Guided meditations for writers with busy minds

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Taking your Mind and Mindfulness from enemies to lovers
5-, 12-,15-, 20-minute meditations for writers
Plus one self-hypnosis session

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ADHD and mindfulness are sworn enemies. At least they are in my mind, which has a resting thought-rate of 100mph. So, how do I flip that into an enemies-to-lovers situation long enough to get a good chunk of coherent words onto a page? You already know the answer because it’s in the title of this post. So, without any digressive preamble (pre-ramble?), allow me to share some guided meditations tailored for writers trying to meet their word count. (Guided is key for busy minds.)

As most know, meditation isn’t a monolithic practice. Mindfulness is one of many different types of meditation, and there are different forms of mindful meditation depending on your current state and individual needs. In this short list, I’ve got a blend of guided visualizations, self-affirmations, and body-centering meditations that target specific goals for your daily writing session. Hope you find them useful!

5-Minute Pre-writing Meditation with K.A. Emmons

Writer and podcaster K.A. Emmons’ YouTube channel is a wellspring not only of writing advice but also of guided meditations, so it’s no surprise that three out of my five favorites are hers. As an author herself, her affirmations get to the heart of our specific challenges.

This five-minute mind warm-up is perfect for your pre-writing routine on days when you don’t have much time, yet need to tame your busy mind.

12-Minute Guided Visualization for Overcoming Writer’s Block by Yogatrotter

If your brain needs visual stimulation to stay focused, you might find it helpful to imagine yourself walking a path, like in this meditation guided by Megan at Yogatrotter.

Like some guided visualizations, Megan doesn’t provide the sensory details for your journey; she asks guided questions that allow your mind to choose freely. For example: “Picture yourself walking down a path. What kind of path immediately came to mind? Was the path made of grass or sand or brick or asphalt?” This helps you reach a relaxed state of trusting your intuition, which is exactly what you want when you need to overcome your writer’s block.

15-Minute Empowerment Affirmations for Manifesting a Great Writing Day by K.A. Emmons

Is that gremlin Imposter Syndrome (or whatever syndrome) wreaking havoc on your writing session? Time for some empowering affirmations! Here’s where to get them.

20-Minute Guided Visualization to Find Your Inner Sanctuary by Heather Demetrios Fehst

If you want to picture a writing sanctuary that’s a blend of intuition and thoughtful curation, this meditation will help you find it. Heather creatively guides you in turning your writing practice itself into an inner sanctuary.

In Heather’s own words: “This is a meditation about sanctuary—calling for sanctuary within and letting that create a ripple effect for sanctuary without. As writers, Our words can often feel like the storm and not the harbor, so this meditation is really intended to reconnect you to that sense of safety that your words provide.”

Once you’ve tailored it specifically for your writing process and journey (your strengths, areas of improvement, goals, inspirations) with enough practice, you can retreat to your inner writing sanctuary whenever or wherever you pick up your pen.

15-Minute Creative Clarity Guided Meditation/Self-Hypnosis by Sarah Selecky

Visit author, writing teacher, creative coach, and certified hypnotherapist Sarah Selecky’s site to access this guided audio meditation/self-hypnosis session which (in her own words) “uses visualization to balance your energy and your intellect, and positive affirmations to clarify and stabilize your thoughts.” What makes this partly hypnosis rather than just meditation? That’s actually a complicated question (depending on who you ask), but at its very basic level, hypnosis gets you to a relaxed state of suggestibility, allowing you to better internalize the positive suggestions that you’ve chosen to listen to. So while both get you in a relaxed state of focus and clarity, mindful meditation guides (picture this, imagine yourself being this), while hypnosis suggests and assumes (you are this, you do this, you feel this).

Interested in diving deeper into the differences between guided meditation and self-hypnosis? Here’s a layman’s guide, and here’s a far more complicated and non-conclusive academic study. (You know how scholars get about these things!)

And there you have it—my go to meditations depending on my needs for the moment. Now go tame that racing mind.