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I don't follow Carmeron's rule of writing three full pages first thing every morning strictly. I typically write only a page or two. But my Morning Pages are often the place where I express my deepest frustrations and disappointments. In listening to "The Happiness Lab" podcast, I realized that Morning Pages have much in common with the journaling done in Professor Pennebaker's studies that required participants to express their negative emotions and traumatic experiences in writing. Interestingly, near the beginning of her 2-minute video introducing Morning Pages, Cameron herself says she often thinks they should be called "Mourning Pages." She goes on to say:
". . . when you put the negativity on the page,
it isn't eddying through your consciousness during the day."
Given what I learned in the podcast, it makes sense that getting rid of repressed emotions can improve creativity.
So, for this month's creativity tip, I encourage you to: Try doing Morning Pages. You can follow the guidelines I copied above from Cameron's website, or adapt them to fit your own style, as I have. I think the greatest benefit to your creativity may come from using Morning Pages to vent about negative emotions and experiences. But feel free to experiment and observe whether the practice has any effect on your creative work.
If you try this creativity tip, do let me know your results!
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