What if I told you consistency has the power to cause a dynamic shift in your life – one that will open you up more than any resolution ever has? Let’s try this on for a moment – or maybe I am only one tired of people talking about goals and 2021 as if this new year is going to suddenly cure all of 2020’s problems?
The beginning of the year is a natural time of year for many of us to assess and start fresh, leaving old thoughts and habits behind as the bright shiny new is on the horizon. Are you one of those, like me, who enjoys such assessment?
For years, morning writing consistently as Julia Cameron titles “Morning Pages” prescribes has been an ongoing tool for many for healing and growth. The problem is, Julia Cameron couples morning pages with the unpleasantly long seeming 3 pages of writing. What if your method of consistency was easier – say three lines of writing?
Morning Pages & Early Morning Journaling Causes Positive Shifts
Writing from the stream of consciousness strips away my opinions and thoughts in such a way to discover long held mis-beliefs and shortcomings in awareness.
I don’t preplan, I just write. This is also a method I teach – and one of the challenges seems to be actually writing with the flow. Many times people get bogged down in high school composition classes and work toward the beginning, middle and ending our one-time language arts teachers suggested.
Today the prompt was “Now is the new beginning” from my longtime friend, Adela. I obviously had some stuff on my mind that wanted to get out.
Sometimes, stream of consciousness (automatic, morning pages, journaling) writing looks like this
“Now is a new beginning and betrayal appears to be an unforgivable, the chopping block is the mind reality I march up to, full of conviction. Put those unforgiveables in the thought guillotine. Watch with glee as I chop off my ____ to spite my ________.
(In special honor of cutting off my pig snout nose in spite of my less pretty than most everyone face.)
“Who cares?” the interior bland girl says as she yawns. Oatmeal colored skin, hair, lips, eyes monochromatic woman I feel like when that mid-afternoon window/door slams all tht I love about me and cuts oatmeal-color-woman, other wise known as Ecru Comma, color evaporated.
Color evaporates. Part of me dies.
Repeat.
Open for the new awareness that comes with each new beginning, each revolution, rising.
Writing Rule Breaks Here: I stepped away to let time do its part in healing
Yesterday I decided my propensity to do better in the morning than in the afternoon and evening is just something about me I have to live with, no questions asked.
My belief sounded something like this: I am “worthless” after about 4 pm when all color evaporated from my experience and everything turned blah. I felt like sleeping at about 5 pm. I ate dinner in silence and watched the news. I was actually asleep by 8:30 pm.
This morning I woke up before 5 am and didn’t feel like getting up and I knew if I got up and started my daily practices I would feel better. At first I started with my norm – and then I thought, “What if I toss in some modifications?”
I haven’t been doing standard morning pages lately as three pages longhand without breaks was more oppressive than freeing, so I mixed in my skin care, water drinking, dressing, prepping my smoothie, meditation and stretching into my morning pages.
I added some quotes.
I took a writing prompt one of my friends wrote.
The most important a-ha came from my revolt against the norm.
I felt like Dorothy, right before she “returns” to Kansas
I am clearly the one who writes the rules for my daily practices.
I know intuitively that smaller chunks of morning time works best for my overall experience, so modifying what I have been doing with my historical 3 pages all at once helped me gain so much more than if I had forced myself to “power through.”
I also realize the energy drain may be due to not drinking enough water. Even this morning I realize my morning walking nets a lot of water and I taper down during the day.
My belief that I am a morning person may be more about my hydration and daily practices. I am now thinking about how to balance out my practices to other times of day. I do have a night time routine, but late afternoon is… empty. I have been walking on some days of the week but tend to see that as a chore more than a pleasure – so how to morph my belief and practice has the possibility of a growth unlike I’ve had in the past!
Hydration, an increase in conscious intention and no longer allowing other people’s rules or guidelines to hold power over my own intuitive knowing: all of these aspects of what I have been doing (and not doing) are worth exploring.
I feel more freedom now. It is noon and I am about to refill my water glass – and drink it. This afternoon I will meet up with a friend and feel my way into how to make my walks at the end of the day more pleasant so I may create a desire for more instead of a distaste, as if it is a punishment.
Update: it is 6 pm and none of the mid-afternoon malaise came over me.
Is it the intention of this morning’s practice or the plentiful water I have used as refreshment? We will try again tomorrow to get it better.
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I have created a guide to creating your 2021 word of the year. Free download available at this link here –
To JOIN Bridge to the New year, a facebook group where we meet year round as an accountability, creativity community, we also do twice a year deep reflections on our beliefs, progress and experience please visit here
If you are one who would love to find out the magic of consistency in a brand new way, I invite you to check out the One Small Shift program which starts soon. It isn’t just content, it is an experience in self-love with active, short bursts of creative process that will stick – all in a community of people who support your ambitions.
Last year I wrote a three line poem daily, this year I am hugging trees for 377 days in row. I had no idea how enriching this practice would be. Life changing, loving, visionary.
This year went by too quickly but I don’t plan goals for the following year too much in advance. I do like to assess what the previous year was and if I can change anything for the better.
It’s interesting to think that you can adjust your body clock by drinking more water. I’m going to have to look into that, as my body clock has gone haywire!