Mindfulness and Writing
Writing in graduate school can be a very stressful experience, especially when writing high stakes documents like dissertations or articles for publication, but any writing can be challenging. Graduate school in general can be stressful and challenging for a variety of reasons. If a UCLA graduate student is experiencing very high levels of stress or other challenges to mental health and well-being, we recommend using the UCLA Be Well Bruin Website as a more comprehensive guide to wellness at UCLA.
On this web page, we draw attention to the ways mindfulness can be a tool for reducing stress, improving focus, and cultivating well-being. Mindfulness can serve as a support for graduate students during their graduate school experience, for example by reducing stress around writing. There are many mindfulness resources at UCLA, many of which are offered through the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center (MARC). Many offerings are free of charge for UCLA students because of the UCLA Healthy Campus Initiative.
Below we have pulled together resources that relate to mindfulness practice in general or mindfulness and writing or higher education more specifically.
Introduction to Mindfulness and Meditation
- Getting Started with Mindfulness Meditation (from UCLA MARC)
- 90-Minute Overview of Mindfulness (UCLA MARC)
- Introductory Guided Meditations (UCLA MARC)
- Instructions on How to Meditate
- Free 40-Day Introductory Course to Mindfulness (daily meditations that are 10-15 minutes in length, requires creating an account but is free of charge)
Free Resources for UCLA Students from the UCLA MARC
- Free Drop-in Meditations
- UCLA Mindful classes and events
- Explore other resources from the UCLA Mindful
Mindfulness and Well-Being Tools
- Headspace: Meditation app to help reduce stress and improve focus. Free basic version; paid subscription service. (https://www.headspace.com/)
- Calm: Meditation and mindfulness app designed to help improve sleep habits and reduce stress. $60/year after 30-day trial. (https://www.calm.com/)
- Welli: Mental wellness app for iOS with journaling, venting, and other features to encourage daily check-ins with yourself. Free. Get on iTunes. (https://apps.apple.com/us/app/welli/id1035419792)
Introductory Books on Mindfulness
- Fully Present: The Science, Art, and Practice of Mindfulness by Susan L. Smalley and Diana Winston (link to Amazon)
- Mindfulness in Plain English by Ven. Henepola Gunaratana (online book)
Resources on Mindfulness and Writing
- A Mindful Free-Writing Exercise (web resource)
- How to Use Mindfulness to Write More with Less Effort (web resource)
- Writing Down the Bones: Freeing the Writer Within by Natalie Goldberg (link to Amazon)
- Prolific Moment: Theory and Practice of Mindfulness for Writing by Alexandria Peary (link to Amazon)
- Prolific Moment blog and TEDx talk by Alexandria Peary
- Mindful Writing Series with Alexandria Peary (from NCTE, three pilot session recordings are publicly available)
- Yoga Minds, Writing Bodies by Christy I. Wenger (open access book from WAC Clearinghouse)
Resources on Self-Compassion, Working with the Inner Critic
- Meditations and Exercises on Self-Compassion by Kristin Neff
- Meditation to Tame Inner Critic (web resource)
- "Free Yourself from Reader Ghosts for Deeper, More Mindful Writing" by Alexandria Peary
Sources on Contemplative Writing Pedagogy, Mindfulness in Higher Education
- Special Issue: Contemplative Writing Across the Disciplines
- Vanderbilt University's Center for Teaching - Mindfulness in the College Classroom
- Higher Education Teaching and Learning Resources on contemplative education
More Resources for Practice
Here are a couple guided meditations by Allyson Pimentel that were recorded with graduate students in mind. Each is about 10 minutes in length.
