Writing first thing in the morning is critical when using writing as part of your therapy. The object is to get past your conscious editor – your ego – so you can replace bad habits, challenge twisted beliefs and eradicate destructive behavior. Influencing your subconscious requires diligence, repetition, stealth and trickery. If your conscious mind realizes that you’re trying to change things it will surely defend itself by a barrage of justifying thoughts. The act of writing down your aspirations first thing in the morning sets the tone for the day. By the use of constant repetition, these writings will become part of you and make you into what you need to be.
The act of morning writing will also generate memories and feelings. You need to capture these raw but so original thoughts on paper as they well up from your core. This is how and where change takes place. It’s slow and methodical but it works. Your subconscious will make sense of the conflicting thoughts, will propose new and creative ways to act and will eventually find a way to gain the cooperation of your conscious mind. As your mind issues new marching orders, then you will start to act differently. You will also discover that you can’t write one thing every morning and do something else the rest of the day . . . for very long. When you change and you will, you will know exactly why.
Time management guru and author Laura Vanderkam , wrote an article titled What successful people do in the morning that went viral on the Internet and was picked by Yahoo!’s editors as their favorite article of 2012. In the article she says “If you wait until the end of the day to do meaningful but not urgent things like exercise, pray, read, ponder how to advance your career or grow your organization, or truly give your family your best, it probably won’t happen. If it has to happen, then it has to happen first.”
If you have any doubts about the wisdom of using your mornings wisely, I strongly suggest you read her entire article and her book on the science of willpower, What the Most Successful People Do Before Breakfast.