Cultivating a Mindful Writing Practice // with Jeannette Eaton

Do you want to make time for stillness and creativity? Do you wish you had more time to slow down and hear your own voice? 

I support people to create space for deep listening so we can begin to hold ourselves and our stories with kindness and settle more fully into our lives.

This course provides a chance to unplug from our devices

and from the busyness of daily life.

Through meditation we’ll see what it’s like to settle the mind and open the heart a bit and see what writing comes from the depth and quiet of our practice.  

Mindful writing invites participants to explore the value of listening to your voice on the page, and witnessing the powerful presence of listening to others share from their experience.

People are warmly encouraged to write in whatever genre they choose and will be given prompts that encourage playing with different genres. The emphasis will be on listening to whatever is most needed at the moment. 

Writers are invited to share a word, phrase, or their full piece of writing with the group.

You don't need to consider yourself a writer or a meditator to attend!

Mindful writing groups offer short guided meditations followed by time to write. Creative prompts are provided. 

Week By Week 

Week One—Coming Home to the Body and the Page

In this opening session, we’ll explore the practice of mindful writing. We’ll move slowly, allowing ourselves time to arrive in the present moment and on the page. You will be guided through a gentle meditation practice to settle the mind and body. We’ll practice meeting our lives and our writing with openness and curiosity, and begin to notice how often our inner critic shows up. We’ll create the container to dive deeper into our practice together in the coming weeks. Our writing in the first session will invite us to pay attention to what arises when we give ourselves time to be still. We’ll explore how it feels to turn our attention inward, to slow down. What are the voices that arise from stillness?

Week Two—Guided by Senses

In this session we’ll continue to connect with the concept of beginner’s mind. You will be guided in a meditation that encourages you to notice sensations in the body, sight, and sound. As a way to enter your writing this week, you’ll be guided to notice what arises internally and what exists in your external space. What opens up when you invite the senses to be known?  As writers, we’ll explore how to use the senses to strengthen our writing, focusing on the images, smells, sounds, and physical sensations that create authentic scenes and moments in our writing. 

Week Three—Befriending Your Inner Landscape

This week you’ll practice working to notice thoughts and emotions that arise when you sit in meditation and you’ll have the chance to release them on the page. What happens when you give yourself time to notice the chatter of the mind without judgment? Meditations this week will encourage you to make space for whatever is showing up for you in that present moment, to invite a sense of belonging and allow whatever is there to just be there. From this place, we’ll see what stories, poems, or words make their way to the page. 

Week Four—Writing as Practice—Creating a sustainable ongoing mindful writing practice. 

Our final session will blend the meditation and writing  practices we’ve explored together with the opportunity to set intentions for writing and meditation moving forward. We’ll reflect on what we’ve learned and discovered over these four weeks and learn about how we can continue after the session ends. There will be an opportunity to share an excerpt from the writing we’ve done during any of these four sessions and time to celebrate our creativity.

Who Should Take This Class

This class is for anyone who wants to set the intention to slow down to notice their internal and external worlds and see what comes from writing about what is discovered. It is an offering to help you connect with yourself and with community through meditation and writing practices and to notice how much opens up when you are able to soften into your experience. This class is open to all—no prior meditation or writing experience is needed, and seasoned writers and meditators will find ways to deepen and reignite their practice.

We offer scholarships based on income as well as some partial scholarships for people living with serious illness and/or disability or people of color. Please fill out this scholarship application form so that we can find the best way to make the class accessible to you.

What people are saying about learning with Jeannette

I joined Jeannette's weekly mindfulness group about two years ago and have practiced with her weekly since. While I had read about and applied mindfulness in the past, Jeannette made it accessible to me. Every week she shares her journey, the ups and the downs we all face. This helps us all to understand that it is a journey.  Her openhearted approach has allowed me to continue to reach and grow. She creates a safe and welcoming space for us to practice together. ~ Sarah S

Jeannette creates the safest space imaginable, allowing the opportunity for exploration, creativity, and play. As a facilitator, Jeanette is simultaneously humble, directive, and inspiring.  The method will open you to creative process and take you to unforeseeable places without effort.  The group provides a network of camaraderie which fosters confidence.  It takes bravery to participate and the rewards are unpredictable and abundant.  Writing group is simply so much fun.  Sometimes it's really hard.  But you are never alone.   ~ Carrie L

I find Jeannette’s mindfulness class to be a quiet cove to drop anchor in, when my life feels hectic. Listening to Jeannette, I feel my breath slow. I notice my racing mind gets quieter. I feel peace settle its way once more into my soul. I rise from the cushion feeling restored, calm and hopeful. ~ Cath R

Jeannette's groups are creative life rafts in the week. She builds such a comfortable, open, generative space. Her prompts are both challenging and safe, providing such a soft landing for leaping risks. There is accountability, but no pressure. I look forward to every meeting and know, even when arriving depleted or frazzled, I will leave with a buzzing energy and renewed sense of words and art. Jeannette's approach is like leaving the light on for you. ~ Kelli M

Jeannette offers an incredibly supportive writing environment that truly helped me to break out of my writer's block and begin my practice again with a newfound sense of inspiration and direction. Her unique writing prompts allowed me to move past any sense of being stuck that I had experienced and I look forward to attending more workshops with her! (this was from an anonymous survey)

Where and When Does this Online Course Meet?

This is an online workshop meeting live via Zoom on four consecutive Tuesdays, Oct. 6, 13, 20, 27 2026, for two hours from 11:30 AM - 1:30 PM ET | 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM CT | 9:30 AM - 11:30 AM MT | 8:30 AM - 10:30 AM PT | 3:30 PM - 5:30 PM UTC.

The workshop will be recorded and the recording shared only with registrants. Zoom session information will be shared with registrants the week before class begins.

About the Facilitator

Jeannette Eaton is a mindfulness and creative writing teacher—and a mom—practicing in the center of it all. In her groups, Jeannette creates space for things to unfold—for not knowing, for curiosity, for presence, and for discovery.

With over 20 years of experience facilitating groups, Jeannette brings a deep love of facilitation and joy to her work in community with others. Jeannette supports writers in softening their grip on perfection and in trusting their voices.

Her practice is grounded in daily meditation and ongoing learning.  She is a graduate of Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach’s two-year Mindfulness Meditation Teacher Certification Program and the Cloud Sangha Mindfulness Mentor Training, and is certified in the Amherst Writers & Artists (AWA) method, a practice rooted in the belief that every person is a writer and every voice deserves to be heard.

You can find more about her at jeannetteaton.com, www.papertrailwriters.com, and on https://www.instagram.com/papertrailwriters/.