On Clearing Mental Space

Declutter your mind, declutter your life.

This is part two in a series on the four aspects of a balanced life: physical, mental, emotional and spiritual/creative.

What’s the first thing you do every morning? Stretch? Stumble around for coffee? Curse the time of day? Let the dog out?

These are all part of my own morning ritual, and I've added one other task: Morning Pages. For the first 45 minutes of each day, I sit at my dining room table with a cheap ball point pen and I write as fast I can in a spiral notebook. Three pages, long hand, front and back of each page. I've been doing this for three weeks now, and — risking hyperbole — it has changed my life.

The first time I heard of this practice was in a TedxAustin talk by Steven Tomlinson. Steven talked about following Julia Cameron’s method and how it helped him bring parts of himself and his different strengths together in new ways. He found his ability to solve problems became more integrated and he didn't feel as if he had to discard or sacrifice aspects of himself.

I had tried to do Morning Pages and when I did manage them I would experience a nice burst of energy and inspiration. The most epic to-do lists would be written, and some of the tasks would actually get done. But Morning Pages as a daily practice was not a consistent part of my day. I was distracted by deadlines, stress, and the act of doing my best to muddle through a busy life.

The recent Morning Pages breakthrough happened because of friendship. A good friend was struggling through some things in her life, and I suggested she try writing to get the stress out of her system — her fears, anxieties, and also hopes and dreams. In fact, I’d pledge to do the same thing.

I ran in to her the next day, and she was in a much better mindset. All sorts of breakthroughs had occurred for her in the last 24 hours. I asked her if she’d be willing to extend our science project and see what would happen. She agreed, and for two weeks, we both wrote our Morning Pages and checked in with each other over email and text messages, updating the other on our progress.

The first week was rough — work for me was particularly stressful, and I am not a morning person. By the end of the week I started to hit my stride and my friend did as well. I was waking up earlier and earlier — looking forward to the prospect of writing with my morning cup of coffee. Work projects became clearer. The act of writing was helping my brain prioritize, motivating me to get things done.

By the second week, Morning Pages felt like a natural part of my day, and I also felt like I couldn't let my friend down. My work momentum was outstanding . My shit was getting pulled together.

By the end of week 2, I noticed a couple of interesting things:

• I hadn't watched any TV in 2 weeks. I’m not a huge TV watcher to begin with, but it had been our household’s way of decompressing, binge-watching Netflix/Amazon/Hulu while eating dinner. I hadn't felt the need to watch mindless TV dramas or competitive cooking shows. I had rediscovered my books, and …
• … I decluttered my house. I spent the same time that I would have been watching TV by sorting corners that are prone to collecting junk. My yarn stash got moved and pared down. I got rid of a janky shelf, threw out old pet supplies, and bought a new piece of furniture (which I also put together in record time.) I weeded out kitchen crap that hadn’t been used in years, and repurposed storage bins from the furthest (and dustiest) reaches of my pantry. Procrastination and fatigue had mysteriously vanished. My inner Martha Stewart was in full-effect, transforming or tossing out anything collecting dust.

Are these two events connected — Morning Pages and a decluttering rampage? Maybe. A skeptic might say I’m claiming causation when correlation or association is at work.

What I do know is that Morning Pages help me skim the pond scum of fatigue and anxiety off my brain. It’s election season and given my job and the next 99 days (79 days till the first day of Early Vote), I’m prone to anxiety dreams. My most often recurring anxiety dream involves having to put 15,000 pieces of mail in the mailbox tomorrow and I can’t find a stamp. It’s like a fucking Greek fable. My anxiety dreams have vanished. I wake up rested and work projects are moving along (and I can find all the stamps.)

I’m not the only one that noticed an association between the practice of Morning Pages and more energy in a person’s life. Cameron noticed that many of her students started losing weight as they wrote their pages, and she saw so many of her students go through the transformation that she wrote a book about it.

I personally haven’t noticed any fluctuations in weight, but I feel that same dynamic is at work. I am unwilling to allow clutter to claim any more space in my home or work. There isn't any more room for inertia. So I’m actively shedding it — simplifying, optimizing, and taking back my space.

Steps to doing Morning Pages:

1. Buy Julia Cameron’s book or check it out from the library. You can also get the gist of morning pages at Julia Cameron’s site.
2. Get a letter-sized writing pad or a spiral notebook and a good pen. This exercise must be done with written handwriting — NOT typing. Rediscover ink.
3. Commit to making this a part of your morning life for two weeks.
4. Set a reward if you make it to two weeks — something small like “I’ll buy myself a better pen.”
5. Find a friend to do this two week experiment with, particularly someone that you want to make sure to be accountable to (or one that is bossy or goal-oriented.) Decide on how you’re going to check in every day, and do it.
6. Don’t read or fixate on the morning pages. Cameron suggests keeping the pages together until some later date for reflection. I find that skimming them after a few weeks or months is very helpful for perspective.
7. See what happens.

If you found this helpful, please hit the Recommend button, so that others might read it, too.

And let me know in the comments (or on Twitter) that you’ve started your Morning Pages! We’re all in this together!