The Best Part of Waking Up…Hint, it’s not Folger’s in Your Cup

I don’t sleep much.  I call it spring training for when our baby triplets come home from the hospital.  Part of it is stress-related insomnia, part of it is that, like many of you, my day is incredibly saturated.  I’ve made a habit of doing a bit of writing in the morning, when the mind is (supposedly) rested and has all that terrific gobbledy-gook swirling around from the night’s dreams of super models and alien probes (sometimes together in the same dream).   It helps break the fog of a relatively sleepless night and is honestly one of the most useful tools for everyday creative folks like you and I.

A great many of you may have heard of Julia Cameron’s book, The Artist's Way: A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity.   I’ve known many who’ve applied techniques from the book, even though they weren’t artists.  This is good information that can help anyone, in any walk of life.  The seminal practice from the book is her concept of Morning Pages, in which she coaches us to write three pages of, essentially, whatever is on our minds first thing in the morning. 

I’ve used this technique on and off (currently on again) for years and I find it immensely gratifying.  I literally feel lighter and freer for the analytical part of my day which is my corporate job.  I feel that I’ve started my day by accomplishing something useful, and have taken the time to nurture myself.  Over the years of playing with this concept, I’ve come up with a few hints.

 Tips for your own Morning pages:

1. It’s best to use pen and paper.  There is something about going through the process of longhand, instead of typing, that is less restrictive, more personal. 
2. Write about anything that is on your mind.  If nothing is on your mind, write, “There’s nothing on my mind.”  Something will come. 
3. Don’t let your inner critic wake up and have a say.  Make a deal with him that if he sleeps in, you’ll make him coffee (even Folgers) after your writing is done.  Don’t censor anything.  If it sounds sick and twisted, who cares?  You’re not listening or paying attention, you’re writing.
4. Do not pause to read what you’ve written.
5. When you’re done with your sheets, destroy them…particularly if you are concerned that someone else may read them 

Now, that last point is based on the recommendation by Julia Cameron to never go back and read your morning pages.  I will tell you, being as delightfully twisted as I am, I have gone back through my morning pages as a tool to write new poems.  I consider myself a stream of conscious poet (working on my first full-length poetry book…and if you are interested in my first poetry chapbook, drop me a line).  So what better fodder for poems than your morning stream of conscious pages?

I will sometimes take a day’s pages and go thru them, highlighting the lines that sound good as poetry, crossing out the one’s that don’t.  Then taking the lines and reordering them into a new, fresh poem.  In fact, maybe my next poetry collection will be called Aliens Vs. Supermodels.

I've also replayed some of my Morning pages into new post ideas.

If you don’t have the urge to purge your mind each morning, I would suggest another useful tactic that goes a bit faster and can also go a long ways to improving your happiness factor.  Write down five or more things to be grateful for.  Easy, right?  Maybe not at first.  Some of us aren’t born optimists, but here’s a fact that you all logically know…There will always be people who are better off than you, and some who are worse off than you.  It’s up to you to purposely not care.  Don't compare yourself to anyone else.  You have things to be grateful about in your life.  It behooves you to identify them. 

Now that I've written this and am at peace, it's time to wake up my inner critic.

Namaste,

-Charley

Photo by coffeeshopjournal.com