by Miriam Schulman
This blog post is part of a series that takes a deep dive into the strategies I use to quiet my monkey mind and stay focused on my art making, One morning ritual I find invaluable is the daily journal practice. I have a bunch of journals that I use to help me stay mindful.
Morning Pages
Many artists call this “morning pages” as coined by the author Julia Cameron in her Artist Way book. When I do morning “pages” I generally bend from Cameron’s instructions to write 3 full pages. I just write a few sentences or borrow prompts from The Five Minute Journal. The Five Minute Journal comes as a book or an app, For a long time, I was using the app until I started getting annoyed that there was one more thing I need to do with my phone. Now I just use a regular journal to write out the prompts.
A Family Affair
My teenage children have also embraced a regular journal practice. My college age daughter, an aspiring musician, writes daily morning pages and my sixteen year old son uses the official 5 Minute Journal book. He finds the fill in the blank prompts for daily and evening journals helpful. Since he is a high performance athlete hoping to wrestle for a Division 1 school, he has augmented his journal practice with a diet and fitness journal of his own design.
My favorite writing prompts
My favorite writing prompts are for gratitude, daily intentions, and affirmations. This practice gets me in the mindset of being in control of my day’s direction and happiness. You don’t have to go buy a special book or an app to create these productive patterns in your day.
Morning prompts
Just make it a ritual to start your day with the following questions: What am I grateful for? What are three things I can accomplish today?
Nightly check-in
Then do a nightly check in to remind yourself of what you accomplished that day. The prompts here are: How could I make the day better? What were the “wins” for the day?
8 Daily Prompts for Mindfulness
Would you like a list of my daily prompts? Here are three morning prompts and 5 nightly checkin prompts that you can use to make yourself happier and more focused! >> download the FREE 8 prompts
About Me (Miriam Schulman)
In case we haven’t met yet, I’m an artist and founder of The Inspiration Place, where I help other artists learn how to profit from their passion or become better artists. Through online classes, business coaching programs, and a top-ranked podcast, I’ve helped thousands of artists around the world develop their skill sets and create more time and freedom to do what they love. My signature coaching program, The Artist Incubator, helps artists go from so-so sales to sold-out collections.
A graduate of Dartmouth College and M.I.T, I initially pursued finance but after witnessing 9/11, I abandoned a lucrative hedge fund job to work on my art full time. Since then, my art and my story have been featured in major publications including Forbes, The New York Times, Art of Man, Art Journaling magazine as well as featured on NBC’s “Parenthood” and the Amazon series “Hunters” with Al Pacino. My forthcoming book with HarperCollins Leadership on how to make it as an artist is scheduled to be released January 31, 2023. When I’m not in the studio, you can find me hanging out with my husband, adult kids, and a tuxedo cat named Ebony. I’d love to invite you to check out one of my free resources for art lovers (of every passion level) at schulmanart.com/freebies
