Re-connect your Writing with your Body: Mindfulness Practices for Writers

In this talk, I'll discuss the transformative power of bringing together meditation and writing. This combination changed my life as a writer - and it can change yours, too!

For a long time, despite having a PhD in English from an Ivy League university and my work widely published in outlets including The New Yorker, I struggled as a writer.

I had a hard time really settling into my writing. I’d notice my mind would turn in circles. I often felt unable to access my authentic voice.

Soon I realized that to access my full voice and story, I needed to tap into not only the head, but also my body, heart, and spirit. I became a serious student of Buddhist teacher Thich Nhat Hanh, a vipassana meditation practitioner, and certified yoga teacher.

It was only when I began to put together the head and the heart, my training as a writer and my training as a meditator that I was able to come into my authentic voice and an aligned writing practice. 

When I meditated before I wrote, I was amazed at how much more quickly I could settle into my writing and my voice with this new method. My writing was more clear, more direct, more focused, more profound, more creative, more surprising, more insightful.

I knew I had a method that didn’t just work sometimes, it worked whenever I needed a boost…and I didn’t need tons of time to do it!

Then I started introducing my students to this method. Students who had struggled all week to write would sit there and in fifteen minutes have a beautifully constructed full piece of writing. Often the pieces that they wrote in these short writing sessions needed less revision than pieces that they had worked on all for weeks. 

I started to record myself and share the process more widely. I started the Align Your Story School, where I now offer courses that bring together creative writing and mindful, embodied practices. I'm looking forward to sharing this exciting work with you!