The Intersection of Writing and Mindfulness

lizshine74by lizshine74

In Be here now..

Woman Sitting On Rock

I am a bit irritated at how the word ‘mindfulness’ is being co-opted to sell us more shit we don’t need (and keep us on our phones because they added mindfulness apps to them). Resist that particular take on mindfulness, if you can.

*clears throat*

I had to get that out of the way before beginning a blog post about the intersection of writing and mindfulness. Last weekend, hubs and I went on a weekend silent mindfulness meditation retreat in Bow, WA. though difficult at times, it did not prove as difficult as I thought it might be—especially since we were also asked not to read or write. Forty-odd hours hanging, with just me and my thoughts. I spent most of my break time walking, marveling at mushrooms and tree cones and bright red apples on gnarly trees and the way the light reflects at different times of the day.

We returned Sunday eve to prepare for a new week. For me, this includes preparing for my writing week. Monday morning, I woke to my 4 AM alarm. Without any resistance I honored my commitments: no phone until the writing is done; do not check email—don’t even look at it; If email is open, close it out immediately; make a list of what to work on each day of the coming week; finally, start at Monday and get down to work.

This realignment with my commitments persisted even to this Friday morning. As a result, I finished editing a chapter of my novel. I spent a few hours going through my poetry archives, to make decisions about which poems to keep working on (and submit) and which to archive as practice.  All that in four mornings of writing, between the hours of 4:30 and 6:30.

This is a topic I come back to often here, because there is magic to be found when you pair writing and mindfulness practice. When you are in the flow in writing, that is mindfulness. Consider that every other time you are practicing any kind of mindfulness: walking, cooking dinner, practicing yoga, meditating. You are doing calisthenics for when you sit down in your writing chair and walk into the water from the shore.

For those of you who aren’t sure what I mean by mindfulness (honestly, the word is getting watered down by consumer culture so that sometimes I forget if I even know anymore), one definition that I think sums it up pretty well is from Jon Kabat Zinn: awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgmentally.

When are the times in your day when you are practicing that? I’d love to hear your ideas in the comments.

I hope whatever it is you are up to this weekend, you are making time to create just for the sake of making , that you are finding moments where you let all your to-dos go and allow yourself to be in the flow of whatever it is you are creating.

I also work as a writing coach and love helping writers gain confidence, set goals, and develop their work. For more information on coaching, email me at eatyourwords.lizshine.com.

lizshine74

lizshine74

Liz Shine teaches high school English, writes, edits, and coaches other writers from her home in Olympia, WA. When she begins to feel overwhelmed by it all, she simply looks up at Mount Rainier in the distance and gets back to work. If that fails, she heads to the ocean. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press. Her Substack Make Time is her gift to writers, like her, trying to magic time in this crazy, busy world. All of those posts are cross-posted on the blog here. You can see more of her writing at lizshine.com and find her on Instagram {@lizshine.writer} cooking, traveling, and in other ways seeking moments of awe. She has been an active participant in communities of writers since the early 1990s. She’s learned that two things feel truly purpose-driven in life: writing and coaching other writers. In the in between (because one cannot be driving for a purpose every moment), she enjoys looking for wonder and connection. She is a lifelong yoga student, an enthusiastic walker along streets and trails, and an amateur gardener and vegetarian cook. She lives in Olympia, WA in the USA. She believes in the power of practice and has been practicing writing since some time in the early 90s when she became an adult in the rain-soaked city of Aberdeen. Writing began with journaling, as a way to understand a confusing, sometimes violent coming-of-age. She writes mostly fiction, some nonfiction, and poetry, and holds an MFA from Pacific Lutheran University’s Rainier Writers Workshop. She has published in Shark Reef, Dual Coast, and Blue Crow Magazine. She is a founding editor at Red Dress Press.