I started writing morning pages sometimes in May when I was at a stressful/busy work period, then stopped in July when it culminated. As I suggested to Sarah, sometimes it helps to just write down things in mind when we can’t explicitly say what it is which helps to organize our thoughts, and in the future this period is not a blur distant memory. I’ll do what I preach. Things in my mind this morning:
- I went to bed 10:30pm last night, 2 hrs later than my usual time and I’m feeling awful. It was a work related meeting that I HAD to attend for various reasons. My body is tired due to late sleep (although quantify wise is the usual), 6 days of running (Friday is my day off). Due to low physical energy, my mind is not the brightest nor the most optimistic even in the morning, which is the norm. But this is okay, I’ve been here and recovered with 1-2 nights of good sleep. Don’t overthink too much on this low moment.
- A job will come up soon and I have started reading up about the country. The more I think about it, the more I want to get the job. Yet, I want to prevent myself from disappointing if I don’t get it. I want to hold back on wanting but it is hard. Then I thought: strong desire, closely held. I’ve wanted other postings before, I didn’t get them. I moved on quickly confident that something better is waiting for me.
- However, if I want something, I’ll put my best effort. On my last yoga flow, one quote stuck with me: balance effort with ease. Yes, that’s what I will try to do.
- We don’t get to learn about people’s skills from school, nor even formal training at work, but it is so important. A work friend shared with me the best advice she got in preparation for the interview for the personal skills part: think about what would be your ideal leadership style. Then think about examples of situations in which you managed them with the ideal leadership style. With this framework in mind, you could answer any question related to conflict solution/mentorship, etc. Brilliant.
- We are leaving for a long weekend trip this morning, 2.5 hrs drive from Jakarta. I’m excited but had zero packing done. My goal will be to relax, sleep, and go with the flow for the next couple of days.
Our New Journey 
I have started morning pages so many times and I always end up stopping the habit. It’s so helpful though. For a while I was more consistent using an online Morning Pages app (definitely recommend it if you want to do things digitally; it’s free: morningpages.app). I know Julia Cameron is firm about needing to write things out by hand, but something is better than nothing and I found I could get my thoughts out faster and feel better when I typed them!
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I’ve never heard of Morning Pages. I just went and looked it up. Do you try to do it every day? Do you write out 3 whole pages every time? Do you write longhand, or do you do it online like Elisabeth suggested?
Good luck with your next job assignment, I hope you get the one that you want. I think the things you wrote make sense and would be helpful.
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I had never really heard of Morning Pages either! Interesting idea. I used to love it when I was able to blog every morning during the pandemic. Now it doesn’t always seem to fit in. I guess I could if I just kept it really brief and short and didn’t worry about necessarily writing about a certain “topic” or anything that day. I sort of did that during NaBloPoMo last year- I forced myself to keep posts to <500 words and I popped in every day, even if just to share a random tidbit. It actually was really fun and I did enjoy that blogging style.
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Hope you have a great long weekend!
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I’ve not heard of morning pages… that sounds like a lot of work, but also like a lovely morning exercise.
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All your takeaways (written in the bold font) are amazing. It really does help to write things down. I hope you are feeling more rested and had a great weekend!
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