Madhu Bazaz Wangu

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For the last several months I've been traveling between Pittsburgh and Boca Raton to help nurse my dad as he battles the challenging complications of a chronic illness. Although lately I haven't been able to devote as much time to my writing as I would like, every day I try to practice what I've learned in Mindful Writers Group with whom I practice the Writing Method Meditation. Never before has the Method, which includes Journaling and Meditation, been more important to me. Journaling allows me to create quick emotional sketches that provide insight into what I am feeling. Meditation sharpens my focus, while also centering and calming me. Together the two practices help me understand and accept the next steps in this difficult journey. Being mindfully present with my...

Chrysalis Becomes A Butterfly

Posted on May 30, 2013

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For the last several months, we have missed Meredith Mileti at our Wednesday Group meetings. She was unable to come because of her frequent commute from Pittsburgh to Florida to help nurse her dad: one week sitting beside her father in Boca Raton, next week standing by in her Pittsburgh home ready to get on a plane. Sadly, her dad, Robert Mileti passed away peacefully on May 29, 2013. He was 81 years old. Meredith was by his side just as she had been throughout this journey, difficult for both of them. Even at this trying time, Meredith kept her promise of writing a post for our website. (See "Go Dad Go" on Writing & Meditation page) Death of a parent is a time of deep sorrow. No matter how...

Benefits of Daily Journaling

Posted on May 20, 2013

Journaling is an integral part of the Writing Meditation Method that I practice daily. I prefer to write longhand for twenty to thirty minutes. When I write this way I feel a sense of self-exploration. Like digging deep within and excavating precious relics from underneath the surface. Sometimes I dig my outer life, sometimes my inner, and some other times both. I am my own research laboratory in search for not only my future writings but also my true Self. Journaling helps me delve deep and excavate my self. I explore and in the process discover things that I did not know before. Thus each time I get to know myself a little better. My thinking clarifies. My attitude changes a notch. Unself-conscious writing is a way of self-exploration. Once...

FINDING THE PORTAL by MaryAlice Meli

Posted on May 3, 2013

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Before I met Madhu B. Wangu, meditation was a dim memory from the late sixties and came with headbands, patchouli oil, aummmmmm and the kind of fragrant smoke that makes one crave cheese doodles. I've practiced a kind of meditation all my life; I just didn't know that's what it was. I thought I was praying or concentrating or daydreaming. What I didn't understand was how to intentionally meditate. "But what am I supposed to think about?" I questioned Madhu, a patient, clear and creative teacher. To meditate, she simplified it for me, is to breathe. Just breathe and don't think? Too simple, surely; but not too easy. Now I follow Madhu's quiet instructions and, after several minutes of clearing my consciousness of tasks, problems or other thoughts, I am always astonished...

Writing Meditation Helps Surface Incubating Ideas

Posted on May 3, 2013

Writing Meditation Method (WMM), the combined practice of meditation, journaling and writing, as I have said in several of my previous posts, helps mindful writers in two significant ways. One, it removes the debris of doubt, fear and anxiety that presses upon us without us even realizing it. Two, it helps surface new ideas that have been incubating in our minds. Daily practice of inhaling and exhaling with awareness clarifies mind and opens heart. Breathing with attention maximizes concentration and creates a treasured space within where writers go mentally to write at their designated place and appointed time. Meditation helps ideas float to the surface. From the time an idea strikes a writer to the time it is expressed in words, it slowly develops without any perceptible signs. The incubation time between...

Discovering Writer’s Voice

Posted on April 5, 2013

The daily practice of Writing Meditation helps writers penetrate beyond the restless thoughts and foggy intelligence and unlocks the door to a realm where body, heart and mind are integrated as a whole. With one-pointed concentration, the writers access the place of insights, ideas and wisdom that is beyond the reach of the senses and the intellect. The integrated self works from the deepest level where the writers are unmasked and ungarbed and authentic. This is where their original voice is rooted. Writing flow is static, stuck in an eddy until they become an integrated whole. The practice of Writing Meditation Method integrates their scattered self. Whatever the subject matter, the mindful writers drive deep into the consciousness and become one with it. This results in acquiring an original writing voice. Instead...

LIFE TRANSFORMED by Kathleen Shoop

Posted on March 11, 2013

All my life, exercise has provided me the opportunity to do more than raise my heart rate. For example, repetitive physical acts like swimming and walking have allowed my mind to unwind, solve problems and reduce stress. As I developed my writing career I found that through exercise I was able to provide the perfect runway for my writing to take off and unwrap plot and character problems. In those early days, I found I could belt out thousands of words in just a few hours after exercising. The cycle of exercise and writing fed itself, creating excitement for me as well as concrete progress in the quality writing. As critique became part of my writing, exercise became even more important as the critique partners raised problems in my stories...

Writer’s Dogged Determination

Posted on March 11, 2013

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Talent and passion for writing by themselves do not make a successful writer. Dogged determination combined with these qualities does. "To write a minimum of thousand words every day" is one of the mottos of the Mindful Writers. Whereas talent and passion come naturally, determination is to be cultivated. This is hard to do. Most writers find starting a piece quite challenging. The good news is a Method that the Mindful Writers follow. The Method is to practice Writing Meditation that cultivates and strengthens determination to write everyday. The Method begins with fifteen minutes of unselfconscious, playful, imaginative and unrestricted writing. This free writing or spiritual journaling is followed by fifteen minutes of meditation. During these thirty minutes the writer's fragmented body, mind and heart get integrated into the whole healthy...

MINDFUL OF MY TRUTH by Julie Long

Posted on February 22, 2013

I'm on the edge of something - an idea, a truth. Trying to write about it feels like drawing an object when I can't yet picture it in my head but I feel it. Putting it in writing will give it permanence I'm not sure I'm ready for. This is so often the case with me: I want to see the entire picture before I begin. In reality my truth changes daily. How silly I have not recognized this before. In January I turn inward and stay quiet. I am giddy with pleasure at having the freedom to do so when the rest of the world is kicking off a new year with gusto. Being home alone with no interaction is bliss. I do what feels right: meditation, yoga, and walking, reading,...

The Art of Mindful Writing; The Business of Publishing

Posted on February 22, 2013