A simple game-changing habit

A 5-minute read.

Write your own life story. Then live it!

For two years, 1 month, and 15 days I have written, every morning, for 20 minutes or so, 3 pages, longhand. An indecipherable scrawl of consciousness onto a pad of lined foolscap.

‘Morning Pages’.

Easy to do. Easy not to do.

But I’ll stick to the former, thank you very much! Because through this simple habit I’ve planned, dreamed, wondered, and imagined the life I wanted to have—and the person I wanted to become—into being.

Into being? Really?

Okay. Not exactly. It’s a work in progress and always will be.

But there’s no doubt that life has changed.

And there’s no doubt that I have changed.

The fact that I now feel able, not just to write this personal ‘stuff’, but to put it out onto t’interweb … Hey, to send it to your inbox* with a ‘please read me’ message … well, let’s just say that would never have happened 2 years, 1 month, and 15 days ago.

Apart from this newfound comfort with over-sharing, the biggest deal for me is that I have found my inner creative soul.

She was missing in action for years and life was kind of ‘off’ without her. Like sucking a toffee with the wrapper on. But, once found, it didn’t take much encouragement to lead her out of the dusty basement she’d been hiding in, and back into the light.

And it’s SO good to have her back.

It’s magical!

Since she returned I hardly recognise myself.

Although, in many ways, I do.

This. Feels. Like. Me.

The other me often didn’t feel good in her skin. Often felt awkward. Unsettled. Shy. An outsider. Always had that feeling of never being quite ‘enough’ to be picked for the team. Stuck in a non-creative profession she felt she was accidentally living someone else’s life.

But the pages are a place to get to know yourself. There’s nowhere to hide, and no reason to. Why hide when it’s just you and the pen?

No one gets to read what you’ve written and in my case—with handwriting, oh so scrawly—no one could read it, even if they tried.

So it’s safe to show up—to be yourself. Your REAL self. Your inner self that knows that you matter, that you’re good enough, that it’s okay to be imperfect because there’s no other way to be.

The ‘you’ that doesn’t feel the need to play small.

Not sure that part of you exists?

Believe me, they DO!

We’re not born with self-doubt so somewhere inside you, there’s a wee part of you that knows instinctively that you rock!

It’s your inner creative soul. It knows how to dream. And as its name suggests—it knows how to create!

So invite them to show up on the page. Let them pick up a pen and watch what happens.

Ask them: What do you want? What do you care about? What lights you up? What’s on your list? What kind of person do you want to be?

Write ‘Wouldn’t it be amazing if …‘ and then fill in the gaps.

No one is watching.

No one is judging.

It’s safe to dream BIG!

Mine wanted to … be an artist, live in a gorgeous light-filled home with amazing views of the sea, be in a gallery, have a show, make strong connections with creative like-minded people, be part of the team at Art2Life … be happy and confident and do things that previously would have scared the living daylights out of me, take risks, show up, say ‘YES’ more often than I say ‘no’, be comfortable being me …

When we show up as ourselves on the page we’re more able to show up as ourselves in the world.

I no longer care (as much) about being found out. I no longer care (as much) that I’m not the same as other people. Because I know that no one is.

I now embrace my introversion and my sensitivity.

It’s who I am.

I’m a hyper-sensitive introvert.

Yaay!!

Weirdly, the more I accept who I am—the more resilient and out-going I become. Who knew? I certainly wish it hadn’t taken me well over half a century to find out—but when the student is ready and all that …!

When you show up as yourself you disarm the naysayers. No one has ammunition to use against you when you become comfortable with who you are because you can only push a button in someone—if there’s a button there to be pushed. (Mixing my metaphors there. Or are they analogies—I never know!)

But in truth, no one needed to push my buttons. I managed to do that all by myself with my internal running commentary of self-doubt.

Speaking in front of people was a massive issue for me. Even a zoom call with a bunch of dear friends could provoke a stress-induced headache.

I can still feel pretty shaky at the thought of speaking in front of an audience—no matter what size!

But now, rather than avoid it.

I say ‘Bring it on!’

And nothing bad happens. In fact, the more I speak in front of others the easier and more fun it gets.

‘Pre-pages me’ would never have believed that I could speak in front of LOTS of people.

But I do!

Another big ‘Who knew?’

I can still go into a flap before going to a party because ‘I DON’T HAVE ANYTHING TO WEAR!!!’ But now I understand that what I really mean is that I don’t have a wardrobe full of party frocks BECAUSE I’m not a party frock kinda gal.

And that’s okay.

I can go to the party as myself instead.

So what next? I have no idea. I imagine I’ll be doing morning pages for as long as I can hold a pen but as to what appears on them, or in my life because of them? Well, that’s for my inner creative soul and the pages to work out.

One thing I do know is that I would love the whole world to know about the power of the pages—hence why I keep banging on about them!

Everyone I know who has taken up the practice has felt better for it. Happier, calmer, more grounded, more confident, more creative, more productive, more capable, more loving, more empathetic … and so it goes on.

Things fall into place. Synchronicities happen. Life flows.

The things you allow yourself to dream about on the pages start to show up in your life.

The person you describe yourself as is the person you become closer to being.

There’s something extraordinarily powerful about connecting with your inner creative soul.

Every.

Single.

Morning.

Bring them to the forefront of your mind at the start of the day and you begin to live your life with them running the show.

And what’s not to like about that?

To find out how to do Morning Pages please click here to read a post I wrote some time ago.

And to read a post about a moment of synchronicity that’s typical of the flow-state type things which happen when you have a pages practice—click here.

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