79 Comments

So kind of you, Raju, to spread joy on your birthday! I only try and grab gifts on mine😁 You have made such a good case that I might just fall for your scam😊❤️❤️🌈

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Oh thank you Alaknanda! Let me know if the scam worked.😈 💖📝

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Happy Birthday, Raju!

I love Julia Cameron and I love morning pages! I've been doing them for over a year myself, and fully see what you mean. In the middle of last year sometime though, I went into a bit of an unending doom loop - and it was LONG. Oddly enough, when the doom loop tires you, you actually end up taking action.

Thank you for the reminder! <3

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Dear Uthara, thank you for your wishes and your response and for the phrase, ‘doom loop’ It describes so many current and past experiences ♥️🤗

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Raju, the last time you wrote about how the neglect of money was gendered, I got super serious about my investments and net worth. When you said calling yourself a writer made a difference to you, I joined the Ochre Sky classes. Now I will write morning pages. Thanks for being a gift on your birthday. Happiest Birthday to you.

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Fiona, thank you! I keep returning to this comment, and it gives me such energy. Excited to channelize this energy. Let me know how morning pages help you and become your friend. 💖🌙

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Hi Raju, I didn't write today but have been making it a point to start my mornings with some writing. A small thing I have noticed is that I am generally very stingy with my use of ink and paper because I worry what will I do with all these diaries?! (I know!) but I am taking more space in my notebooks and in turn allowing these diaries and pages to take space in my life. Thank you! Would you like to know about my investments because about my writing progress- you are witness!

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Happy birthday, Raju! Only you can do this - give us a gift on your birthday 🥹 We all love you so much and appreciate your wonderful presence on Substack immensely 💛

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Only you could tell me what I did, in a way I hadn’t thought. Lots of love. 🥰

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Lovely insights-filled read, thanks for sharing your inner world generously, Raju :)

I have been writing pages for as long as I remember. They take all kinds of forms and shapes. I also often use Google keep or notes to scribble my pages since the modern reality of life as well as the community life I live, both come with no guaranteed access to safe and private physical paper and ink. I go through my digital notes every now and then and copy them into a single document somewhere else. My favorite thing is to see the titles — date-morning, date-evening, date-night before bedtime, and often there are days where I have multiple times stamps on the same day!

Also now for years of spending time in no tech spaces or no utensils spaces, I often find myself writing a page in my head…

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Sneha, thank you for your super thoughtful comment. 💜🌻🌿 I can't wait to try this: "date-morning, date-evening, date-night before bedtime and often there are days where I have multiple times stamps on the same day!" Especially on google keep.

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I did morning pages for year and a half and I resonate with everything you share here, Raju. It has taken me to parts of me I didn't know existed. It made me believe in magic. I keep going back to it but haven't been regular. Your post makes me want to go back to it again.

My little bit in sharing an experience - while doing morning pages I realized that fingers follow their own logic and chose what to write about. Often when I would start writing and would have thought of a sentence, my fingers would write something else and slowly I chose to give in to the wisdom of the fingers, it just felt truer and more fun!

Loads of love and a happy happy birthday !!

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Why haven’t I come across this before? I’m happily falling for your scam

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Yay, Mukta! Let me know how it went/goes whenever you try it. 💜🌟📝

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Beautiful post and reflections! Happiest birthday, Raju! May the year be full of joy, tenderness and morning pages :)

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Thank you Ila ♥️🥰 for lovely wishes

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I tried morning pages and it really worked wonders. I think I should step back into it soon! So lovely to read your process and feelings associated with morning pages :)

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Love this and hello, I am in awe that you have been doing this for 7 years. I did the morning pages religiously for 3 years or so and then come back to them on and off. But they began to take advicey shape and so I wanted to go back to normal journalling and tried to do that, ab toh break hi chal raha hai/ But inspired to go back again. Loved all the drawings. So joyful!

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3 years is solid! hope you find the form that helps you flow.. happy to be posted and to be involved as a cheerleader 📣 🩷

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Okay I love this!!! I just subscribed and can't wait to read more of your work again soon!

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Thank you, Mohika 💘🌻

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‘Consistency consists of more forgiveness than determination.’ Thank you! And belated birthday, you share the day with my late father!

I think i am going to drop the ‘morning’ and call is ‘pages’ - that might do the trick for me.

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Thank you Farzana ♥️💜 hope it becomes your friend

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'Soon the water runs clear... and poems appear like fresh, green shoots.' That's the essence isn't it? Belated happy birthday, you writer of beauty!

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It was your birthday and yet, you presented us with a gift as always:) Belated birthday wishes, my dear Raju. I have always encountered so much resistance with Morning Pages and yet that resistance is also telling and asking me to look inward as to why I am being so. I am going to try to give them another go!

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Thank you dearest Priyanka. Hope you find your own groove with morning pages. You anyway do so many magical things with your pages so I am not worried. Painting has certainly helped me on mornings when no words would appear. Sending lots of love. 🌿💖📚

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Happy Belated Birthday Raju :)

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Thank you dear Tanya. 🌿💖

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This might be one of the most useful--and yet most poetic--posts I've read on this platform in a long time. "And there’s more joy in arriving at a positive thought than imposing it on oneself." "Morning is a metaphor for waking up." There are so many revelations I will be holding onto and carrying with me.

Happy birthday week, you creative genius!

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Sarah, thank you for being you and finding me and helping me more me. 🌟📝🌙

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