Lael Johnson

Doing your morning pages, you are sending—notifying yourself and the universe of your dreams, dissatisfactions, hopes. Doing your artist date, you are receiving—opening yourself to insight, inspiration, guidance.

“I’ve come to believe there is a divine plan of goodness for my work,” Daniel says. Gifted as a writer, photographer, actor, and director, he no longer demands of himself that he choose one skill over another. Morning Pages have helped him to inhabit each skill by turn. “I listen for what wants to come next,” Daniel explains.

Write about a time when you began doing something daily, be it a creative endeavor, a new course of study, or a form of exercise. What prompted you to start it? What obstacles got in your way? When you felt resistance or missed a day, what called you back? Now reflect on what you gained from it and how you might apply that knowledge to a new daily

Some days I even include elements of creative writing, poems or prayers I may have written, and I then spend some time reflecting on how and why I came up with the piece. My purpose is to consciously develop my writing technique, not just to write about what happened.

artist-brain activities—painting, driving, walking, scrubbing, running. This week, take an hour to follow your inner compass by doing an artist-brain activity and listening to what insights bubble up.