Think back to every piece of advice you’ve ever received
about getting up in the morning. “Think high-energy thoughts!” “Wake up with
gratitude!” “Rise with positivity!” These are common knowledge. But sometimes,
you wake up plagued by the same gripes you had yesterday. Whether someone did
you wrong, you messed up and can’t get past it, or you’re bursting to tell
someone something that you just know
will ruin everything, sometimes you get up with a thought you just can’t shake
– and it stays with you all day. Your mind loops exactly where you went wrong,
or it replays that crappy thing your friend or family member said to you –
either way, it’s bugging you and you can’t seem to shake it, no matter how many
positive, uplifting thoughts you try to drown it out with. What do you do?
Enter Rage Pages. Rage Pages are a spin one of my favorite
concepts, Morning Pages, lifted from a lecture by Julia Cameron, author of The Artist’s Way and all-around
incredible person. Morning Pages, Julia explained, involve getting up in the
morning and writing three freeform, stream-of-consciousness pages of whatever
happens to come to mind. They’re a great way to really open up, loosen tight
parts of your mind, and work your problems out on paper. One of the biggest
parts of it is it completely uncensoring yourself – writing first thing in the
morning keeps the ego at bay.
The last part of that really stuck with me. I loved the
idea, so I started it – I’d wake up in the morning, grab my journal, and start
writing. Soon, though, a pattern emerged: Everything I was writing happened to
be stuff I was angry about, but kept inside. At that time, my husband and I
were living with family members, with literally one room, in a house full of
people, to ourselves. One member had this amazing way of, with a
single word or look, making you feel completely inadequate and uncomfortable in
your own skin, ashamed to be getting even your own food – that you bought – out
of the fridge. We had been there for a year longer than we anticipated or
wanted to, and as we found ways to move on and get out, the tension and
discomfort build to the point I thought I was gonna go insane.
As I wrote, I found this spilling out over and over. All the
things I couldn’t say exploded all over the paper, day after day. Capitalized
sentences, angry scribblings, and scratchy screams filled page after page – and
then something amazing happened. When I wrote out all my anger, fear, and
loathing in the morning, it was always gone by noon, without fail. When I wrote
out a problem that I just couldn’t get past, like magic, it resolved itself by
the end of the day. When I released my hurt, anger, and blind rage onto paper,
it was gone from my own body. It was incredible! I was stunned at how effective this simple method was.
Getting started is easy – all you need is something to write
on and a pen. It doesn’t even have to be a journal – it can be loose paper, a
napkin, TP, anything! More important than the medium is the fact that you need a safe place to put your journal,
or people you can absolutely trust to not peek. Why? Because this journal is
going to be filled with all the most horrible, relationship-ruining stuff you
can possibly imagine. With Rage Pages, there is no holding back – the point is
to siphon all the nasty shit inside of you out, no matter how hurtful it would
be if you said it to someone’s face. That’s why censoring yourself is discouraged
– if you think “Oh, that’s awful! I can’t write that down, that would be so
mean!” and only get half of what you need to say out, then the other venomous
half will still be swirling around inside you, taking root and growing
stronger. That’s the thing with Rage Pages – if done right, you get it all out.
When I first started this, I felt so weird about going against
all the advice I’d heard! With Rage Pages, though, it actually
helped me to get rid of those negative feelings, to purge them early in the day and get on with my life. In this instance, focusing on them doesn't make them stronger - it makes them go away. I can’t
emphasize this enough: By honing in on those awful feelings and getting them out
as much as you can, you actually do away
with those feelings. They’re gone. If they come back, you just write them
out again the next day. You are literally accelerating your emotional
evolution, working out your problems in days instead of months and years. And
the more you do it, the easier tapping into those dark, hateful feelings
becomes. Much like ranting to a friend, you always feel lighter and happier
afterward – but unlike offloading to another human, there’s no sense of guilt
at what you said, or worrying what they think about you now.
My Rage Pages are my superpower. It’s as if I have an
unnatural advantage over people that hold things in. I walk around freer,
lighter, happier than I was when I had all that buried inside of me, unable to
let it go as it grew inside me and took over. And all it takes is writing. If
you can’t write, then talk – use the voice recorder on your phone while in the
car. Write at school. Write at work. It doesn’t take sitting down, getting
everything right, pouring a cup of tea, lighting a candle – none of that is
necessary. The only requirement is needing to get something out that’s tearing
you up or driving you crazy. You’ll be amazed how furiously your problems burst
out of you as soon as you put pen to paper. And, unlike screaming or tearing
stuff up to release anger, writing it out gives you a different perspective, a
different view of the subject – don’t be surprised if you find yourself working
your problems out as you write, even if it’s been something you haven’t been
able to work out for months. Like I said, Superpower! Accelerated evolution!
Rage Pages are one of the best ways to keep yourself happy and healthy, inside
and out. You might even find yourself motivated to accomplish things you’ve
beat yourself over the head trying to do for years!
Whenever I encounter anyone that’s going through troubling
times, when things are tense between them and someone they love, I almost
always suggest Rage Pages. Even if they aren’t furious – even if it’s more a
feeling of confusion, hurt, of not knowing what to do – Rage Pages work. They
fix you in ways you didn’t think could be fixed.
So if you’re feeling pent-up, grab a pen and start writing!
Type if you must, but hand-writing it is highly suggested – there’s something
so much more visceral, such a better connection to those deep emotions, when
it’s flowing right out of your hand and onto paper. Do you have another “get it
all out of you” tactic that’s just as effective? Leave a comment below!
As always, thanks for reading!
~Sara💖
