Morning Pages: Tap Into Your Power

I have a great source of power, bubbling up within me, ready to spill into my life.

Over the years I’ve felt it from time to time surge up from the core, sparking a jolt of electricity through my veins.

I thought perhaps it was just a coincidence, or a phenomenon in my head.

We fiction writers are good at that, you see. We see characters and then create entirely different realities to tell their stories.

So knowing my vivid imagination, it was easy to for me to discount these occasional feelings of empowerment, even when they came at me in a torrential wave of wild horses thundering through my mind, body and soul.

That’s when words would come, and I would frantically scramble to my desk to write them down – or pull over to the side of the road to scribble on a wadded napkin, with a half-melted crayon I found between the seats.

Or when I’d slip into a zone and write for hours on end, tearing through a story like LITTLE 15 at break-neck speed and then look back and wonder who in fact really wrote these words, because they certainly couldn’t have come from me.

I’ve always loved that feeling. I cherish it. I wait for it. I yearn for it. It’s what has sustained me as I have fought tooth and nail to become a published author. It has been the one thing that has brought me faith when those around me have lost all trace of belief.

But it has always come and gone as it pleased, leaving me with no clue as to how to summon it at will.

Until now.

For the last four weeks, I have set my alarm for 5:30, forcing myself to stumble out of bed and into my office. And for 30 minutes or so, I write. Three pages of long-hand writing. In pencil. With a sharpener standing by.

I write about anything and everything. I don’t worry about punctuation. I don’t worry about grammar. I don’t worry about my penmanship. I just put it out there the best way I know how.

I ponder. I gripe. I experiment. I sometimes get bored. But more times than not, I get the pages done. And then I feel like my day can finally begin.

My Direct Line To God

For years I’ve tried keeping a journal – and I’ve failed miserably. My husband even went as far as buying me a beautiful leather-bound one with my initials engraved on it.

I ended up using it occasionally, but I could never quite make the routine work for me.

It’s been shelved next to my beloved collection of books, ever since. Mostly because it looks cool.

So you can imagine how unmoved I was when my artist friend, JR RAPIER, told me about THE ARTIST’S WAY: A SPIRITUAL PATH TO HIGHER CREATIVITY and how one of its key practices involves writing three pages of long-hand writing every morning, when the mind is fresh and at its most fruitful.

That was over the summer and it took JR gifting me the book for Christmas for me to give  it a try.

Out of guilt really, I started reading it, and … OH. MY. GOSH.

Not only has it changed the way I look at myself as an artist, but it has helped put me in direct contact with the creative power within – and the ONE who is the source of it all.

My morning pages have turned into my direct line to God.

And it’s been there all along.

By writing every morning, I’m slowly learning how to tap into my well of creativity.

My words have turned to prayer, not by design, but by accident.

Through my morning pages, I’m learning …

• not to second guess myself, and to go with the ideas that out of nowhere pop into my mind – those “ah-ha!” moments that we have a tendency to quickly discount out of fear of what people might think …
• my biggest obstacle between me and my dreams is in fact the person I see in the mirror …
• trusting myself is really trusting God …
• tapping into my source of my creative energy is easier than I think …
• I can use my creative power to enhance my writing – AND to solve every day problems in my life …
• “manna” will fall from the sky – and doors will open – if I simply just ask.

In short, what started out as a “chore” has become as necessary as breakfast. Sure, I can skip breakfast, but will I really perform to my greatest potential without some sort of sustenance? Same goes for my morning pages now. I need to get it out and get it done – for my own well-being.

The Morning Pages Challenge

So why don’t you give it a try? Yes, YOU! For two weeks, set your clock 30 minutes earlier and put pencil to page, or pen or marker or whatever. There’s no right or wrong way to do it. And you don’t have to be a writer or a painter or be in a “creative occupation” in order to do them. It can be anyone wanting more answers out of life. In fact, business people use the morning pages to help them uncover creative solutions for common challenges in the corporate world. Not sure how to motivate your employees? Write your morning pages. Can’t come up with a innovative marketing approach? Write your morning pages. Feel like you’re life is one big run in the hamster wheel? Are you anxious, worried or just have a general lack of enthusiasm?

The answers are there. Inside you. Now go write and find them.

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