Tagged Entries: Mindfulness
The writing process can be stressful, and it is easy to feel anxious about writing, struggle to start writing, or lose focus while writing. Use these resources to implement mindfulness strategies such as meditative pauses, progress tracking, and reflective journaling into your writing routine.
Materials designed by G. Travis Adams, Christopher Basgier, Katharine Brown, Michael Cook, Gina Lamka, and Annie Small
This brief handout describes writer’s block and explains its causes
This brief worksheet explains solutions to writer’s block and a short reflective writing prompts to help you begin overcoming your own writer’s block
This is a handout useful for instructors as they help students navigate writer's block
This longer worksheet explains some of the causes of writer’s block and writing anxiety, and it offers reflective prompts you can use to manage writing challenges
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Using Reflection to Manage Writer’s Block and Writing Anxiety Word Document
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Using Reflection to Manage Writer’s Block and Writing Anxiety PDF
This handout describes the meditative pause, or brief moments in which you deliberately stop writing and check in with your body, your breath, and your mind, before returning to write
The following meditation script, “Focus into Breathing,” can be used before you write as a way of slowing down a busy mind and focusing attention
This activity helps you recognize your patterns of thought about writing and replace self-defeating thoughts with empowering ones to reduce the occurrence of writer’s block and writing anxiety
This activity combines Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT) and contemplative and embodied pedagogies to help writers externalize and silence an overly harsh inner critic
This brief writing prompt helps writers plan how to use their time productively in a writing session
This worksheet guides you in using expressive writing for self-discovery. You will learn about different types of expressive writing, such as answering prompts or making gratitude lists, and can complete several reflective prompts.
This worksheet provides two brief writing prompts to use as a warm-up as well as to recognize and celebrate moments of growth in writing skills
This writing warm-up encourages writers to affirm their readiness for writing through identifying the strengths they bring to the project
This writing warm-up invites writers to reflect on a semester's worth of writing and recognize moments of growth
This handout discusses the emotional response writers may experience when their writing receives difficult feedback or is rejected for publication. It frames writers' emotions as having an evolutionary purpose and encourages writers to see feedback as a learning opportunity
The narratives below were written by Auburn University faculty who participated in the Writing and Wellbeing Fellowship. This Fellowship supports faculty as they cultivate fulfilling writing and teaching practices through mindfulness. At the end, they complete a reflective and visionary narrative of their writing and teaching lives through the lens of wellbeing, mindfulness, interconnection, and joy. Taken together, these narratives illustrate the many paths faculty take towards thriving and the questions they raise along the way
As you read, consider the following questions:
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What does thriving as a writer and teacher mean to you?
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Where do you experience joy in writing and teaching?
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How do these narratives help you to understand the relationships among writing, mindfulness, and wellbeing?
Materials designed by Elvan Ceyhan, Elijah Gaddis, Luca Guazzotto, Ben Hinnant, Kelly Kennington, Jessica Klabnik, Russell Mailen, Eden McLean, Yuhyun Park, Ash Parsons, Matthew Spencer, Brandi Watkins, Courtney Watts Alexander, Peter White, and Laura Willis
Elvan Ceyhan (Statistics) connects the statistical concept of uncertainty to uncertainty in research and considers how the Writing and Wellbeing Fellowship has reinforced his sense that uncertainty is a normal part of writing, not a sign of inadequacy or failure
Elijah Gaddis (History) contemplates how forming a writing community helps him integrate his writing, teaching, and research in support of his wellbeing
Luca Guazzotto (Physics) reflects on how his values of integrity, understanding, and empathy shape his evolving approaches to wellbeing while teaching and writing
Ben Hinnant (Human Development and Family Science) considers the ways in which mindfulness encourages practitioners to act intentionally, and he relates his own practice of mindfulness to compassionate responsibility to students
Kelly Kennington (History) considers how to prioritize writing in her day to reduce distraction and leave space for mindful reflection at the beginning and end of writing sessions
Jessica Klabnik (Theriogeniology) thinks through how enjoyment of the process of writing can benefit science writers who may have been trained to see writing as a product, rather than as learning
Russel Mailen (Aerospace Engineering) thrives when he gives grace to himself and others, a practice that allows him to experience interconnection and to enter a joyful “flow” state as a writer
Community plays a central role in Eden McLean’s (History) experience of wellbeing as a writer and teacher, and mindfulness helps her to remove obstacles to fulfillment
For Yuhyuh Park (Special Education, Rehabilitation, and Counseling), wellbeing isn't just personal, but interdependent. His own wellbeing allows him to advocate for others via his writing and ultimately to seek their liberation
Ash Parsons (English) considers how practicing stillness rather than pressuring productivity enhances her wellbeing throughout the writing process
Matthew Spencer (English) contemplates how slowing down, lingering, and sustaining hope can help writers find more beauty and meaning in the world
Brandi Watkins (Public Relations) shares her still-evolving shift from productivity-driven perfectionist to deliberately slower, more joyful writer, teacher, and scholar
For Courtney Watts Alexander (Pharmacy), noticing is a core wellbeing practice: by noticing moments of unproductive judgment, she can value “bite-sized” pieces of “incomplete” writing, rather than value only polished, professional achievements
Peter White (Political Science) shares his shift from “binge writing” to a more mindful writing pace, and he speculates that a similar shift might prevent students from misusing generative AI
Laura Willis (Speech Language and Hearing Sciences) describes her sense that writing, teaching, and wellbeing should be deeply connected to one another, and that intentionality can keep wellbeing front of mind
