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Morning pages was my first regular journaling practice. It was nice t9 be able to externalization the mess that’s in my head over the years it’s gotten slightly neater, only slightly, and that’s over a 20 year period! Our brains are just messy. But almost everyday there’s a gem or two in there to pick up:)

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Answers:

A- I journal first thing when I wake up

As it relates to resources - I never looked at anything much to keep the practice going.

I put it down for a few years and I think I started again a few years ago when I discovered art journaling. Now I write separately from the drawings cause a lot of my thoughts became to be a lot and I needed to write them down.

I will say though that lately writing with a pencil has helped me journal more. There is something about writing with pencils that makes me feel in touch with what I'm putting down. Makes me write clearer and inspires me to go back to the notes I've made.

I've started using them all the way to the end and I keep the stubs to remind me to finish things.

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I started journaling daily a decade ago to process all the stress of taking care of my mom with Alzheimer’s. During the pandemic I joined London Writers’ Salon, an online writing community that holds writers’ hours 4x/day. Just a couple hundred writers from all over the world, scribbling morning pages or novels or essays. It’s been a game changer.

The journal is such perfect creative outlet for stress, and more generative for future projects than I’d ever realized.

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Oct 15, 2022Liked by Adam Ming

I journal on vacations and when I’m trying to work through a tough question in my life. It preserves good memories. It helps me think deeper and calms me. It gives me a way to look back and relive good memories. It helps me remember how to sort through tougher situations and reminds me that they pass.

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I do Morning Pages every day right now, though truthfully I don't think of them as journaling — they are more like a morning brain cleanse, random thoughts, dreams, notes, ideas. (A journal to me sounds like a record of my days, which I'd love to have but find more tedious to do.) I use One Day Journal (oh, ha!), an app that has a nice clean interface and tracks words — I do 750+, which supposedly is about 3 pages longhand. I've noticed when I do Morning Pages, my brain feels less fuzzy and pulled in different directions, tidier and more focused.

My Morning Pages routine stuck this time because I am habit-stacking — I wake up, drink a glass of water that's on my nightstand, and then turn on my sun lamp that's on my nightstand for 20 minutes (it has a timer). And during that time, and a little extra after the light goes off, I write. I've had the sun lamp habit daily for at least a year, so it was easy to add this on top.

It's interesting to read everyone's comments

— nice question, Adam!

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A. Just always have my journal with me. Jot down things/stick 'em in as they happen. Sometimes I draw in waterproof ink (always attached to the side of the book with one of those elasticy things) and then paint another day.

B. It's a brain dump. Has lists of to-do's, what I'm reading in the back and my doodling all around.

C. Nothing!

D. Nothing!

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