5 Inspiring Morning Pages Prompts From a Transformational Coach

I read Julia Cameron’s book, where she talks about morning pages, about 7-8 years ago. I was inspired by the idea of morning pages and started writing them straight away. I achieved really good results and made some important changes in my life. Since then, Morning pages is one of my favorite ways of journaling, and I write them in different periods of my life.

Since I became a transformational coach, I modified the way I am writing morning pages. I use my knowledge, experience, and some powerful coaching questions and models to get the most of this journaling. That’s why I decided to share with you some of the best morning pages prompts.

What are Julia Cameron Morning pages?

Morning pages is a journaling idea, that was introduced by Julia Cameron in her book The Artist Way. She calls it stream of consciousness writing and recommends it as a self-help tool for artists to become more creative. However, the morning pages journaling proved to be useful almost for anyone. That’s why it becomes more and more popular.

Morning pages is a technique, that can be used for different things. These are a few examples of some benefits that you can get by writing them and using my morning pages prompts:

– self-discovery and understanding better yourself
– clearing your mind
– processing negative emotions
– getting more clarity and awareness
– understanding better what you really want
– goal-setting and making plans
– becoming freer from your thoughts and worries
– changing your state for a more positive or empowering one
– changing your mindset

How To Write The Artist’s Way Morning Pages Journal?

There are no rules about what exactly you should write on your morning pages. The main idea is to write anything that comes to your mind. All your thoughts should slowly move from your mind to the paper. Sometimes you can even write: “I don’t know what to write” many times until something comes up to you. But it shouldn’t be a problem if you will use some of my morning pages prompts.

Even there are no rules about what to write, there are still a few recommendations about how you should write morning pages:

1. The first one is about the time of the day. From the name of this journaling technique, you can guess that you should write them in the morning. Yes, that’s how Julia Cameron recommended doing it. You get more benefits from writing them first thing in the morning. I strictly followed this rule when I just started to write morning pages for the first time. I was writing them every day in the morning before going to work. I even had to get up a bit earlier to do it. With time I stopped always following this rule. Now quite often I can write them whenever I have time. Sometimes it can be even in the evening before going to sleep. However, if you have never done it before, I recommend you also try writing them in the morning at first. This way you can get all the benefits. Later you can change it depending on your schedule and free time.

2. The second one is about the amount written. It is recommended to write at least three full pages. As for me, I follow this rule almost all the time, with some exceptions. For example, I’ll choose to write less than to be late somewhere. Also, I will choose to write less than to write nothing. If you need an explanation about why it’s better to write in the morning and why you need at least three pages, you can read the book. In this post, I will focus more on morning pages prompts.

Morning Pages Prompts

As I was writing morning pages for many years, I saw all the benefits. I didn’t have any prompts when I started writing morning pages. I was just trying different ways. As I always liked to write, it wasn’t a problem for me to have ideas. What I understood with time is the power of the questions that we are asking ourselves.

Tony Robbins explains this really well in his book “Awaken the giant within” and in his program Personal Power 2. But he is not the only one who noticed the power of the questions. Every life coach knows about it and uses it during the sessions with the clients. As a transformational coach, I do it as well.

By combining my own experience of writing morning pages and using the power of questions in transformational coaching, I came up with several morning pages prompts. I would like to share them here, by dividing questions into several groups depending on the benefits you want to get from writing morning pages.

1. Clarity and awareness morning pages prompts

Morning pages are a great tool for self-discovery and bringing more clarity and awareness to your current situation and your life. These are the questions that you can think about while journaling:

What am I feeling now?
What am I thinking now?
What physical sensations do I have in my body right now?
What do I see around?
What am I hearing right now?
How does all this make me feel?
How do I currently feel about myself?
What dreams did I see today at night?
What can they mean?
What problems do I have right now?
Why do I see it as a problem?
What do I want right now?
Why do I want it?
Why is important for me?

By asking these questions, you can bring yourself into the present moment. You can see more clearly what are your emotions, feelings, and thoughts. You can find some connections between them. You can find what is important for you right here and now.

2. Understanding what you want morning pages prompts

Sometimes it is difficult for us to set goals and get motivated because we are not sure what we want. In this case, you can use some of these questions:

What were the happiest moments in my life?
What was so special about them?
What I especially liked about them?
What are my needs or values were fulfilled in these moments?
What can make me feel the same way now or in the future?
How can I fulfill my needs or values?
What did I enjoy today (yesterday, this week, or month)?
What was so special about these moments?
How can I bring more of this joy into my life?
If everything was possible, what would I chose to have or to do?
If money was not an issue, what would I do?

By asking these questions, you can find out what makes you happy and brings joy to your life. This will help you to understand what else you want to do, have or achieve to feel happier. If you would like to explore more your needs, values, and different ways to fulfill them, you can use a help of a transformational coach.

3. Finding resources and strengths morning pages prompts

When you feel disempowered, sad, or you don’t believe in yourself, you may want to try to ask yourself some of these questions:

What do I like about myself?
What are my strengths?
What am I proud of?
What are my successes?
What are my small victories?
What did I change in my life?
What are my achievements?
What problems did I solve?
What are my talents?
How can I use them?
How did I already use them?
What small steps can I take today to feel better?

By asking these questions, you focus on your talents, strengths, and achievements. You think about what you already have, and what you’ve already done instead of beating yourself up for something that is not ok now. By changing the focus, you will connect with your power and resources. Doing this will change your state.

4. Goal-setting morning pages prompts

When you know what you want, it’s time to set some goals and make plans to achieve them. Goal-setting is a big topic, and I can’t cover it all in a few questions, but I can still share with you some questions that you can ask yourself:

How do I want my life to be in 5 years?
What are the 3 main goals that I want to achieve?
How will I understand that I achieved them?
When can I achieve them?
How much time do I need to achieve them?
How will my life change after achieving these goals?
What are the main big steps I need to take towards these goals?
What can I do now towards these goals?
What is the smallest step that I can take already today?
How can I make sure that I will really do it?
How much time every day can I dedicate to pursuing my goals?
What are the main obstacles?
Which of them are real facts, and which are just my worries or assumptions?
What can I do to overcome the obstacles?

As I mentioned above, those are just a few examples. Goal-setting is a big topic. It’s about understanding better what you want, choosing measurable and achievable goals, getting motivation, overcoming obstacles, and understanding better your core values. Life coaching is one of the best tools for pursuing your goals. But there are quite a lot of things that you can do by yourself. You can try these morning pages prompts, and you can also check my other video about getting more motivation.

5. Changing your state and feeling more positive

You can use your morning pages as a tool to change your state. If you want to feel more positive and grateful, you can use these questions:

What am I grateful for in my life?
What made me feel grateful today (yesterday, this week)?
What do I like about my life?
What do I like about myself?
What made me smile today (yesterday, this week)?
What brings joy into my life?
What made me happy today (yesterday, this week)?
What’s something that inspired me recently?
Who have I enjoyed being around recently and why?
Who is always there for me?
Who had the biggest impact on me in my life?
How do I feel about the person?
What books or movies have changed me?
What books or movies made me feel better?

By answering these questions, you focus on positive things in your life. It helps you to feel more grateful and to remember, that there are many things that you appreciate in your life. Changing your focus changes your state. By doing it in the morning you can have a much better day.

Get Best Result from Morning Pages Journaling

As I mentioned above there are no rules about what exactly you should write in morning pages. Trust yourself and write anything that comes to you. However, If you are struggling with ideas, you can always use my morning pages prompts. I’ve chosen them not just to give you ideas about what to write. These morning pages have a bigger purpose. They can help you change your state, understand yourself better, become more present, get more awareness, and set your goals. Just choose the right questions depending on what you need, and you’ll get the results even sooner than you can expect.