The Artist’s Way: Morning Pages Benefits

Last week, I talked about how I have adapted a Morning Pages routine from the Artist’s Way into my daily and weekly schedule. This is something I have done for just over a month now, so I wanted to talk briefly about the benefits I have noticed (so far) and maybe I will check in again sometime when I have some long-term results. 

1.      Increased Creativity/Word count. After being stuck on the same two writing projects for a while, I started the Morning Pages to see if this would help. And so far, it has. Most of what I write in the Morning Pages is repetitive gibberish, but once that all out, I feel like I finally reach a space in my brain where I am ready to create and the words just flow much easier. I have reached my writing word count goals every week since starting the Morning Pages and am almost finished with one of the stories I was working on. Woot!

2.      Time. As I mentioned in my last post, doing the Morning Pages the way I have takes at least an extra half hour every day to complete—which can seem like a huge time commitment! But I have noticed that if I put in that structured time with the Lord first, and cleared my mind of distraction with the Morning Pages, I usually am more focused and more of my to-do list tends to get done than I expect. So, it feels like I have been investing the time, only to have that time given back to me with how much I can accomplish after finishing them.

3.      Increased Focus. While the Morning Pages are mostly stream-of-thought gibberish, repetitive patterns, wishes and goals start to immerge. This has helped me clarify where I want to focus my thoughts, time, and energy—increasing my efforts in certain areas and reducing others.

4.      Reduced Anxiety. Being able to clear my mind with the Morning Pages seems to release a lot of pint up emotions, including anxiety. Since starting them, I have had felt less anxiety throughout the day, and less desire to counter my anxiety in less desirable ways (nail biting, over-eating, etc).

5.      Increased Spirituality. I have also felt a certain synergy by combining the pages with my spiritual study. Connecting with the divine to receive revelation and opening myself up to the creative side of my brain seems to be a very similar process—feeding one another.

With this in mind, I would highly recommend the Morning Pages to anyone wanting to increase their creative flow or reduce their anxiety (or another emotional issue). Your goals, schedule, and areas of study are likely very different than mine, but try it out, and I’m sure you’ll find a way to adapt your own version of this process.

Let me know how it goes!

And if any of you have already tried the Morning Pages, what results have you had? Were there any results that surprised you?