My Morning Pages are the most important thing I give to myself. I wake up, I get up and I write. It doesn’t always matter when I wake up – sometimes it’s at 2 a.m. when I have those thoughts or those dreams that haunt all of us. Sometimes I wake up late and don’t have a worry in the world, and I still write.

You see, the idea of Morning Pages is that you write right when you wake up, and you write an exact amount: three pages.

I won’t lie, the first week or so is painful. I began a few months ago, around mid-semester. I began a ritual. When I woke up, depending on how hungry I was, I would either bring my journal to bed or I would grab a cup of coffee and sit with my journal.

The first week or so I didn’t think I would be able to keep it up, but eventually it became ritualistic, regardless of the activity from the night before. I would wake, I would grab my journal and a cup of coffee and I would write exactly three pages.

What went on these pages – well, it depended on the day. Some days I would wake up, and I would have nothing to write about. I would be so perfectly happy that I would simply describe my surroundings, what I was wearing that day or what a good time I had the night before.

Other times I won’t be so lucky, and I’ll have something to get out. Whether it’s a broken heart or someone I’m ticked off at, I will write my three allotted pages.

Maybe this time those three are dedicated to those people or those events that make me miserable, but there are still those three pages. Those days are dedicated to my surface issues, the ones that are in the forefront of my mind.

You see, the wonderful thing about Morning Pages is that you have to fill them. The underlying insecurities and hidden fears all come out when you don’t quite expect them to. When you are forced to sit down and fill an allotted amount of pages or for an allotted amount of time, thoughts come out that you didn’t realize were there, simply because you’ve given yourself the time to do so.

I’ve heard it said that the first step to fixing a problem is knowing it’s there. Morning Pages simply give you the space to do so.

Granted, starting Morning Pages and keeping at it takes a certain type of discipline that’s difficult to keep up. But it has done nothing but good for me, and I have come to enjoy reading through the old pages and seeing the progress.

It was as if I was getting more comfortable with the inner dialogue. The 2 a.m., the 8 a.m. and the 12 p.m. The Morning Pages healed problems that I didn’t know existed.

How could that be anything but wonderful?

A cynic will perhaps happily note that Morning Pages are no different from a journal. And perhaps that is so for you.

Journals, at least for me, are meant only when things are bad. But Morning Pages are for every day, for progress, for good times and bad. They can’t hurt. They’ve worked out for me – and perhaps they will for you too.