Free Writing and Meditation Sessions hosted by Margi Brown Ash
Our meditation and writing sessions are designed to support you as an artist. You are either writing a book or journalling to understand yourself, or you just want to start the day off on a good footing. Meditation helps heal the body, and writing helps clarify your purpose in life, an essential element for a rich and vibrant way of being in our world.
We began our Spring Program yesterday (October 5th), gathering online to meditate for 25 minutes, then writing for 25 minutes. This Spring offering is FREE; the only thing Sangha asks is commitment: commitment to self, commitment to group.
Each morning, Monday through Friday, plus Sunday, we begin with a motivational piece of writing, things like:
“To be what we are
and to become what we are capable of becoming,
is the only end in life”
(Robert Louis Stevenson).
or
“Let your wisdom as a human being
connect with the power of things as they are”
(Chogyam Trungpa)
Our Process includes the following steps:
An Acknowledgement of the lands we are on, and all the First Nations Peoples who have looked after these lands for tens of thousands of years. We pay our respects and express our gratitude.
Loving Kindness Meditation, where we send loving kindness to ourselves, our loved ones, those we may not get on with and then to all the suffering people throughout the world. I learned this from my teacher Sharon Salzberg https://www.mindful.org/loving-kindness-meditation-with-sharon-salzberg/) while studying at Nalanda Institute, NYC.
May we be safe, may we be happy, may we be healthy and may we live with ease.
May our loved ones be safe, may they be happy, may they be healthy and may they live with ease.
May the difficult people in our lives be safe, may they be happy, may they be healthy and may they live in peace.
To all the places in the world where people are suffering: may you find safety, may you find peace, may you find health and may you live with ease.
“When I breathe in I breathe in, when I breathe out I am Home” (https://themodernmeditator.com.au/thich-nhat-hanh-tribute/) gifted to us by Thich Nhat Hanh)
Silent Meditation for 20 minutes.
To finish, we engage in Alternate Nostril Breathing (https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3681046/), a pranayama to help regulate and balance our nervous system.
May you be safe, may you be healthy, may you be happy, may you live in peace.
Writing Prompt:
October 5, 2026: “How to give characters status and use it to drive your plot”.
“Everyday gestures, habits, manners, customs, styles of furniture, clothing, decoration, styesl of travelling, eating keeping house, modes of behavior towards children, servants, superiors, inferiors, peers, plus the various looks, glances, poses, styles of walking and other symbolic details”.
(Thomas Wolfe) Sourced from “Writing Coach in a Box” by Alan Anderson (https://www.writersandartists.co.uk/advice/why-put-writing-coach-box)
We write for 25 minutes.
Then get on with our day.
How welcome you will be. Contact me via this website and I will send details of how you can sign up.
To create a writing practice takes time. That is why we turn up every morning. To strengthen our writing muscle and develop our meditation practice to move us into awareness, empathy and hope.