Morning Pages

I’ve written before about a group I joined in Florida last winter. It’s called Singles New Beginnings, and it’s made up of single people. Men and women looking for a change. That’s why I joined the group.

We have a book, The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron. It serves as our text. The normal routine is to review the book in thirteen lessons over thirteen weeks. Each lesson stands alone so people come and go as they see fit. The only real common denominator is week one. That week sets the stage for all the others as it introduces Morning Pages.

Elizabeth was in Florida a couple of weeks after I joined the singles group. I think her first reaction was of concern. She thought I might have joined a cult. I told her that the leader was a former minister. She, like me, is not a fan of organized religion, so I think that triggered her concern. Once she knew I was going to be reading The Artist’s Way and writing Morning Pages, she supported my efforts. She writes Morning Pages herself.

The pages are a written exercise that’s intended to be conducted every day. If you read the book, you’ll find this. “Morning Pages are three pages of longhand writing, strictly stream-of-consciousness.” It goes on to say, “There’s no wrong way to do morning pages.” And it says, “No one is allowed to read your pages, and you shouldn’t read them for at least eight weeks.” I’d say, maybe never.

You should just write three pages every day. If they are single sheets of paper, squirrel them away in a large envelope. If you write them in a spiral bound notebook, don’t look back. Move forward. Just write every day.

When I first joined the group I wrote for about three days and then stopped. I thought about things every day; I just didn’t write them down. I ponder ideas for my blog all the time, no matter where I go. I thought that was a mental version of Morning Pages. I continued working on my blog thinking that it would operate like them. I was wrong. Morning Pages are very different. Beyond the obvious typing vs longhand writing, one is for the masses and the second is for me.

If you look up the website for Singles New Beginnings, you’ll find comments about the pages. There are numerous observations, but this version speaks to me. While they sometimes appear to be focused on our artistic side, they apply to every part of our life.

1. Oh, God another morning. I have nothing to say. I need to do the laundry. Blah, blah, blah… A brain
   dump is one of their main functions.
2. They’re often negative, frequently fragmented, often self-pitying, repetitive, stilted and/or babyish, angry
   bland, silly…
3. All that angry, whiny, petty stuff that you write down in the morning, stands between you and moving forward.
4. We have a censor who resides in our left brain. He examines the negative part of us.
5. Make this rule: always remember that your censor’s negative opinions are not the truth. This takes
   practice. By spilling out of bed and straight onto the page every morning, you learn to evade the
   censor. Let your censor rattle on without you.
6. Stop taking the censor as the voice of reason and learn to hear it for the blocking device that it is. Morning Pages
   will help you do this.

The online list of guiding principles is much longer, but I’m just getting started and this is what I know is true. At least it’s true for me. I plan to write every day and dump the stuff that bothers me. I think I can be more creative if I let the crap in my life go. I’ve been carrying some of it for a long time. I don’t need it, and you don’t need yours. None of us do.

I’ve been encouraged to facilitate a group of Singles New Beginnings when I return to Florida. I plan to do so. I’ve always enjoyed a new challenge and this fits that bill. If I’m going to do it, I need to walk the talk so that’s a big reason for digging deeper into The Artist’s Way and Morning Pages.

My initial pages have gone well. Most of what I’ve written is positive in nature. I expected a lot of bad to come out first but that’s not happened yet. I may be too guarded.

My biggest fear is that some of my Morning Pages will be Mourning Pages. I’m not looking forward to that possibility, but if they come, they come.