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. 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 Mindfulness Awareness Practices (MAPs) classes (UCLA students register for free)
- UCLA Daylong Retreats (UCLA students register for free)
- Explore other Resources from the UCLA Mindfulness Awareness Research Center
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)
Sources on Contemplative Writing Pedagogy, Mindfulness in Higher Education
- Special Issue: Contemplative Writing Across the Disciplines
- Contemplative Practices and Academic Writing from the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society
- Contemplative Education Bibliography from the Center for Contemplative Mind in Society
- Vanderbilt University's Center for Teaching - Mindfulness in the College Classroom
- Syllabi for Contemplative Practices in Higher Education, Center for Contemplative Mind in Society(requires membership in the Association for Contemplative Mind in Higher Education to download syllabi)
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.