Morning Pages is a daily journaling technique where you write 3 pages as quickly as you can, whatever comes to mind. No pre-thinking, no judgement. Every once in a while it can be truly cathartic, releasing a lot of chaos, pain, and negativity in our unconscious. I published a video and blog post a few weeks ago describing my experience with that.
This morning I had a different experience. It was less catharsis, and was more like tenderizing meat. When you have a piece of meat you want to cook, you sometimes need to smash it to break up the tough connective tissue. Well, we have habits of thought and behavior that keep causing us pain and unhappiness, but we don’t notice them because they’re habits, and sometimes you have to break those down before you can become healthier and start growing again, both mentally and emotionally. After you’ve gotten it all out on paper, you might feel like a piece of meat that’s been tenderized, but you’ll probably be in a much healthier state of mind going forward. If you don’t have a daily journaling routine, I recommend you check out Morning Pages described in the book The Artist’s Way by Julia Cameron.