On 12 March 2025, Guest Speaker Magdalena Ball inspired everyone with her Breathing Exercise, a meditation technique to help us concentrate on writing.
Close your eyes and imagine you are sitting in the woods on a moss-covered rock.
Do a 4/4/4 breath – known as box breathing – breathe in for a count of 4, hold for a count of 4, breathe out for a count of 4. Breathing in = I know I am breathing in. Breathing out = I know I am breathing out. Breathing in = I know I am breathing in a long breath. Breathing out = I know I am breathing out a long breath.
Do a count of 2 breaths in, hold 4 and 2 breaths out. Breathing in = I know I am breathing in a short breath. Breathing out = I know I am breathing out a short breath.
Other incantations include:
I am aware of my whole body
I calm my whole body.
Magdalena’s source of all things meditation is a wonderful free app called Plum Village – https://plumvillage.app/
She also suggested a pre-writing warmup – spend a few minutes writing down everything you see, smell, taste (coffee, tea?) in the writing environment – just to get grounded and induce more of a flow state.