A walking alternative to Julia Cameron’s Morning Pages

I've already written about a typewritten alternative to Morning Pages that I've been implementing. Today, I decided to experiment with another one. Inspired by the conversation between Koosje Koene and Danny Gregory, I went for a long walk. During my walk, I recorded my thoughts as if I were writing Morning Pages, just as Koosje did in the process of writing her book, Life Is Better When You Draw It. I realized I really need to get out of the house more often. That's the most difficult part, but once I do, I'm always glad I did. The same is true for Morning Pages. Although I know the exercise is good for me, there is usually some resistance to it, but I feel so much better afterward.

While Morning Pages should be handwritten, I believe we should use methods and tools that work best for us. Therefore, instead of writing by hand or on a typewriter today, I went for a walk and recorded everything that came to my mind in a Google Docs file.

I can already tell that this time, part of these thoughts will be devoted to the outside environment. Naturally, I pay attention to it and make numerous observations as I keep walking. It may even be argued that this distracts me from the concept of Morning Pages, but I believe that these kinds of reflections are also needed to practice being more observant.

I remembered that Julia Cameron encouraged walks in The Artist's Way, and, interestingly, after returning home, I found this passage on her website, which only assured me about the importance of my new practice:

“I have been teaching now for twenty years since the publication of the book, and I now realize that there are three basic tools, not two, and they are Morning Pages, Artist Dates and Walks.

I find that if you walk, you start to integrate what has occurred to you from the other tools. You might walk out with a problem, but as you walk, you come into a solution. You just get a different perspective.”