I used to have one of those minds that is all over the place and literally never stops – a monkey mind, if you will. From the minute I woke up, it was thoughts and questions, consistently chattering away – observing, asking, analysing, over-analysing, repeating, remembering etc. It was exhausting.

I want to share a tool that I have been using on and off for the last few years now, which has helped transform the way I go through my days (amongst other things). It is an awesome practice called Morning Pages, and comes from a beautiful book by Julia Cameron, called The Artist’s Way. 

Morning Pages is something you do as soon as you wake up, before doing anything else which requires considered brain power (so a trip to the toilet and a drink are fine, but definitely NO checking phones or emails). What you do is by hand free-write down all the thoughts going through your head on to three pages (I use an A4 notepad). 

You’re probably thinking how on earth am I going to write three pages? I did when I started, but trust me, if you have a mind full of thoughts it just starts to flow, and you’ll be amazed at how fast it goes.

You literally just ‘brain dump’ all the thoughts running around and don’t stop until you are finished. Mine have varied from starting writing about how tired and grumpy I am, to how beautiful the weather looks, to analysing scenarios or situations, to feelings that are coming up, to what my dreams were, things I’m grateful for, to thoughts about what I was going to eat, to how excited I am about something. It totally varies each day. The idea is to get all of those things out of your head, as they are better out than in, so you can unlock the good stuff – the creativity and interesting ideas, which will help you get on with your day in an awesome way. 

More recently as I have less ‘clutter’ which needs to come out I can also ask myself questions which will help me connect with myself and help me figure out things I want to do.

It does mean getting up a bit earlier but trust me you won’t regret it.

If mornings really aren’t an option for you – try doing the activity at another time of the day that works for you.

Where can you put some time aside to free-write, or wake up early and do morning pages? 

This blog post is a snippet from my book, Embodied. You can get your own copy of Embodied here or anywhere you buy your books online.

Photo by Jen Theodore on Unsplash.