Take A Peek Into My Mind (via my Morning Pages)
I was introduced to the Morning Pages via Julia Cameron’s Book “The Artist’s Way” and it’s the time I spend ‘with myself’ to really hear what’s going on in my head. Sometimes during these sessions solutions also come through and sometimes it’s just an opportunity to vent without needing to find a solution.
Today I’m sharing with you some of the themes that have appeared on my morning pages with additional thoughts and quotes. Doing this can take the process to a whole new level of understanding and growth, and also might make you consider whether the morning pages are something you might be interested in doing.
Theme 1 – Procrastination
A lack of clarity could put the brakes on any journey to success.
― Steve Maraboli
I started the month knowing that I hadn’t progressed as far with my goals as I would have liked, and the same was true of life in general too.
– First of August, and I don’t feel like I’ve made a difference or moved the needle at all. I need to do my review to articulate and appreciate what I’ve actually done and achieved.
Procrastination had set in before the end of July and was still threatening to derail my efforts as we headed into August.
It’s taken a bit of time to work out what the issue is here. I’m generally a motivated person, and so being stuck in the procrastination doldrums affects my mood negatively.
It took a few weeks to get to the reason for this lethargy, and, amongst other things, what became clear is that even though I had (finally) set my goals for 22/23, I hadn’t articulated the tasks that were needed to bring those goals to life.
I’d made the classic mistake of setting goals that didn’t fully meet the SMART criteria, that is:
• Specific
• Measurable
• Attainable
• Relevant
• Time-bound
In particular, for the most part, my goal list wasn’t specific, which left me with no idea what I needed to do!
Of course, once I’d realised this, I set about brainstorming specific tasks that I’d need to do to reach the goals I’d set for myself. That list is now in progress.
I don’t expect to know all the tasks that are needed right at the beginning, because some goals are new to me, but I do expect that as I make progress on my goal that the next set of tasks that are needed will become apparent.
Theme 2 – The Need for Self-Care
Self-compassion is simply giving the same kindness to ourselves that we would give to others.
– Christopher Germer
My morning pages are telling me, loud and clear, that I’m not doing enough to look after myself.
– This tiredness. I really need to deal with this. The lack of exercise is quite literally killing me. I know I’m not doing my body any good and that I need to be moving myself more.
From aches and pains, to lack of energy and from overdue medical check-ups to lack of exercise, there’s always something about health and/or wellbeing in my morning pages!
I haven’t fully answered the call from my sub-conscious on this issue. I’m already making efforts to eradicate the weight I’ve gained during two years of on-off Covid lockdowns, but I know there’s a lot more I can do for my general wellbeing.
The good news is that Health and Fitness feature in my goals list for 22/23, but I am still deciding what the priorities are, but a lack of energy (read that as fitness) is a persistent theme and so fitting in some physical fitness routine(s) will be a feature going forward.
Theme 3 – Old Habits Creeping Back In
There are things we do out of habit that are not always good for us. Break the bad habits and develop some good ones.
– David Kirsch
This is an interesting insight and something the morning pages are useful for surfacing.
Without the insight my morning pages gives me, I often wouldn’t notice old bad habits creeping back into my daily routines until they’d managed to bind themselves like a barnacle again!
This particular bad habit is “waiting”.
It’s something I’ve written about in the past, and basically just means that I’m waiting for something to happen before I can allow myself to get on with my plans for the day.
– I was just thinking I didn’t do enough yesterday. I know I dawdled in the morning – I was ‘waiting’ for [my daughter] to go to work before I allowed myself to get on FocusMate. As a result – and with X being home by lunchtime, I only got 2 FocusMate sessions in.
In the example above, I was ‘waiting’ for my daughter to leave the house before settling down to work, but, on the other end of the spectrum, I have also noticed that if I need to be somewhere in a couple of hours, I’ve wasted time “waiting” for the appointment to come around instead of effectively using the time I have beforehand.
This is an old habit and one that I had thought was mostly eradicated through awareness and making myself work during what would previously have been “waiting” periods. But, in August, it surfaced via my morning pages that I’d been wasting time on this old bad habit again!
It shows that habits really do embed themselves and it doesn’t take much for them to creep back into our routines if we’re not vigilant.
Theme 4 – Noticing and Appreciating the Good Stuff
Life is full of blessings we take for granted. Yet so often we dwell on what we don’t have. Appreciate what you already have and be grateful.
― Napz Cherub Pellazo
We have a natural tendency to notice the negative (it’s called a ‘negativity bias’) and I am guilty as charged. It always feels so easy to just run down a list of everything that is wrong.
In fact, have you ever noticed that if you ask someone how their holiday was, or their meal out or the latest film, in most cases you’ll be told all the things that could have been better?!
My morning pages sometimes counter that natural tendency, and then, when I revisit them, it’s just so nice to remember those moments. These are from an entry in August:
– We’ve just had a lovely weekend in the Cotswolds. The hotel (the Colesbourn) was lovely and the food was gorgeous, and it felt more relaxed than usual.
– The day out at Hidcote was nice. It’s a beautiful place…
– Little Boy* was super cute this morning. His eyes are always dark and wide in the mornings and he looks so cute.
*Little Boy is one of my cats!
These are just ordinary events that naturally surfaced as I was writing on that particular morning. Recalling them now is a pleasure I would not have if I’d not captured them in my morning pages.
Are The Morning Pages for You?
So there you have an insight into some of the themes that surface via my morning pages, or, to put it another way, what’s going on in my head!
I hope you found these musings useful or interesting, and would encourage you to have a go at the morning pages as a means to understand and realise what might be causing particular feelings or recurring habits or results in your life.
What to do next…
> Read another post – Lessons In Personal Development: An Open and Honest Post
> Join my free private FB Group – Click now to join my closed (private) Facebook Group
> Catch up with me on social media – Facebook, YouTube, Twitter or Pinterest
> Sign up below 👇 for my newsletter, keep up-to-date and get special offers!
SIGN ME UP!