Meet Yourself on the Page

Let's talk about morning pages and using the practice of writing as a mirror.

I used to think that I needed to come to the page with answers—fully formed thoughts that I would shape into pristine prose. But every time I sit down to write, it’s an act of discovery. Something always surprises me, and that’s exactly what keeps bringing me back to the blank page over and over again.

So instead of the false pretense of having an answer, lately I’ve been trying to come to the page with a question. Today’s question is: “What does it mean to meet myself on the page?”

For 400+ days, meeting myself on the page looked like Morning Pages.

In January of 2020, I started writing morning pages as defined by Julia Cameron in her book “The Artists Way.” Cameron recommends writing three pages of longhand first thing in the morning as a way to help unblock creativity. These pages are not intended to be well written or ever see the light of day. They are meant to be rough-and-ready, stream-of-consciousness style writing to get all the junk out of the way so your brain has bandwidth to create. When I say junk, I’m talking about the brain goblins that are bogging down your mind with worries big and small and getting in the way of you doing the work you actually want to do.

Little did I know what 2020 would have in store! I'm particularly grateful to have been writing them during the height of COVID. I wasn't sure what to expect, but they definitely helped ground me during this turbulent time. While I was working on them, I would joke that “Three pages of longhand a day keeps the creative demons away!”

When I was 146 days into writing morning pages, I made a zine of what I learned so far:

sheriroloff

A post shared by Sheri Roloff (@sheriroloff)

1. Writing helps me think, process, and identify patterns.

2. Being honest with myself on the page is harder than I thought.

3. I think about a lot of the same crap over and over again.

4. Some of my best breakthroughs happen on days I don’t want to write.

5. I remember more dreams (for better or worse…!)

6. I still have a lot to learn about myself (and many other things!)

These are not necessarily groundbreaking things, but it gave me clarity to identify them in a tangible way. I ended up writing morning pages for a year and a half total, and upon further reflection, the biggest thing I learned isn’t in the numbered list above. The biggest thing I learned is that I can trust myself.

Consistently showing up for myself with morning pages helped build momentum around my creative practice and gave me proof that I could stick with something that was really just for me.

Why did I stop writing them? I stopped because I felt like they weren’t serving me in the same way they once were. I felt like I had turned a corner creatively and was leaning more heavily on other creative outlets where I wanted to focus more time. So I gave myself permission to stop.

Now meeting myself on the page doesn’t take the shape of three prescribed pages of output each morning. Instead, my notebook is a mirror to help me sort out what’s inside my brain whenever I need it.

I think everyone’s mirror is different. It doesn’t need to be writing. It could be talking to a close friend. Walking in nature. Cooking a delicious meal. Running or biking. Reading your favorite book. The ways in which we find ourselves reflected are as unique as we are.

So my parting question of the day is: What serves as a mirror for you?

Thanks for reading!

Thanks for being here! It truly means the world to me. In case you missed it, last week I wrote about how Everything is Temporary. Check it out here.

Paid subscribers: Keep scrolling to download and print the Mirror mini zine!