Morning Pages

everyday (mostly) for the last 9 years

Today I want to talk about morning pages, and more specifically, my Morning Pages playlist.

I first went to LA in January 2016. I was subletting my friend’s house for about six months, and at times even sharing it with her, sleeping in the same bed. I ended up taking over the lease the following year, and it’s where I still live to this day in LA. I have one of those very lucky, cool landlord, affordable rent situations that I don’t know how or if I’ll ever let go of it. I call it the Hobbit House. I may do a whole post just about the Hobbit House in the future, but for now I digress…

from the Sorceress press shoot, shot at home in the Hobbit House, by Katie Miller January 2020

When I got to LA, I was on a little bit of a spirit quest. It was scary to leave Austin, but I had big dreams, and I’d felt the pull to Los Angeles since I was a little kid.

I picked up the book “The Artist’s Way” by Julia Cameron. And the truth is, I never finished it. But here’s what I got to - early on in the book, she talks about this practice of Morning Pages. The idea is this - you get a journal. And every morning, first thing, you write and fill up three pages in your journal. You just dump your thoughts on the page. It’s not a diary, it’s not a to-do list, and it’s not for you to go back and reread or to share with anyone else. It is simply a place to put your stream of consciousness thoughts down on the page, in a tactile way, and then start the day.

there she is! (not my photo, thank you google image search)

When I first started, I was a little bit too hardcore. I kept my journal next to my bed, and as soon as I opened my eyes in the morning I’d grab the journal and start writing. It coincided with a phase of my life where I was really in to writing down my dreams first thing in the morning, which you really have to do if you want to remember them, so I kind of merged the two practices. It would be dream recollection and then I’d sleepily fill up the rest of the three pages. I felt like it was important to do morning pages perfectly, to not even leave the bed so not even an ounce of “day” could get in the way.

A friend of mine was also starting the practice, and when I told her my approach, she was clearly a little concerned for me and encouraged a bit of a looser grip on the whole thing. She told me for her own morning pages she got up, splashed water on her face, took out the dog, made coffee, and then sat down to write. This was a revelation for me at the time. It can be… relaxed? Maybe even… fun? It’s not grueling work or a weird punishment? Turns out, it can be very chill. And thats when I began to develop my morning routine that to this day, nine years on, I’m still doing.

Above is my current morning pages journal. I got this one about a week ago, and it’s a little larger than usual for me, so I predict I’ll have this one for about three and a half months before I fill it up. Usually a journal stays with me for about three months before it’s full.

Choosing the journal is a sacred practice for me. I have two primary go-tos: Shinola and the classic Moleskin. I’m a fan of Shinola because they’ll monogram it for you for free. You can have your initials on your journal, and what could possibly be cooler than that? Moleskin is great and more widely available, so I’ll usually do a moleskin if I cant get my hands on a Shinola. The journal I currently have was purchased at Stop and Read books here in Marfa, TX. I came here having just filled up my most recent journal, which was I think a Moleskin, and I needed a new one immediately, so I found this girl. It’s a type I’ve never used, the brand is I believe Chronicle Books? It’s called the Go To Notebook with Mohawk Paper. I don’t even know what that means, but let me tell you, this journal is exceptional. It’s not exactly a hard back and its not quite a soft back either, it’s right in between. Which is great because I love a little flexibility but also like to be able to just have the journal in my lap and write.

Many journal purchasers ask themselves - ruled, dotted, or blank page? It’s really a toss up for me. There are aspects I appreciate about all of the above. Currently I’m in a real dotted phase. There’s something containing about dotted without being too confining. Blank is intimidating. Too much freedom. I’ll go for it, but those three months will have a really different flavor than say, a ruled period. Ruled is good, sometimes we need ruled, but I don’t always love being boxed in.

So my mornings now revolve around my morning pages. I make coffee, light incense, and sit down and write three pages. I do this every day, anywhere that I am, pretty much without fail. And when I don’t do it, I can feel it. In fact, today was a day where I didn’t do it. I got up and started my day, ended up going on a super long walk, and 1:30 or 2pm rolled around and I felt weird as hell. Ungrounded. Scattered. A little bit ill at ease. And then I realized why: I skipped morning pages. What was I thinking?

So I sat down to do it. Even at 2pm, the effect is palpable. I feel calmer and better as soon as I begin. And once I’m finished, I feel like I can really go about my day.

Over the years, I’ve created a companion playlist for this practice. It’s my Morning Pages playlist and it lives on Spotify (sorry, I know we are anti-spotify now, but I’m a creature of habit). The playlist is currently 9 hours and 29 minutes long. I’m constantly adding songs to it and deleting ones that I get tired of. I’m extremely particular about the music in the mornings during Morning Pages time. There are only a handful of things that will work for me.

For paid subscribers, I’m including links to my morning pages playlist as well as the 4 other acceptable musics for Morning Pages time. I’m also throwing out a little call to action — if you have recommendations for morning music, please let me know in the comments. More on that behind the paywall. If you’re a free subscriber, thank you for being here! If you jump over to paid land - thank you so much for supporting me. I promise to make it worth your while. Now, lets dive in…