What Are Morning Pages

Jan 24

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Isn’t it just journalling?

What are morning pages, how do morning pages work, what do you writing in morning pages, how do you do morning pages - your burning questions all answered in today's episode.

What are Morning Pages

This one thing single handedly pulled me out of the toxic hustle culture and into my own zone of creative space where I get to set my intentions, process my thoughts, all while defining and creating the life I really want.

Have you heard of Morning Pages?

If you follow me on TIkTok then you most likely heard me mention Morning Pages once or twice. Ok who am I kidding, I literally talk about it all the time. In fact I think if you look up the hashtag morning pages my face is plastered all over it.

But no matter how many times I talk about it, I always get the same questions:

What are morning pages?
How do you do them?
But what do you write?
How does this actually help my business?
What other adjustments have you made to morning pages?

So I thought, what better way to answer these frequently asked questions about morning pages than to dedicate an entire episode to talking about them.

1. What are morning pages?

Morning pages is a concept that originated from the book The Artist Way by Julia Cameron in 1995. Morning Pages is writing concept that is one of the most effective tools in the book for cultivating creativity, personal growth and change.

2. How do you do them?

The original concept says that once you wake up, you grab the same journal and pen every morning, and do conscious stream of thought for 30 minutes or for 3 pages and then put the journal away and never re-read your morning pages.

3. What do you write?

The goal was to brain dump all your thoughts in order to clear your mind and be able to focus on your day ahead of you. And as of last year they have been recognized as a form of meditation.

This is how I started doing Morning Pages, and while it worked for me at the time, I noticed some down sides to it.

At the time I didn’t know it, but I have ADHD so making this the first thing I did with a foggy brain my pages would look a lot like: I need coffee, I don’t know what to write, my dog needs to go outside, blah blah blah blah. - literally i wrote BLAH BLAH BLAH for a full page one day. And the was the straw that broke the camels back.

While these are technique you’re supposed to do, as someone who’s brain literally lacks dopamine, this technique did not work for me. But I didn’t give up, instead I altered how I did it. Instead of doing them first thing in the morning, I allowed myself to wake up, make coffee, stretch, shower, do my skincare routine, take care of my dog, make my bed, then take my coffee, journal and favorite pen to a comfy spot and started my morning pages.

This first alteration to the original concept was a game changer, this kept more consistent, and I felt like I was able to brain dump and process my thoughts more efficiently. But there was stillllll something not quite right for me. Again, I had no idea that I had ADHD, so while the routine of doing the same over and over everyday was comforting, there was a moment where I just completely stopped and didn’t feel fulfilled anymore. Kind of like when your comfort food you’ve been eating for months all of a sudden is gross, that happened with Morning Pages.

But the thing was I saw how much they were helping me grow my business. That thought alone was what kept me going, but I needed to make yet another alteration to how I did morning pages.

4. How does this actually help my business?

Again, in the original concept you’re just supposed to do conscious stream of thought, but my next adjustment was to gear morning pages towards business. So during that the time in the morning I was designating to getting ready before I sat down for morning pages, I would make sure that I was consciously thinking about my business, my future goals, my target audience, the content I wanted to create etc.

And that’s when I started seeing the biggest changes in my business. I was creating copy, brain storming marketing plans, figuring out what I wanted to do vs what I was seeing others doing. I was figuring out my true motives for why I wanted to be self employed, why I never wanted to go back to corporate, I was day dreaming about the possibilities of where my businesses go take me, how far I’d be willing to go and even how far I’ve come.

The results of these shifts were astronomical, I was more confident, more self-aware, finally recognized my own accomplishments, I was proud of who I was and who I was becoming. All of a sudden that voice in my head that kept second guessing EVERY DAMN decision I was making went silent.

Creativity was surrounding me, my energy levels would spike and stay up and then have a healthy decline, I was more intentional with my decisions, I was focused, more assured of my boundaries and I was less anxious on a daily basis.

This April will mark the 6th year of me doing morning pages and I can honestly say that I see the benefits every day. Which is why for the last 6 years I have told every client, every friend, every new self-employed business bestie to try morning pages this way.

5. More adjustments I’ve made to Morning Pages

Over the last 3 years I made a few more adjustments to how their done. Now I make sure to:

set my intention for the day at the top of the page to help guide me
I create energy before I start with that’s a quick neck stretch, rubbing my hands together, or stretching my back
Because I use my morning pages with intent I also allow myself to re-read what I’ve written especially when it’s a golden piece of marketing material, a confirmed next action, or anything that will affectively grow my business.
and because I do this daily with my members of Consciously Creative I provide daily prompts to get you motivated as well as a toast to connect us fuel each others energy

For those of you who are new here and don’t know what Consciously Creative is, it’s a community of create entrepreneurs who are passionate about self-employment leading to a fulfilling life. We do morning pages everyday together, I provide group clarity calls to help keep you on track with your business or marketing questions, I’m continuously building a library of videos geared towards leveling up your mindset and business, and most recently I’ll be adding Private Pod section. So randomly once a month, instead of broadcasting an episode of Her Messy Bun podcast, I will be exclusively sharing it to my community.

Alright my friends - I’ve pretty much covered all of the common questions but if you have any more questions for me about morning pages, Her Messy Bun, or Consciously Creative - send me a message on instagram and if you aren’t already make sure you are following my on TikTok for daily videos

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