Morning Pages and Exploratory Writing

Both are journaling methods that I’ve used that help me get cognitively moving in the morning.

I like the way someone described “morning pages” as window wipers for the soul and in my own practice it overlaps with prayer. Over the years, especially when struggling to concentrate during prayer I have written prayers out, so both of these practices seems very natural and are also highly effective for me.

Morning Pages

This does a good job explaining on morning pages:

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/tips-for-writing-morning-journal-pages

It’s basically three pages of stream of consciousness writing first thing in the morning.

Exploratory Writing

I learned about exploratory writing through Greg McKeown in this podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-greg-mckeown-podcast/id1513285647?i=1000596687782

where he interviewed the author Alison Jones: https://www.amazon.com/Exploratory-Writing-Everyday-magic-life/dp/1788603672 whose book claims it to be “ Every day magic for life and work “ — I agree it does seem a little bit like magic sometimes.

I set a timer for 6 mins and here are some of the prompts that I use to get going If needed:

1. What’s bugging me?
2. What do I really want to achieve?
3. What’s going well?
4. What’s on my mind when I wake up? (Useful as well when waking up in the night and unable to sleep)
5. What’s the story behind … ____________?
6. What would I say to … ?
7. What’s the theme or pattern in my life?
8. What question am I trying to answer?

I use a notebook and keep the opposing page blank so that as I have ideas or task that come up as distractions, I can drop them down and keep writing.

Here’s an example:

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#Emma