Ep 119: Staying Healthy with Morning Pages

Written By Dustin Pead

Transform Your Creative Mind

SUMMARY

As creative professionals, we often find ourselves battling the chaos in our minds—scattered thoughts, creative blocks, and the constant pressure to produce on demand. What if I told you there's a simple 10-minute morning practice that could revolutionize your creative process and mental clarity?

In this latest episode of Creativity Made Easy, I share a transformative concept from Julia Cameron's "The Artist's Way" that has personally guided me for years: morning pages.

What Are Morning Pages?

Morning pages are a simple yet powerful practice: write three pages of stream-of-consciousness thoughts first thing in the morning, ideally within the first 5-10 minutes of waking up. No editing, no judgment—just raw, unfiltered thoughts flowing onto paper.

Why Morning Pages Work for Creatives

The magic happens because you're most connected to your subconscious mind in those early morning moments. This practice allows you to:

  • Clear mental clutter before starting your creative work

  • Identify subconscious thoughts that might be limiting your creativity

  • Retrain neural pathways toward more positive thinking patterns

  • Enhance self-awareness about what's really going on in your mind

My Personal Morning Pages Framework

Here's how I structure my morning pages for maximum impact:

Step 1: Write Your Personal Mission Statement

I start every session by writing down my life's mission—not my business mission, but my personal purpose. This practice ingrains it into my neural pathways and keeps me aligned with my core purpose.

Step 2: List Your Core Values

Next, I write out my personal values—the principles that guide me whether I'm in a professional role, as a husband, father, or leader. These values travel with me everywhere.

Step 3: Free-Flow Writing

Then I simply start writing whatever comes to mind. Sometimes it's a prayer, sometimes it's concerns, sometimes it's creative ideas. The key is to keep the pen moving, even if you have to write "I don't know what to write" until something flows.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • ⚡️ Start with 5-10 minutes: You don't need hours—just dedicate the first few minutes of your day to this practice.

  • ⚡️ Keep the pen moving: Even when you don't know what to write, continue writing. The breakthrough often comes after pushing through the initial resistance.

  • ⚡️ Observe without judgment: Use your morning pages to identify subconscious thoughts and patterns, then consciously work to retrain unhelpful thinking.

NOTABLE QUOTES

  • 💬 "When I get it all out, then I can observe it in black and white for what it is... it's good to get it out and retrain those neurological pathways."

  • 💬 "You're the most connected scientifically to your subconscious in the morning, so you write these things out and you're able to look at them and go, 'that's not at all what I think, but it's in my subconscious.'"

  • 💬 "I promise over time, you'll start to see a difference. You'll start to notice things, be more observant, and definitely start to be more creative."

EPISODE RESOURCES

TRANSCRIPT

Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode of Creativity Made Easy Front Porch Edition. It's full-fledged summertime here, so if you hear screaming kids and lawnmowers in the background, that's just summertime in West Georgia. So I'm sorry, I'm going to keep this brief. I got a lot of feedback after the last kind of front porch edition and people seemed to really like it. So I thought maybe once a month or so, once every four or five weeks, I would drop another one of these kind of short front porch episodes.

If you're watching on YouTube, then you can see that I'm actually sitting on my front porch. If you're not and you're just listening to this audio podcast, you might be wondering why it sounds a little bit different, why you're hearing screaming kids and birds chirping and lawnmowers. I'm not sure if you can hear all that or not right now, but if you can, that's why.

I recently did a podcast episode with a friend of mine and a client of mine, Darren Cooper of 1898 Creative, in which we talked about the mental health struggles of business owners. And since I speak to professional creatives here on this podcast and everything that I do at Chief Creative Consultants, I wanted to share with you one concept from that episode that I've carried with me for many, many years now that I think could help any creative.

This concept comes from a book by Julia Cameron written many years ago called The Artist's Way. It's a fantastic book for any creative to really kind of walk through the rhythm and the grind and the emotions that come along with being a create-on-demand profession. But in that book, she famously talks about this practice called morning pages.

Every morning what she recommends, hopefully in the first five or ten minutes of you waking up, she says, I want you to grab a pen and paper or if you're like me, you can use a digital version here. I use my remarkable. And I want you to just start writing for about three pages worth. So on my remarkable, if I have to swipe up twice then that means I'm on the third page and there's three pages. It could be three post-it notes, it could be three pages of your Field Notes guide. It doesn't matter, but the point is to kind of get your free subconscious thoughts flowing.

The mental health benefit that I have seen from this more than anything is you start to kind of write out of that subconscious and you begin to understand what's really going on in your mind. And it's good to do it in the morning because that's when you're the most connected scientifically to your subconscious. And so you write these things out and then you're able to look at them and go, that's not at all what I think, but it's in my subconscious. So I need to retrain my thoughts and retrain my thoughts and what I'm thinking and what I'm believing about myself and the world around me and the situations.

So a couple of ways I use morning pages every day. First thing I do is I write down my mission statement. Like what is my life's mission? Not my business's mission, not my churches or organizations mission or any of that stuff. What is my personal mission in life? And this is a practice that I went through about a year or so ago. I'm happy to walk you through it. I've learned it from many people along the way as well. And I just write that once and it's out because I want it to be ingrained in my neurological parts of my brain. I want it to be ingrained into those neuro pathways.

Second thing I write is kind of what are my personal values? These are the things that doesn't matter what position you put me in. If you're in a professional position or a position as a husband or a father or a leader or volunteer, whatever it is, these values will go with me every single place that I walk in. And then I just start writing out. Usually for me, it's a prayer or something, but I will just start writing. Here's what I'm thinking.

And I'll tell you what, the first few times you do this and even still to this day, there may be some moments where you go, I don't know what to write. And I would literally write, I don't know what to write. And I'll just keep writing, I'll keep the pen moving no matter what. If I need to count while I'm writing, whatever it is, to get it all out. When I get it all out, then I can observe it in black and white for what it is. And I can go, number one, it's good to get it out. Number two, it's good to observe it and retrain those neurological pathways.

If you missed the episode, I've posted it on my feed a few times and I'll drop it in the show notes for this as well, but it was an episode that I did with my friend and client, Darren Cooper. He has a new podcast out called Coaching with Content and he has me on there a lot to talk about it since I'm a coaching consultant. And so we talk a lot about stuff, but this episode was just super different, super raw and honest. We're getting a lot of really good feedback from it and I would love to share it with you.

And I just kind of want to hop on here for the front porch sessions of Creativity Made Easy and share this with you. But you can follow me along at Dustin Pead. I'll drop links there as well at Dustin Pead, P-E-A-D, Instagram, LinkedIn, where else? Facebook, YouTube, places like that. So yeah, you can find me there. You go to DustinPead.com slash free to pick up any resources, but check out Julia Cameron's The Artist's Way and start morning pages. Start that five to ten minute ritual or rhythm every single morning when you first wake up. And I promise over time, you'll start to see a difference. You'll start to notice things. You'll start to be more observant and you'll definitely start to be more creative.

I'll be back with regular content. I've got some really important episodes coming up that I'm super pumped about and I can't wait to share with you next time on Creativity Made Easy. Have a great week.

Dustin Pead
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Ep 118: KYSS (Keep Your Systems Simple)