Day 246: 9/3/13- Morning Pages

Day 246: 9/3/13- Morning Pages        
New Thing: Morning Pages    
Inspiration: The Artist's Way, Women's Bible Study            
Time: Hal an Hour          
Bottom Line: "It's like taking out your shadow side to get morning coffee." 

Reflection: Several months ago, the women in our Thursday Morning Bible Study recommended a spiritual tool called The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity by Julia Cameron. This workbook is filled with techniques and meditations to help take a person deeper into their true self. The first step of every exercise is called "Morning Pages." Here is the description of morning pages taken from Cameron's website where you can also watch a video about it:

The bedrock tool of a creative recovery is a daily practice called Morning Pages. Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream of consciousness writing, done first thing in the morning. *There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages*–they are not high art. They are not even “writing.” They are about anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put three pages of anything on the page…and then do three more pages tomorrow.

 

The idea is to give your subconscious a chance to be "vacuumed" out to let you then be free to create. I found it to be a very effective way to start my prayer time because once I wrote something out, I was much less like to be distracted. It also had the unexpected benefit of inviting prayer into my "planning the day" routine I do which made the stress that is normally present in that planning time much less.