I joined the Mindful Writers group
completely by accident. My friend (who
shall remain nameless and blameless) told me she’d signed up, and let me know
there were only a few slots left. Edged
on by the possibility of seeing my friend every week, as well as by the thought
of breakfast (the meetings are held at Eat ‘n Park), I thought, “Why not? It might be fun.” It ended up being so much more than fun.
I had no idea what to expect, and
was shocked by how long the meetings lasted.
They were held every single week from 9:30-2:30. Five solid hours. I wondered what on Earth we could be doing
for five long excruciating hours at Eat ‘n Park. That basically covered breakfast, lunch, and
nearly hit dinner. I thought it
was odd, but decided to try it anyway.
Our instructor is a fellow
Pennwriter name Madhu Wangu, and I liked her as soon as I met her. When I first heard her name, I thought she
was a Jedi, but my children soon corrected me.
Mace Windu is the Jedi. Madhu
Wangu is an author and a professor with a doctorate from the University of
Pittsburgh and a post-doctoral Fellowship from Harvard. She could be a Jedi. She's actually cooler than Mace Windu.
We started the meeting with a
prompt. I worked away diligently, hoping that this wasn’t the sort of thing I would eventually have to share with the strangers sitting around me at the
table. The group assembled was a real
mix. There were some familiar faces from
Pennwriters, but there were some people I’d never seen before. There were a few men, but it was mostly a
girls' club. I tried to relax and just
write.
After a few minutes, Madhu told us that it was time for a guided meditation. We listening to a recording of Madhu’s
soothing, soft voice as she led us through breathing and relaxation exercises. I’d done meditation and yoga before, so I was
very comfortable with it, but I liked that this particular method was geared towards
writers.
When we the meditation was over, we
opened our eyes, and Madhu told us to go back to the prompt we’d been given
previously and try to write on that again.
What happened was sort of miraculous.
What had been a series of random, meandering thoughts, now was something
completely and utterly different. I
wrote sentences, more like bullet points, that were clear and precise and
organized. It was like my mind had been
decluttered. Everything was suddenly so
easy.
As soon as the prompt writing was over, Madhu announced that we could begin to free write for the next four hours. My friend, the one who’d told me about the
group, had a look of absolute panic in her eyes. “Four hours,” she whispered. “I don’t know what to write. What am I going to write?”
I had to work on an edit, and
wondered if that would be appropriate in Mindful Writers. I decided there was no right or wrong. It was what I needed to do, so I did it, and
the experience was amazing. I wrote for
those four hours. Madhu almost had to
kick me out of Eat ‘n Park. I was able
to do exactly what I’d hoped to do, and it had actually been quite easy and
enjoyable.
The fun didn’t stop there. After Mindful Writers, I had to go to my
son’s soccer game. Then I made a huge
dinner for my family. After dinner, I decided it would be a good time to
cut the grass. I thought I’d be
exhausted after writing all day, but I was actually energized.
This might now work for everyone,
but I’m really happy about how it’s turned out for me. I’m still a newbie. I’ve only gone three times, but I look
forward to each meeting and I don’t want to miss. I think there are several reasons this works
so well. First of all, the meditation really
does clear my mind and help me to focus.
Secondly, there is a positive energy that is produced when you’re
sitting in a room full of people working towards a creative goal. I guess it’s also like the difference between
doing yoga at home versus doing yoga in a class. When you do yoga at home, you are still
stretching and strengthening your body, but being in a class adds an extra
element to it. Thirdly, other than a delicious
breakfast, there are no distractions at Eat ‘n Park. We’re in a conference room, which is fairly
quiet, and there are none of the distractions that exist when I write at
home. The laundry. The dishes.
The errands. I can’t do any of
those things while I’m at Mindful Writers, so they are simply gone from my
mind.
If you are interested in trying out
Mindful Writers at home, Madhu does have CDs and audio downloads
available. Check out her website: http://www.mindful-writers.com.
Namaste.
