pages with my worries, thoughts, ideas, and griefs.

My mind has always been so full of thoughts that it often feels so overwhelming. Instead of concentrating on a task you want to, your inner voice keeps talking to you the whole time. But every morning, as I jot them down with my fountain pen from Kinokuniya (love it, by the way), sitting in the living room or the garden, I feel like I’m slowly coming back to life. As broken as I feel some mornings, the more whole I start to become—bit by bit, morning by morning.

This is what I can share about writing morning pages as a task from the book.

You choose a notebook you like, or decorate it in a way that makes you happy. Personally, I stuck a Totoro sticker on the front cover because it was plain, and the writing I had done a few years ago wasn’t to my taste anymore. A small change like this can make all the difference—if you like how your notebook looks, you’ll want to hold it in your hands and fill it with your words. That little trick worked like magic for me.

Every morning, I fill three pages with whatever comes to mind—my feelings, stories, dreams, what happened yesterday, or what I’m planning to do today. And if nothing comes to mind, I simply write: I have no idea what I’m supposed to write now… or I ask myself a question I want an answer to: Why am I afraid to start writing more stories? Why did I stop posting pictures? Why do I feel gloomy today?

And you know what? More often than not, my hand just keeps writing, searching for the answer.

By filling the pages, I free up space in my mind. And it really works.

I encourage you to try this practice.