Mindful Writing

Mindful Writing

• Habitual

Mindful writing refers to using writing to explore one's experiences. According to Gerszberg (2022), mindful writing allows writers to reflect on their experiences and build resiliency. Although people may feel sad immediately after writing about a painful experience, the writing may ultimately allow them to stop dwelling on it. Another important part of mindful writing is that it allows writers to organize their experiences into coherent narratives and invites them to recognize and disrupt desctructive habits of thinking (Gersberg, 2022).This practice is supported by many researchers, notably Pennebaker (2007).

In the 7-12 setting, mindful writing may be used to help students reflect on their experiences and gain resilience. Based on Gerszberg's (2022) descriptions, here are some practices that may help you promote mindful writng:

• If possible, partner with a school psychologist

  • Since mindful writing may become more emotionally involved than fiction writing, it may be useful to see if your school (or community) psychologist will be willing to help you run the meetings or at least consult with you. This may be important for any group, but especially a group like this as these topics relate more directly to members' mental health.

• Include prompts and mentor texts to promote self-reflection

  • While other prompt-based writing allows students to write fiction, these prompts focus on students' own lives and experiences. Mindful journalling prompts are easily found online. Here's an easy place to start from Happier Human (Kristenson, 2021).

  • For 7-12 educators, it may also be useful to use Ohio's Social and Emotional Learning Standards to generate prompt ideas. For example, standard B3. 2.d states "Reframe a current challenge or setback, by reflecting on successes" (Ohio Department of Education, 2019, p. 14).

• Build a culture around mindful writing.

  • Members may react more positively to mindful writing if they entered the club expecting it. Since it can be a more personal experience, it will be especially neccesary to build a supportive environment. Remember, the goal is not the quality of the writing but rather using writing as a tool for self-awareness. It may be more appropriate to celebrate progress and insights than to encoruage all students to read directly from their writing.

• Create a calming space

  • Relaxing music and lighting can help members focus on their writing. A predictable routine can also help members feel safe and welcomed.

Further Reading

If you'd like to take on mindful writing, I strongly recommend exploring these resources:

Gerszberg, C. O. (2022, November 10). Getting started with mindful writing. Mindful. 

https://www.mindful.org/getting-started-with-mindful-writing/.

Pennebaker, J. & Chung, C. K. (2007). Expressive writing, emotional upheavals, and health. In 

H. S. Friedman & R. C. Silver (Eds.) (in press), Foundations of Health Psychology. New York: Oxford University Press. [Available through ResearchGate].