Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Anyone reading this?

I realize I have the link on my Facebook page, but it seems hardly anyone actually uses the links provided. So here I am, just writing about whatever I think about. It's like the morning pages I have to do for my colloquium class. The morning pages are three pages you write every morning (no matter what) as soon as you wake up. I usually brew my coffee first so I can sip at the same time. The purpose of these, as pointed out by The Artist's Way by Julia Cameron, is to help uncover the true feelings that you harvest inside. Their supposed to be personal, but I've yet to go back and read through any of them. In the book the idea comes from, it made an interesting observation, and I really enjoyed reading it.

"The process of identifying a self inevitably involves loss as well as gain. We discover our boundaries, and those boundaries by definition separate us from our fellows. As we clarify our perceptions, we lose our misconceptions. As we eliminate ambiguity, we lose illusion as well. We arrive at clarity, and clarity creates change.
"I have outgrown this job," may appear in the morning pages. At first, it is a troubling perception. Over time, it becomes a call for action and then an action plan.
"This marriage is not working for me," the morning pages say. And then, "I wonder about couples therapy?" And then, "I wonder if I'm not just bored with me?"


The morning pages translate your immediate thoughts into your true thoughts. I feel so hokey actually trusting this kind of creative healing, but so far I've been able to see some improvement in the way I focus and how I approach my own emotions. I'm quick to act on immediate feelings. I have to pause, access, and then act. I let myself fall head over heels into everything I do, and it causes me to get torn up and function awkwardly in social situations. [I just took a moment to look at a couple entries in my morning page notebook] I've been doing them for about three weeks I suppose. Time seems to be crawling. At least, it has been the past week and a half or so. I've noticed that I often create an entry from stream of consciousness, and if someone's on my mind, that person usually ends up being my main topic for about two of the three pages.

Anyway, I could explain better in person.