Hello. This is Asa, and welcome to Minimalish Journal blog where I share some journaling tips & all about my journaling workshop in Kigali, Rwanda.
In my previous blog post, I shared my challenge on Morning Pages. I did it! There was no day that I skipped without filling in the three pages.
3 reasons why I embarked on Morning Pages challenge – Minimalish Journal (happy-morning.com)
It is a simple journaling method, but even within the three weeks, I learnt a lot and also I sensed that my life is turning to a better direction.
In this blog post, I am sharing what I learnt from my 21 days challenge. I hope it encourage other journaling fans to give it a go!
To begin with, what is Morning pages?
Morning pages is a very simple but powerful way of journaling in the morning. It is share by Julia Cameron in her book called “The Artist Way”
To start Morning Pages is super simple.
1) Prepare a notebook
2) Keep the notebook and a pen on your dining table
3) When you wake up, open the book and start writing
4) Write three pages
It is super simple with no prompt. You just let the flow goes and write whatever comes up in your mind.
Four things that I learnt after going on this journey
Realizing that I have always wanted to resume Morning Pages exercise as my journaling method, I have embarked on 21 days challenge in December.
Yes, it is the most busy season of the year, with school holidays and end-of-the year busy work.
However, I am grateful that I had the courage to try it out before the New Year comes. And that going through 21 days without fail really gave me a confidence.
1) Opening notebook became a habit
Journaling has been my passion for a very long time, but it was not a daily habit for me. However, trying to open the notebook in the morning for 21 days in a row, really supported me to create the habit.
Of course, it was not EVERY day that I managed to write three pages at one shot in the morning. Sometimes my kids would interrupt me after writing one page, so that I need to fill in the remaining pages in the afternoon or evening.
But, now that I have the habit built, the first thing I do when I go to our dining room is no longer touch my phone but open my notebook.
2) Feeling no guilt to take care of myself first
Before the challenge, I always thought “I need to make breakfast when everyone else are up”. And I kind of felt that “Me-Time is finish when the boys are up”.
However, during the 21 days, I realized my family can wait. We are up very early anyways, so we do have some time we can enjoy individually before breakfast.
Even for my family, it became natural that I would be writing something at the table until 6:30. In this way, our kids could be playing by themselves and my husband is doing his exercise. It is so nice to have individual moment in the morning.
3) Journaling became our shared hobby
It was very interesting but now our three-year-old boy is into journaling! And we often sit together at our dining table, and spend time together writing into individual notebooks.
It happened on 16th morning, that our son said “Let’s go and journal together” in the bed, the minute he woke up. I was surprised with what he said, but very happily got out of bed, sat together at dining table and spend 20mins writing together!
After seeing me writing something every morning, I think, he sensed it is fun to write. What a great way to show case good habit to our kids!
Also, I realized there was barrier inside me thinking that I cannot journal when our boys are around. Yes, it is not easy to fully concentrate, but I can still do one or two pages even if our boy is sitting next to me.
4) Found what I want to do next year
In the book “The Artist Way”, Morning pages is described as journaling method to pull up your creativity. The more you journal, the easier it is to find what your true feelings and true desires.
And it was so true. In the 1st week of challenge, I discovered that there is something I have been putting off for more than a year.
I have always wanted to level up my coaching skill by taking online course, but procrastinated within 2022, using pregnancy and new-born baby as my excuse. With this realization, I quickly started searching for program which suits me, and actually enrolled myself! How exciting.
After 21days challenge, I found what I really wanted to do next year
The reason I wanted to do 21 days challenge within December is to get myself ready for the next year. I wanted to make sure I have the journaling method as my daily habit.
And yes, after 21 days, it became a habit. So I am still continuing my Morning pages practice even after the 21 days.
But bonus was that I realized my hidden desire to study, and that I got myself ready to dive into couching program starting from mid-Jan.
The challenge was only 21 days, but it has definitely gave me confidence of continuing the journaling as my daily habit. Plus, it has already started changing my life perspective.
Let’s see where I land when I continue this journaling method for a couple of months, a few more months. I am sure I will be a different person!
