What should I do with my Morning Pages?

written by Adriana

posted on Oct 8, 2022

I’m sitting now here in the middle of my room, thinking about what should I do with my old Morning Pages. Keep it, throw it or start a creative project?

Morning Pages start with 3 long hand-written notes and the length usually depends on your handwriting and the format. It’s great to start your morning with mind-wandering on paper to reduce anxiety and boost focus, but after a few months, you may notice that you have too many journals.

You don’t want to be covered with your writing. What’s more, you don’t want others to find your Morning Pages and read them, but throwing them away without acknowledging them may be too heavy as you get attached. Still, that’s your creative work and personal development tool!

This post will help you find new ways of what to do with Morning Pages.

Should you keep Morning Pages?

You should keep Morning Pages if they bring you joy, allow you to re-connect with the old you, and you can cope with the emotions they trigger within you while reading them. However, if you are a nomad, don’t have storage, or use Morning Pages to release emotions or process situations you want to forget, don’t keep them.

Do you reread Morning Pages?

“Do not reread these pages or allow anyone else to read them. Ideally, stick them in a large manila envelope, or hide them somewhere.”

Julia Cameron

Julia Cameron, the author of Artist’s Way, suggests not to reread your Morning Pages.

As we cannot repeat a meditation, we do not need to review our Morning Pages.

However, you may want to read your Morning Pages again, but distancing from the old you. You may do it alone or join a workshop, organised by artists and writers. Who knows, maybe you will start loving your Morning Pages and find them interesting to re-read after some time as did Matthew Trinetti.

What to do with old Morning pages?

Top 15 Ideas on what you can do with Morning Pages:

1. Collect to keep memories. https://amzn.to/3SIkYC5 acid-free boxes

If you have a lot of space or safe storage, such as an attic, large manila envelope, acid-free boxes, folder, or suitcase, you may consistently keep collecting it. In this way, you will be able to keep it tidy, not waste time decluttering and see a large collection after a few years. This may become your personal little library, which you may keep for your children or grandchildren. Personally, I was so grateful (and lucky) that my mum used to keep her journals. Today I can read about her goals, dreams, and daily life in the 90s, including real facts and problems she faced.

Despite I’ve never met her, I know her from these notebooks she was keeping consistently from the age of 16. Here is one of her journal entries from 1987, where she is complaining about the photo shoot at school.

Feels better than reading a book or watching a movie, right?

Thus, if you are sentimental and creative, I would suggest keeping some of your Morning Journals to make them a snippet of your reality. Who knows, maybe one day it will be the greatest gift for your grandchildren?

2. Consider donating Morning Pages to a library, archive, or historical society.

If you believe that your handwritten notes carry important and insightful historical material, you may contact a library or a society to organise a donation. Whether you are in your 20s or in your 40s, your days and era have different perceptions of reality, which adds enormous historical value. If you are brave and want your writing to see the daylight, this option may be for you.

3. Take part in the competition.

My friend in Poland told me about a journal competition organised by one organisation.

During the Covid-19 many people started journaling, as they were stuck in isolation in the square boxes. What you can do?

Grab a pen and put your thoughts on paper.

If you enjoy writing and want to share it with the world, have a look at writing contests or projects. You may send your authentic Morning Pages as a competition entry. Here are a few websites running writing competitions.

4. Re-read, analyse and review with a different colour pen.

When you check someone’s essay or an article, you have a more objective perception. Similarly, by re-reading your Morning Pages after several months or years, you may get new insights. Now you read your work with critical thinking, underlying important parts or getting a deeper understanding of your motivations, emotions and life state.

Personally, I review my Morning Pages every 2-3 months to get a better understanding of my decisions, emotional triggers and progress. Last weekend I found a page about my first day shadowing at the Neurophysiology department full of fear, excitement and enthusiasm regarding working as a scientist at the hospital. If I were to read my Morning Pages from the last year, I would find a different entry about hospitals, highlighting that I would never work in healthcare.

Why?

Because personal circumstances made me generalise, however, today reality is different and I’m more resilient. Thus, although Julia Cameron recommends not to read Morning Pages, I do that with the intention to analyse the past, comparing yesterday with today and getting a deeper understanding of what is important to me.

5. Organise a bonfire/journal-burning party.

I sit and read mine one last time then burn it.

@_moimichelle Tweet

This may be a great activity you can do with your friends, who also journal and want to get rid of the old Morning Pages entries. Doing it with a group of people you trust and feel connected to is more joyful rather than doing it on your own. For example, in Greece smashing plates is symbolic – it reflects the end and the beginning. Also, it is a great way to say goodbye to the past. Eg. You can make it more special and burn Morning Pages during New Year’s Eve.

6. Keep them in a hardcover journal on the shelf.

When you have several journals, you may want to organise them chronologically and store them either in a box or on your shelf.

Personally, I love the way hard copy A-4 format journals look on my bookshelf.

7. Try origami.

If you have kids or looking for a new hobby, but don’t want to buy paper, you may use your journals for origami. When I was a kid, it was a part of our art lesson. Here you can find tutorials on origami.

8. Stick it on the wall.

Choose the favourite parts of your Morning Pages and if they sparkle joy, remind you of a challenge you overcame, or serve as a reminder of a happy moment, stick it on the wall. If it doesn’t fit your interior design, you may want to frame it.

Re-read your Morning Pages first and choose the best moment, happiest day, greatest achievement, or emotional encounter.

9. Make a bookmark.

Morning Pages is a handwritten page, that you can use for creative projects, such as making a bookmark. Here you can find a tutorial on how to do it.

10. Recycle it.

As you journal, you may question how much paper you use. Since sustainability also plays a significant role, you may consider recycling your notebooks.

11. Turn your journals into a memoir.

Have you ever thought about leaving a memoir behind you? Every time I go to the bookshop, I see hundreds of autobiographies and memoirs, eg. Tara Westover, Paul Kalanithi, Anna Frank’s diary, Elie Wiesel.

It reminds me of my grandfather, who wanted to write his memoir, yet the time wasn’t on his side. If you enjoy planning and want to leave a creative project behind, that may be your project.

12. Type Morning Pages before throwing them away.

Throwing all your writing may be painful, thus I would suggest considering typing a few journal entries to keep it of the future in a digital form. In this way, you are more likely to preserve your legacy and save your handwritten notes. By keeping thoughts on paper, you extend the life of the author behind Morning Pages.

Interestingly, if you want to preserve handwritten notes, you may need an acid-free box. In this way, you store a family treasure and may help the new generation to develop a better understanding of your era.

13. Discard it.

As Mari Kondo says “ Discard it if it doesn’t bring joy”.

Look at it as your personal secret social media – you can compare to yourself before and after.

I keep Morning Pages to see a record of my progress, failures, and changes as a person. Whether you use social media or not, my Morning Pages are the most valuable personal media I keep daily. What do you do when you don’t like a picture? You delete it. It’s different with Morning Pages because you can’t press the delete button.

What you can do, is discard your old Morning Pages.

In this blog post by a maths teacher, you may learn more about her tips on discarding old diaries.

Final Thought

Discarding Morning Pages is as important as writing them.

Although there are several things you can do with your old Morning Pages, choose the most suitable option for you. From a creative project of collecting Morning Pages to designing a memoir to preserving them in a form of origami, Morning Pages may have an extended life.

However, if you don’t want to keep Morning Pages, throw a Bonfire party or discard them after keeping your favourite moments.

What do you do with your Morning Pages and old journals? Do you burn them, re-read or keep them? Let us know in the comments section below.

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Happy Journaling!

With better awareness, better results

A&A

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Thank you for stopping by! We are neuroscientists by day and digital creators by night who are passionate about self-development, personal growth and a healthy mindset. 🧠

We met when studying Master’s degree in Clinical, Social and Cognitive Neuroscience at City, University of London and instantly realised that we had a lot in common!

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