The 20-Minute Morning Ritual that Transforms My Day
I suck at rituals.
I love the idea of having one and marvel at all the successful people who navigate their mornings like an air traffic controller, making sure all flights land and get off on time.
Take Andrew Huberman. The neuroscientist-podcaster-wellness influencer swears by his 10-step morning routine, which includes:
Wake up around 6 am
Get exposure to natural sunlight
Hydrate
Meditate
Stretch
Exercise
Eat a healthy breakfast
Take a cold plunge
Journal
Set and review goals
This sounds so invigorating in theory, but every time I try to follow a structured daily regimen like this, something gets in the way—I need to answer an urgent email, one of my kids texts to say they left their gym sneakers at home, a quick glance at a cute cat photo on Instagram leads to a mindless, 20-minute scroll session.
Still, I crave the structure. Creative people with ADHD need structure. When I’m running around doing lots of different things in no particular order, my brain is working really hard. But when those same things become a regular routine, I let my brain chill a little so there’s more energy left to do the business of creating.
That’s why I’m delighted to share a recently discovered morning ritual that has improved my mental health. I don’t know exactly how and why it works, but I do know that after I do it, my mind feels clearer, and I generally have happier, more productive days.
Morning Pages
Have you heard about morning pages? Author Julia Cameron first introduced the practice in her classic book The Artist’s Way.
The book offers a 12-week course on unlocking your creativity. It is a bit self-helpy, and some of the language is cringe-worthy, but it is packed with so much wisdom that every time I pick it up, I learn something new about myself and the creative process.
Interesting side note: Cameron was married to director Martin Scorcese for a year.
I will confess I have not embarked on the 12-week course. It’s hard enough to find a 12-minute morning routine that works for me, so the idea of investing three months into something is daunting. But I have plucked a few tasty morsels from the book, like a hungry man at a hotel buffet.
Morning Pages is one of my favorites. Here’s how Cameron describes them:
Morning Pages are three pages of longhand, stream-of-consciousness writing,
done first thing in the morning. There is no wrong way to do Morning Pages*–
they are not high art. They are not even “writing.” They are about
anything and everything that crosses your mind– and they are for your eyes
only. Morning Pages provoke, clarify, comfort, cajole, prioritize and
synchronize the day at hand. Do not over-think Morning Pages: just put
three pages of anything on the page...and then do three more pages tomorrow.
It’s as simple as that. Every morning, you crack open up a journal or some form of writing medium. I was a sucker and ordered Cameron’s Morning Pages Journal. And you scribble down whatever is in your head.
Your morning page entries could be something like, “I can’t think of anything to write. This is stupid. Why am I doing this.” That’s usually how my entries start. But that’s the beauty of morning pages. You’re writing with no judgment. You’re silencing that negative voice in your head and just getting thoughts in the form of words on the page.
And that’s where the strange magic lies. Manually unloading all your crazy and confusing thoughts on the page (you have to use a pen or pencil—no typing), partaking in what Cameron calls a “brain drain,” has the bizarre effect of slowing your mind down and helping you focus.
This is how Cameron explains it:
Morning pages are spirtual windshild wipers. Once we get those muddy, maddening, confusing thoughts [nebulous worries, jitters, and preoccupations] on the page, we face our day with clearer eyes. We are more honest with ourselves and others, more centered, and more spirtually at ease. I often say that morning pages are a form of meditation: You are writing down the cloud thoughts that dirft across your mind. In writing them down, you clear them.
I don’t know about all the spiritual awakening stuff, but I do know that as I continue to unload my insane ramblings onto the page, they begin to make a little more sense. I formulate thoughts and ideas that hadn’t occurred to me before. I ask questions of myself. Sometimes, I even solve problems—or begin to solve them.
My hand has trouble keeping up with my thoughts, which is a good thing because this forces me to slow down. When you’re doing your morning page, you can only have one thought at a time—an added bonus for people with anxiety and ADHD who may feel like they’re suffocating in an arena packed with worries. Those worries still arrive, but they’re lined up in a more orderly, single-file line.
After a particularly good session of morning pages, I feel like I just had a deep-tissue mental massage. The world is a little calmer and more manageable. The emails are less urgent, the forgotten sneakers less of a crisis, and the cat photos can wait. I don’t crave that surge of dopamine as acutely.
The feeling doesn’t always last, but it’s nice that it happens at all. Morning pages are my daily microdose of ayahuasca—they connect me with an inner clarity that’s always been there but was difficult to access.
This is one routine I recommend you keep.