George Angus, Tumblemoose Writer

From: How Stuff Works.com

A writer with keen observation skills will excel in the craft.  Observing is a skill that once mastered will make your story characters larger than life.  Just imagine being able to describe in just the right words a walk across the fresh snow in a field, or maybe the sound of the surf from your Tahitian beach hut.  Being minful will help you to be an excellent observer.

In the first post of this series, I spoke about the importance of meditation as a component of becoming a Conscious Writer.  I expanded on meditation techniques in the post about being a Concentrated Writer.  Today’s topic of becoming a Mindful Writer is especially important for anyone who is or wants to be a serious writer.

Meditation can do some wonderful things for us.  It can help to still a noisy mind, letting the creative ideas finally come out and play.  Meditation can help us to focus our concentration in a specific direction.  The point of this discussion is:

Meditation makes you aware

Mindful meditation helps you to become acutely aware of things you take for granted every day.  Let’s have a look at some examples:

• Mindful breathing – This is an excellent starting point for practicing mindfulness.  Observe your inhalations and exhalations; feel the sensation as the air passes through your nostrils; feel the overall rhythm as you continue to breathe in, out.
• Mindful of body – Being mindful of your body helps to sharpen your observing skills.  As you go through your day, be mindful of every sensory input your body relays.  As you become more and more accustomed to doing this, you can start to identify stress factors in your life and the things that make you tense.  From there you can explore ways to rid yourself of these stresses.
• Mindful walking – This simple task that we truly take for granted actually involves a complex set of actions.  By starting slow, and observing every facet of the steps taken during a walk we are able to bring the meditative mind into action.

A simple and powerful mindful meditation

Pebbles – from “Luminous Mind“

Gather ten small pebbles.  They do not need to be anything special – let your heart choose which ones.  It would be great if you had a special small bag to keep them in.

During a meditation in which you are keenly focused on your breathing, take one of the pebbles and just hold it in your right hand.  Feel the sensation of the pebble in your fingers.  Be acutely aware that it is in your hand.  Be aware of the rhythm of your breathing as you pass the pebble from your right hand to your left in harmony with your breathing.  Repeat for all ten of your pebbles.

In essence, being mindful is living in the moment, every moment of your life.  Being an active observer makes you mindful.  Once you are mindful of all things mundane, imagine the possibilities when you become mindful of large matters.