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Mindfulness and Creative Writing

Writing, paired with mindfulness practice, can bring us back to ourselves and connect us to others, even during the most challenging of times. During this 5-week course, we will learn about and try on contemplative practices paired with creative explorations of past roles, present moment sensory experience, future hopes and commitments, and fictional possibilities. Each 90-minute session will pair mindfulness practice with step-by-step creative writing activities designed to make invention easy and available even for those with no previous writing experience, while those with an existing habit gain new techniques for dropping into creative flow. Between live sessions, students can post their writing to Canvas for peer support and participate in discussions about mindfulness in everyday life. The course will include guided seated meditations (mindfulness and lovingkindness), accessible mindful movement, “scratching” (a term choreographer Twyla Tharp coined to describe preparation for creative insight), the chance to try memoir, poetry and/or fiction, collaborative writing and reflective writing on core values. Each week the activities serve a single theme, such as gratitude, joy, hope, compassion, and self-compassion. At each session, there will be an opportunity to choose an intention, to celebrate our common humanity by sharing writing and/or practicing mindful listening, and to reflect privately on the impact of our participation. The course goals include helping participants build resilience, creating a bridge between mindfulness and creativity, and fostering a community devoted to authenticity, kindness, and serious play.

Contact me for future course dates and locations.