Paragraph NYC presents Mindful Writing with BWBH Founder Lara Wilson!
Mindful Writing is experiential, a creative practice of intention and curiosity that leads to momentary sparks of authenticity, allowing us to consider truths that we dare to record. As with mindful living, mindful writing can be eye-opening, humbling and liberating. It is courageous by nature.
This series led by mindful writing instructor, Lara Wilson, invites you to explore your story as well as your writing life with a fresh, inspired perspective. We’ll examine what prompts us to share our stories, why we make particular narrative choices and what we’re truly hoping to elucidate. What do we know, and how do we come to know it? What do we not know that might open a path to curiosity? How may we learn to or perceive anew and write about the discoveries?
“When you write about what you don’t know, this means that you begin to think about the world at large. You enter dream and imagination. So write about what you don’t know, so that you can bring imagination into play, so you can create and explore.”
- Cynthia Ozick, Is Life Like This
Session One: Reframe Tuesday, January 23 @ 8:00 - 9:30pm
Writing may be a solitary pursuit, but all forms of storytelling are an exercise of connecting with others, entering into a dialogue with an unknown audience. This session invites you to explore the Why of your story. We’ll mindfully unravel how the relationship of the self as writer and our perceptions of the reader influence literary decisions. Here, we thoughtfully examine:
Initiation – what prompted your current writing project and how this impacts structure
Intention – why your story and your writing style shift throughout the creative process
Investigation – what gets in the way of telling the truth and how to relieve this pressure
When we begin to better understand how certain conditions and circumstances shift, a more easeful and authentic creative experience unfolds. To Reframe is to free yourself from expectations or judgment through the open door of curiosity, which is where mindful writing practices become liberating. Challenges becomes our best lesson, inviting us to find new ways to wonder on the page.
Session Two: Refine Tuesday, February 13 @ 8:00 - 9:30pm
Time to revise the concept of revision through artistic Refinement. What does it mean to revisit our work, and how can we establish a mindful process that aligns with the deeper meaning of our story? This session engages the relationship between the meta concept of our Big Picture and the meaningful minutiae of detail (precise rather than trivial). By paying close attention to how we engage with more unwieldy passages in our work, we begin to recognize patterns that can be streamlined to enhance the artistry and clarity of our prose. Here, we mindfully investigate ways to:
Frame – How to problem-solve by sustaining a cohesive and coherent narrative throughline
Drain – Fill up and let go to truly sense how less becomes more
Play Insane – Why a wild and crazy choice can shake up reality and reveal added clarity
Together, we’ll explore the Refinement process as an organizational path to hone structure and language. We’ll also consider factors of what Hungarian-American psychologist Mihály Csíkszentmihályi termed the flow state, when as writers, we get so lost in our creative process that we step away from the concept of time. Join us for this transformative mindful writing experience that shifts us from depletion to inspiration, sparking the depths of our imagination, inviting the flow of new words.
Session Three: Refresh Tuesday, March 19 @ 8:00 - 9:30pm
Begin again, the foundation of meditative practices as well as the writing life. Every day, a new page, a new breath, a new possibility. How might we Refresh our work, feeling refreshed overall by the process? One idea that comes from ancient wisdom: note impermanence. Another idea: seek beauty. This begins within, as we connect with our natural way to simply Be, noting the beauty of existence that is illuminated through an awareness of our common humanity. In this session, we will experiment with mindful practices that Refresh our entire Being to prompt an energetic shift in our writing. Here, we spark our sense of:
Noticing – boost awareness in all seasons of light, shadow, limbo
Nature – what feels relevant, what may be resonant
Nurturing – befriending the self to sense possibility in ourselves and our characters
Together, we will Pause to actually pay attention to what refreshes us in the moment. We’ll notice what disrupts this sense of ease, and with compassion, return to our inherent wisdom for sustenance and support. Begin again in this session to cultivate a simple yet sustainable mindful practice that makes our writing – and our life – luminous.
REGISTER through Paragraph NYC
Lara Wilson, a writer, teacher and 40-year meditator, devotes her life to exploring the intersection of mindful wellbeing, nature immersion and storytelling. Intent to share the meditative practices that helped her through years of breast cancer treatment, she established the mindful wellness educational collaborative Be Well Be Here, a 501c3 nonprofit in Concord, MA. Lara’s short stories have been published in The Kenyon Review, StoryQuarterly, American Fiction, Confrontation, Indiana Review, and the Chicago Tribune Book Section as well as anthologized in Printers Row and Hacks: 10 Years on Grub Street. Her essays have been featured on NPR / WBUR’s Cognoscenti and in a collection honoring her mentor, the late Andre Dubus. Lara holds a master's degree in English and American literature from Harvard and a graduate certificate in Mindfulness Studies from Lesley University; she also earned certification in restorative yoga (RYT-200), Reiki (Level II) and advanced mindfulness trauma training (TSMa). She and her husband are the parents of four beloved adults, two of whom were married last year. Ask about her passion for forest bathing and equine experiential learning – and share your story!
