I thought I might make an actual post instead of a post that was sent here from another website that I've been playing on. It has been a rather good day and I wish to document it before bedtime, which I am happy to say will be earlier than usual.
I discovered a terrific website yesterday, called 750words.com, which is beautifully coded and based on a very simple premise - the morning brain-dump. That is to say, it offers a place for you to slap down 750 words in the constant-stream-of-consciousness format that allows you to purge whatever's bugging you and get on with your day.
Back when I first read The Artist's Way, the author recommended writing 3 Morning Pages a day, handwritten, to do the same thing. I loved it while I was doing it, though the quality of writing is not to be really lauded. It is mostly a mechanism to clear your crap out. the only downside was that life eventually got so busy I was unable to find time to sit down and hand write 3 pages. There was also the chance that the person I was venting about might locate it and get ticked (as there was a history of that). The habit died away until I really only thought about it in passing. But I'd always enjoyed doing it.
Now with the introduction to the website, I'm able to sit down and bang out 750 words via typing, which is honestly easier. I can then write as fast as I think, clear that out, and have a decent rest of my day. After trying it this morning I discovered I was faaar better off and happy with life. While there were multiple things (see entries below re: donations, going to the bookstore, etc...) that contributed to it, it can't hurt that I started out with that.
The main thought behind the morning pages is that when your mind is clear of its crap, you can take the rest of that energy and dump it in to other things. Your creativity is free to utilize what it needs in order to grow, and things go from there. I'm not sure I remember how well it worked the first time, but as a solid psychological trick it can't be beat. I know it gave me a boost to drop all that junk on to a page and walk away to focus on the day. I'll definitely be back.
I've signed up for the One Month Challenge starting in April to see if I can write my pages every single day. If I manage it, I'll get myself a nook saving me from future traipsing up and down very old stairs with many, many boxes of donate-able books! I figure dedication should be rewarded, and by then I'll have gotten so much done with the freed up energy and mind space that I'll have time to sit down and read.
An interesting side-fact - I found this site via Lifehacker, which apparently was what a lot of other people did as well. It was damned nigh impossible to get to it yesterday, with constant time-outs. It finally loaded this morning. I was halfway through an entry when the website started doing odd things and stopped responding. After that I kept getting Error 403: Forbidden. Being that this is a server issue and I didn't' have access to client-side, I was stuck that way (or so I thought). It turns out that there was such a pull on the server's resources that the website admin pulled the plug on people trying to sign in and had to get a bigger server to handle the rush for it. I slid in just under the wire and get to keep writing until the new server shows up. For this I am grateful, and adore my usual sense of good timing!
I'm sure few people care about it besides me, but I was amused and interested. It may fall away in a month or two, but thus far I'm excited to have found it.
Tomorrow we will be getting our photos back from the trip to Seattle! Fingers crossed they're in okay condition, though most likely not. The film was 5 years old. I only found it when I went ballistic cleaning out the yoga room, otherwise it might've sat in the box for another 5 and been totally useless. I hope we've got some good images to share, I've always wished we had memories to look at together.
And now....to bed. Had an early morning, I'm not staying up until 2 am like usual. Tomorrow has excitement to share!
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