Mindfulness Poetry as Contemplative Practice: A Personal Journey

Reflections on creating "It's OK - It's OK,” a process in contemplative writing as “spiritual practice”

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Poetry in one form or another has been used within contemplative practice as a literary tool for spiritual inquiry, as a pathway for deeper understanding and insight into oneself and reality. Secular mindfulness, having its roots within Buddhist contemplative practice, has also made use of poetry since its inception as an intervention to promote psychological well-being.

However, the poems used are not usually written or inspired out of mindfulness meditation practice. Poems used are usually from established literary authors whose poems might touch on the theme of mindfulness, but not specifically written for it. One good example of this is the poem “Wild Geese”, which is widely used in mindfulness sessions.

As a mindfulness teacher, I have always struggled with this and many times refrained from using these poems in mindfulness sessions for the simple reason that, although they do help, I still feel they are lacking something and do not neatly fit the purpose simply because they were not written with this purpose in mind or inspired out of mindfulness practice.

I always get this sense that, however beautiful they might be, borrowed poems do not quite capture the specificity of mindfulness practice.

How could this be changed?

The idea is to create poems that are also experiential maps – one example of how this could be done is by offering specific phenomenological guidance with simple phrases like “feel the feet upon the ground” - rather than just simply being inspirational. For me, when it comes to using poetry for contemplative practice, the latter is much more important.

Because of this, starting about a year ago, I have been writing poems that emerged or were inspired by my mindfulness practice and teachings, as an experimental body of work. You could say that my intention is that of crafting what we might term “mindfulness poetry”, some of which I have posted on Substack.

By doing this, I hope to offer a tool to other mindfulness teachers and practitioners as a direct literary tool which’s aim is to aid in self-reflection through poems that directly mirror the processes and experiences, we might encounter in mindfulness practice and the broader implications for poetry in secular mindfulness as an intervention for psychological wellbeing.

To illustrate this approach, I will be sharing with you the latest poem I wrote, “It’s OK – It’s OK”, followed by the process I went through in writing this poem and how it emerged from my mindfulness practice. The poem “It’s OK – It’s OK” goes as follows:

As moments rush through me passing by,  
When thoughts cascade like torrential rain,  
When judgment clouds the mind's eye,  
And the breath feels like it's caught in chains—  
It's OK to pause amidst the noise.

It's OK to take a breath,  
To feel the feet upon the ground,  
To notice the breath as it still flows,  
Sometimes fast, sometimes slow—  
It's OK to take a pause.

Thoughts might tug away at you, as they do;  
The mind will wander, as minds do.  
Thinking tends to arise from thought.  
It's OK to notice this, just as it is,  
And guide attention back to what is.

Some days, this comes with ease,  
Senses open, mind at rest.  
Some days, the practice seems to tease,  
With restless thoughts that won't digress—  
Both paths remind us: it's OK.

As perfection is not the goal,  
In attending, moment by moment, to our soul.  
Open to all parts as things come and go,  
No need to comment on what's right or wrong—  
It's OK to let this go.

So as I sit within this space,  
Holding myself with a gentle grace,  
Noticing what arises without fear.  
Clouds of judgment seem to disappear—  
For in this moment, as I sit here, I might notice  
It's OK to let go of this judgmental fear.

Origins in Personal Practice

This poem was a direct reflection of challenges I periodically encounter in my mindfulness practice. This especially during periods in my life which might be more stressful or challenging and how they reflect in our mindfulness practice, where in these periods we might notice how the mind is more susceptible to mind wandering into worry, planning, self-criticism or just a sense of inner restlessness.

In moments like these, I find that journaling really helps me. Journaling is considered to be a fundamental practice that mindfulness practitioners are encouraged to engage in (Choden & Regan-Addis, 2018; Neff & Germer, 2018; Stahl & Goldstein, 2019). This poem was a result of this journaling.

So, this poem was not a literary exercise but had its beginnings in what scholars and contemplative practitioners might call contemplative writing. I would define contemplative writing within mindfulness as,

Taking the time to slow down, and bring mindful awareness, to thoughts, feelings, sensations, experiences, and their resulting patterns of behaviours and mind using writing as a tool for self-discovery and understanding. Where the act of writing itself becomes a way to observe and understand one’s inner world.

So, in this context contemplative writing is not about a process of producing a polished work but more about the process of exploring one’s inner landscape and gaining insights through reflecting on one’s inner world through writing (Bach & Alexander, 2015; Miller et al., 2019; Wenger, 2015)

Like formal mindfulness practice, contemplative writing is a practice that encourages us to be present in the moment, paying attention to our thoughts and feelings without judgment. While doing this, I discovered that the act of writing itself can become a form of meditation, where each written line arises from the same quality of attention I was cultivating in mindfulness practice.

The opening stanza might be a direct reflection of this, with lines like “moments rush through me passing by” and “thoughts cascade like torrential rain” portraying imagery of my raw internal environment emerging through direct observation of my own mental states during mindfulness practice.

The power of this imagery is that it is not there to give a theoretical understanding of why this might happen; they are metaphors that are meant to represent lived experience—the actual sensation of being overwhelmed by thoughts and how this might feel. The phrase “breath feels like it’s caught in chains” captures the latter how I feel physically in moments when I am gripped or overwhelmed by thoughts, maybe of worry: being reflected in that sense of tightness in the chest and accompanying anxiety, which sometimes literally restricts breathing or creates that sense of being trapped within one’s body.

In hindsight, what captured my attention was how the writing process and the structure of the poem mirrored the process I went through during the meditation practice. I did not plan to do this as a choice before I started writing. The journey in the poem from agitation to acceptance emerged on its own during the writing process. I did not even need to think about it.

This can be seen in the opening stanzas, which are dense and constrained, reflecting the constricting, sometimes even claustrophobic quality of anxious thinking. The stanzas becoming gradually more spacious in their wording as the poem progressed—mirroring the opening that can occur when we stop fighting against our experience.

“It’s OK”

As I sat down to write the poem, “It’s OK” jumped out immediately as a felt sense. It was as if I was saying to myself, “It’s OK” to have bad days in your practice. This became the central refrain.

There was this felt sense as if I was seeking permission — permission to allow myself to struggle, as the author of “The Gifts of Imperfection”, Brene Brown (2010) would say permission to be imperfect, to allow myself to have an imperfect practice and how embracing these imperfections, which are a reality of life can be liberating.

The repetition of “It’s OK” has this purpose at its core. However, within the phrase “It’s OK” lies also something that is a core foundation element of mindfulness practice - compassion. More specifically, compassion directed towards oneself, what Kristin Neff (2003) terms self-compassion, which has three components to it: 1) mindfulness, 2) common humanity and 3) self-kindness.

Within the poem, this phrase is imbued with these three components, especially the self-kindness one.

The courage to recognise and acknowledge that I was struggling (mindfulness), the recognition that we all struggle and would like to be free from struggles (common humanity), and, most importantly, approaching myself with gentleness, and a kind self-soothing understanding - “It’s OK” (self-kindness).

Research has shown that the sequential application of all these three elements of self-compassion is crucial, as one leads to increases in the other. Dreisoerner et al. (2012) found how mindfulness sets the stage for self-compassion and increased self-kindness, how practising common humanity can further improve self-compassion, reduce over-identification with difficulties and promote self-kindness. However, the researchers noted how training in self-kindness on its own did not.

This research shines a light on the importance of all three components of self-compassion, demonstrating how they mutually enhance each other, with mindfulness being the crucial first step.

I was unconsciously applying all these three principles when allowing myself the space to write the poem through its acknowledging, normalising, kind, and permissive tone.

This can all be seen in the stanza “Some days, this comes with ease / Senses open, mind at rest. / Some days, the practice seems to tease, / With restless thoughts that won’t digress”. Putting this into writing was crucial for me as an act of mindful awareness.

How I was struggling with a “perfectionist” notion that mindfulness meditation should be a particular way and that experiencing restlessness or struggling with restless thoughts indicated some form of failure. I found that in hindsight, through the act of writing these lines, I was able to give myself—and hopefully others—the permission to allow myself to experience the full spectrum of my experience in mindfulness practice without judgment.

As per one of the most popular definitions of mindfulness by Jon Kabat-Zinn (1994), how mindfulness is,

“The awareness that arises from paying attention in a particular way: on purpose, in the present moment and non-judgmentally.” (p. 4)

Leading to the line “Thinking tends to arise from thought”, a line that emerged from a moment of clarity in my practice. The realisation of how I was not only observing thoughts but also noticing how one thought can lead to another, creating an endless cycle of ruminative thinking - a chain of endless mental activity.

It made me remember of something I had learnt in insight practice, how thoughts arise on their own, display themselves, and if you do not engage with the thought as it displays itself, it passes away, it self-liberates (Nairn et al., 2019).

This, I find, is a profound observation that I hope that others recognise through the poem—that thinking is simply what minds do, and that this recursive quality is not a problem to be solved but a process to be understood. As expressed within the Mindfulness-based Living Course, how it is within the nature of the mind to have thoughts and if it were not having thoughts, it would not be working well (Choden & Regan-Addis, 2018).

Writing poetry as a contemplative practice

Writing this poem made me reflect on the relationship between mindfulness practice and writing poetry. Hunt (2020) points out how,

“Poetry is synonymous with the art of mindfulness. It is a meditation in which one learns to accept things for both what they are and what they are not readily seen as. With each poem that is birthed, the author experiences a removal of self. This sort of transformation is highlighted through the examination of poetry in light of Buddhist and Daoist practice via the poems of T’ang poet Han Shan.” (p. 1)

I find that writing poetry requires a deep contact with a present-focused, open, caring attention to my inner landscape. It demands what in mindfulness we call shifting into “being mode.” Chavis (2013) writes how,

“With their alchemy of adjoining words, poems jolt us with illuminating surprises, and in doing so, increase our awareness of who we are and how we relate to others.” (p. 160)

And this jolt helped me step back to what in mindfulness we call “decentring” from our experience, the ability to see thoughts as just thoughts, as temporary events. Or, as we say in Mindfulness-Based Cognitive Therapy, we come to the realisation that “thoughts are not facts.”

Overall, the writing process I went through in writing this poem became part and parcel of my sitting practice—an extension in which I could continue to explore my inner experience beyond the formal mindfulness meditation practice.

In hindsight, writing this poem as a process was important for me, as it helped me slow down, to take a pause—a kind of literary breathing space. As I read through the poem, I feel it time and again giving me this pause, which I hope the reader also experiences. A pause might help in moving from agitation to acceptance.

A pause in which we can let go of perfection and as the lines in the penultimate stanza portray how letting go of perfection in our practice can help us “In attending, moment by moment to our soul” and to “Open to all parts as things come and go” can be a movement in the act of what Tara Brach (2020) calls radical acceptance,

“Clearly recognizing what is happening inside us, and regarding what we see with an open, kind and loving heart.” (p. 26)

The final stanza represents this movement with the progression from “sitting within this space” to “Holding myself with a gentle grace” to the phrase “Clouds of judgment seem to disappear” as the stanza ends, we might notice that “It’s OK to let go of this judgmental fear,” giving us as Tara Brach (2020) would say,

“The willingness to experience ourselves and our lives as they are.” (p. 4)

A Pause for You

If this exploration of mindfulness poetry resonated with you, I invite you to try contemplative writing for yourself. Set aside 10 minutes after your next meditation session. Without editing or judging, simply write what arises—perhaps starting with “It’s OK...” and seeing where it leads.

I’d love to hear about your experience. Leave a comment below sharing what emerged, or simply let me know if this approach speaks to you.

If you found this helpful, consider sharing this post with other mindfulness practitioners or teachers who might benefit from exploring poetry as contemplative practice.

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References

Bach, D. J., & Alexander, J. (2015). Contemplative approaches to reading and writing: Cultivating choice, connectedness, and wholeheartedness in the critical humanities. Journal of Contemplative Inquiry, 2(1), 1-21. Retrieved from https://digscholarship.unco.edu/joci/vol2/iss1/1/

Brach, T. (2020). Radical acceptance: Embracing your life with the heart of a Buddha (Reprint ed.). New York, NY: Random House USA Inc.

Brown, B. (2010). The gifts of imperfection: Let go of who you think you’re supposed to be and embrace who you are. Centre City, MN: Hazelden.

Chavis, G. G. (2013). Looking out and looking in: Journeys to self-awareness and empathy through creative juxtapositions. Journal of Poetry Therapy, 25(3), 159-167. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08893675.2013.823312

Choden, & Regan-Addis, H. (2018). Mindfulness-based living course. New Alresford: John Hunt Publishing.

Dreisoerner, A., Junker, N. M., & van Dick, R. (2021). The relationship among the components of self-compassion: A pilot study using a compassionate writing intervention to enhance self-kindness, common humanity, and mindfulness. Journal of Happiness Studies, 22, 21-47. doi:https://doi.org/10.1007/s10902-019-00217-4

Hunt, E. (2020). Poetry as meditation: Buddhism, Daoism, and Han Shan. An Undergraduate Journal in Philosophy, 8(1), 1-9. Retrieved from ttps://commons.emich.edu/ac/vol8/iss1/3

Miller, M., Kinane, L., & Kinane, K. (2019). Contemplative writing across the disciplines. Across the Disciplines, 60(1), 1-5. doi:https://doi.org/10.37514/ATD-J.2019.16.1.01

Nairn, R., Choden, & Regan-Addis, H. (2019). From mindfulness to insight: Meditations to release your habitual thinking and activate your inherent wisdom. Boston, MA: Shambhala Publications Inc.

Neff, K. (2003). Self-compassion: An alternative conceptualization of a healthy attitude toward oneself. Self and Identity, 2(2), 85-101. doi:https://doi.org/10.1080/15298860309032

Neff, K., & Germer, C. (2018). The self-compassion workbook: A proven way to accept yourself, build inner strength, and thrive. New York, NY: Guilford Publications.

Stahl, B., & Goldstein, E. (2019). A mindfulness-based stress reduction workbook (2nd ed.). Oakland, CA: New Harbinger Publications.

Wenger, C. I. (2015). Yoga minds, writing bodies: Contemplative writing pedagogy. Anderson, SC: Parlor Press.