Thoughttree: Mindfulness – Practising Conscious Writing
Set a clear intention before starting, even if it’s simply to write for five minutes without interruption.
• Hands in your lap, take a few deep, steadying breaths.
• Consider what to write about ‑ choose an idea that feels ‘good enough for now’ if you’re struggling.
• Set a timer. Use free writing to get to something that eventually clicks. Dive in and move forward. You can go back and identify the main message of the piece when your time is up. Summarise it — what idea has emerged?
‘Guided meditation creates a conscious writing sanctuary where we can draw upon the rich treasure of the unconscious mind….The process of writing is itself beneficial- not what we write but who we become when we do it.’ (Julia McCutchen)
What to do:
• Pull yourself back to the present when you’re over-thinking.
• Use heart, not mind, when writing.
• Mindfulness gives courage to your inner voice.
• Aim for honesty, not perfection.
• Don’t just think about doing something: do it! Use that time.
• Notice the excuses you make that limit you ‐ and let them go.
• Be fully present when writing -‐no drifting.
• Be inspired by your hopes and dreams rather than your (or others‘) expectations of yourself.
What to avoid:
• Analysis paralysis ‐- creative v. analytical mind
• don’t get stuck on opening sentence: deep breath to calm mind and push through. (We need analysis] editing to remove superfluous stuff of course – but overdoing it can ruin ‘feel’ of piece).
• ‘lf only..’ excuses ‐ (more time/ better computer/ suitable writing spaceetc.) Don’t let a mentally imposed limitation block you. You can write anywhere.
• Need for perfection-‐ compulsion to edit. We‘ve been taught through our heads, rather than our hearts, where inspiration comes from. Give yourself permission to write freely. ‘Write your first draft with your heart. Re-write with your head.’
• Not being good enough –if you feel, or have been told this, try calm deep breathing/meditation and take yourself out of the equation, so your cleared mind does less ‘editing‘. Let the writing create itself.
Motivation ‐- putting energy into planning what you plan to do! Use mindfulness to catch yourself and turn rumination into action ‐ right now!
Distractions‐ the value you put on your writing shapes your attitude, commitment and behaviour. Would you value it more if you were paid for it? Being mindfulof this, set aside time every day and treat it as ’sacred space‘. As you become more present and immersed, you‘ll find yourself setting
more appropriate boundaries to filter against external (and internal) distractions. Like anything worthwhile, give yourself fully to your writing. Don’t overthink and dwell on the best ways ‐just let go and write!
The science bit!…Neuroscience has shown, through brain-mapping, how meditation affects brain activity, shifting activity from the stress-prone right frontal cortex to the calmer left frontal cortex. Regular meditation and the practise of mindfulness shows increased activity in brain areas
associated with creativity and spirituality.
The brain operates on three levels:
1. surface (intellectual/ ego)
2. deep (emotional/ intuitive)
3. beyond (imaginative/ inspirational)
Meditation and mindfulness benefit all three areas, but particularly help to access the brain‘s deeper dimensions. Furthermore, we learn to value – and enjoy – the process as much as the
product, focussing on the ‘m o m e n t’ rather than the ‘endgame‘.
The handout ends here and the workshop time starts below this sentence.
Following the instructions that were given out we spent 10 minutes doing a free writing exercise.
The child with in him sobbed and cried. The loss was enormous and incalculable. After a brief tremulous period the whole world became very still. His mind was now empty, no pictures, slides or videos. Breathing in deeply there was a distant smell. Roses in the garden, lavender on the heath. And in his mind another place emerged, the sun shone, the breeze was cool and welcome, and in the distance he heard the sound of waves hitting the shore. After a few minutes the scene in his mind became a swirling pink cloud!
Debbie placed some objects on the table we were asked to think about each one of them and to hold them if necessary and then write about one of the objects that you felt “connected to” in a mindfulness way.
The objects that was a coaster that had nine greyhound heads pictured hands upon it.
1. I can feel him leaning against my left leg.
2. I can feel and hear is excited shorts smashing against the skin of my face.
3. I can feel his front paws on my left and right shoulders.
Remembered feelings of long ago or ‘so real’ they are ‘now’ failings who is to tell?
Debbie asked us to look at all the objects in the room and write three feelings or sensations that you felt.
1. The green mug that my Hot Chocolate’ was in was of a very solid kind, and reminded me how much I loathed squishy, flimsy containers like the water cups.
2. My feet on the floor felt strangely warm although my lover leg and ankles felt cold.
3. My shirt felt comfortably loose although I knew that at the slimming world meeting I had actually gained 4 1/2 pounds. This was a very odd feeling.
Debbie asked us to write a brief note about two noises that we had ‘become’ aware of.
1. The sound of the traffic going past the window.
2. There were the scratchy sounds of pen tips on paper. This had not bothered me before but once it registered it really grated on my nerves.
Debbie asked us to write about one smell and one taste that had registered with us.
I could still smell the hot chocolate that I had now drunk. its smell and it’s flavour seem both to have lingered.
We then had a brief discussion about meditation. The following notes are not a verbatim report, they are just thoughts that occurred to me whilst the discussion was taking place.
Meditation is A doorway between the inner world of the mind and the outer physical world.
Take courage and look carefully at what your inner mind is trying to tell you. We are not conscious of 90 percent of what our brains are doing and sometimes there is an internal chatter between the conscious and the unconscious parts of our brain as it endeavours to make sense of something we find odd or puzzling.
We like to think that we are in total control of ourselves, but that ‘unconscious YOU’ is a very powerful part of you that needs to make YOU listen to what it is saying now and then. Not listening to him can cause deep anxiety, panic attacks and other problems.
Sometimes your unspoken thoughts are very painful / powerful and you should take note of these ‘seemingly random thoughts’ as they will add authenticity and personality to everything you write.
People tend to write about their own personal experiences. You should not worry too much what other people think and feel. You should trust your inner self about what you think and feel about events that you have written about. This is a very clumsy sentence but I hope that you get my meaning.
When you start writing anything is a plan and a task to do. When you are planning you need to be creative and concentrate on thoughts that are new to you. You also need to confront and deal with difficult feelings and emotions that will occur to you.
There is nothing new under the Sun, everything is just a development of a previous thought or idea that someone else has had. You should not copy anyone else’s work BUT use their work as a ‘springboard’ for your own ideas and additions.
Originality does not exist!!
People tend to think in I compartmentalised why. Everything has a box in which they put things but everything is interconnected to everything else. If you do not believe this then think about when you were at school and history and geography were taught as separate subjects BUT now you are older and wiser you will see that one is very dependent upon the other.
Try to do some lateral thinking. Not everything is as you were shown or taught earlier. Schools have to present the subjects in a very structured way so that young minds will not get confused about the technicalities of what they are being told.
Trying to achieve the following
Joined up writing
Joined feelings
Joint actions
Self discovery is a great! it will try to answer a few basic questions about yourself such as…
• who are you?
• what are you?
• why are you here?
• will you get somewhere else?
• & Why will you want to go there?
Your writing is your output. Your input is…
1. what you read
2. where you travel to
3. who you communicate with
4. What you seek out
5. The questions you ask
As a parting thought, remember the following;
1. Read A lot
2. Listen carefully
3. Write often
4. Never overthink any ideas that occur to you.
5. Write
6. Reflect
7. Edit.
Let your writing fly forth from your pen and worry later about what the final version will be.
