One of the reasons for my Oct 31 post was to make an open commitment to my writing and improving my writing practice.  This is why this blog has suddenly come alive again after being dormant for a time.

To be honest, I didn’t stop writing when things were quiet on the blog,   I just stopped writing publicly.  One of the great practices I learned from my One of Many coaching course was to keep a daily journal and to write 3 pages, in longhand, of my stream of consciousness as I wake in the morning.  The was first mooted back in 1992 by a woman called Julia Cameron in her book “The Artists Way”.

This practice, which requires nothing else than an additional 15 minutes of time, a good pen and a reasonable notebook, is for my eyes only – no one else gets to read it and to be honest I rarely read anything back,  as when I’ve tried this I’m slightly shocked at the things which seemed to be important then, being so infinitesimally trivial to me now.

But in the art of writing out my fears, frustrations, worries, hopes, concerns, anger, gratitude stories, nonsensical thought, it helps me clarify and prioritise.  It quietens my mind, brings me perspective, allows me to let it all out and not be judged or questioned.  I learn to write whatever comes into my head, to write 3 pages or for 15 minutes and to not doubt or second guess or question myself – just let it flow.  The first month or so, was a bit of a stop start attempt – I had things to do, places to be, social media to look at, emails to respond to – goodness I came up with every excuse under the sun.  Being a nocturnal person also didn’t help as I always think that my writing is more creative in the evening when my brain has warmed up.

But writing in the early morning, when sleep allows my brain to connect some of the remaining neurological pathways, and my dreams are still fresh, although almost always un-recountable, sets me up for the day.  All of the stuff and noise and worry  which accumulates and somehow gets buried to re-emerge often weeks later;  moves from the subconscious into the conscious which writes it onto the page and pouf, it then disappears.

Through morning pages practice and now the commitment to write a blog every day during November, I’m finding  I’m beginning to almost merge the two.  Sometimes I write in my morning pages about what I could write in the blog ( I rarely stick to it but its genesis starts here) and sometimes I find myself writing in the blog about something that emerged in the morning pages weeks before.

What all this writing is helping me do is to remind me to get out of my head and to stay alert and connected to life beyond the journal or the keyboard.

And to keep going even when the mind seems empty and unsure.