A Different Sort of Meditation for Authors

It’s unlikely that you haven’t heard of the benefits of meditation. There are gurus and coaches of all sorts touting its benefits: it calms, it promotes focus, it clears your mind for creativity, etc, etc. That is all true, but just how do you meditate — especially when you’ve got a very active writer’s mind?

One way is to forget all this nonsense about clearing your mind, and, I’m sorry, this ridiculous notion that you should think of nothing but your breath. Honestly, who but the most experienced yogis who do nothing but sit on a hilltop can completely clear their mind and just go blank? Certainly not a writer with stories, characters, their family, perhaps their other job, that garden that needs weeding,and the cute new clerk at the supermarket (who are they and might they…. oh, right, breath). I mean, honestly!

No. I am proposing a very different sort of meditation (and I’m not the only one, nor did I come up with it).

Think. Allow your mind to go where it will. Flit from subject to subject and don’t even try and stop yourself. Let it go and enjoy the chaos of your thoughts. The hardest thing will be to NOT write it down or make a list of things to do. Don’t worry, your brilliant idea will come back to you.

An alternative, if everything within you rebels from not writing, is to write…