MORNING PAGES

There is a book that fell into my hands over 25 years ago — The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.

It is essentially a book about reconnecting with your creativity. She believes every human being is creative.

She introduced me to Morning Pages as a daily practice designed to clear mental clutter, reconnect you to yourself and unlock creativity.

That practice has stayed with me.

In fact, it has slowly morphed into a morning ritual that has become much bigger than a creativity exercise. I really notice it when I let the practice go on occasion. It helps me in so many ways.

Mainly:

• emotional processing
• anxiety reduction
• self-awareness
• nervous system regulation
• heightened intuition
• breaking repetitive thought patterns and mental loops

It just makes me feel happier.

The practice itself is beautifully simple.

Every morning — ideally as soon after waking as possible — you write:

• 3 pages by hand
• stream of consciousness
• without editing or censoring yourself

You are not trying to write well.

You are not journalling for insight.

You are not creating content.

No one is reading your pages.

I personally dispose of mine immediately and never reread them.

You simply let the mind empty onto the page — like a brain drain.

What Do You Write?

Anything. Everything.

My pages can be:

• hopes
• dreams
• plans
• fears
• memories
• apologies
• lists of gratitude

Literally anything.

Like I said, I personally don’t reread them. I’m sure some days they’re full of bitching and incomprehensible gibberish while I sit there not even knowing what to write.

Sometimes I literally write:
“I don’t know what to write.”

Ha.

And somehow, that still seems to be the point.

If you do decide to hold onto them, Julia recommends waiting a few weeks before rereading them.

And what surprised me most about Morning Pages was how calming they felt.

Not productive.
Not performative.
Not another wellness habit to perfect.

Just honest.

Ideally, you have your own little space to write. Every night before bed, I set that space up with my paper, favourite pen and whatever else I need for it to feel welcoming in the morning.

Some mornings I sit outside barefoot in the yard.

Every morning it’s simply me, messy hair and a ginger & lemon tea before the rest of the house wakes up.

Just a quiet ritual in the peaceful and honest part of the day.

I think many of us crave that right now.

A slower pace.
More presence.

We spend so much time consuming everyone else’s thoughts that we forget to listen to our own.

For me, Morning Pages have become a way of checking in with myself before the world checks in with me.

Sometimes what comes out is clarity.
Sometimes emotion.
Sometimes complete nonsense.

But almost every time, I walk away feeling lighter.

More grounded.
Less tangled up in my own head.
More even.

Just space to hear yourself think again by, ironically, not really thinking at all.

And honestly, that feels like wellbeing to me.

Bryony x
Meet Move Eat