A Year of Morning Pages/Prayers
Have you heard of Morning Pages? It’s a daily hand-writing journaling type practice, designed by Julia Cameron in The Artist’s Way. It’s a way of “brain dumping” before creating to get things flowing. I read her book years and years ago, and tried it a few times throughout the years. I love the concept and even love the hand-written aspect….but I made an adaptation that has been working well for me. About a year and a half ago, I began prayer journaling every morning, but I did it while typing, rather than hand-writing. Lots of reasons why, but mostly it was because I wanted to sit down at my computer to work every day, and I wanted to start that work off with prayer before I did anything else.
I made no rules, just opened a Word doc (that is now password protected, naturally), and spill out my thoughts and prayers. I talk to God through this practice nearly 7 days a week (it doesn’t always happen on Sundays), and I share all the thoughts about life, family, business, health, and so much more. I obviously pray in other ways throughout each day, but this daily practive has been transformational.
About 80% of the time, when I sit down and begin, I am scattered, a little tired (it’s morning), and maybe even stressed about what I have on my To Do list. Sometimes I’m anxious about life or health, sometimes about a relationship issue, sometimes I’m joyful and happy with how business is going and I can’t wait to say thank you. This practice has helped me grow in faith, trust, and in hearing God’s answers and voice with ALL the things I’m telling him. I’ve laughed at myself often as I write, because sometimes it’s like writing a blog post that only God hears (or reads?). He knows everything I’m sharing, but there is a connection that happens as I share anyway.
The only drawback is there isn’t a specific place to mark “prayer answered” on my entries, although I am thinking about going through and highlighting passages where I know God answered what was asked. This is a part of “regular” paper prayer journaling that is so powerful, so it makes sense to do it with my morning pages prayers as well.
Over the last year and a half, I have continued to ask for a few specific things – more faith/trust/wisdom… physical healing from specific issues… and mental/emotional healing from trauma. Aside from also praying daily for my husband and children and other family members, I also regularly pray about business and growth and ideas that I’m mulling over, issues or joys with clients, and challenges I’m facing. I get emotional thinking about this record of prayers, and I realize I’ve never consciously shared THIS MUCH DETAIL with the Lord than I do in the morning pages/prayers. That is ultimately the beauty of typing it out. I type much, much faster than I can hand-write (and sometimes can type faster than my thoughts), so it’s been amazing the level of information I’m pouring out, and ultimately saving in an online journal.
You don’t have to do this the way I do it, and you might find that you prefer hand-written prayer journaling over typing, but for my ADHD/busy brain, it has been life-changing. If you’ve been feeling overwhelmed, or just longing for a little more peace in your mornings, I’d encourage you to give some form of morning pages/prayer journaling a try. Don’t worry about doing it right. Just start writing, even if it feels awkward at first (and it will definitely feel awkward if you are typing). But I promise it will be worth it!
