Contact me at susan @ susanbarrtoman.com to bring a Mindful Writing workshop to your group or organization. I’ll create a workshop for your needs, bringing mindfulness to the blank page in a safe, supportive, and fun environment.

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Beginner’s Mind: A Mindful Approach to Personal Essays

Take a deep breath and write your true stories with this mindful approach to writing. You can be new to writing personal essays, or a seasoned writer looking new ways to discover and work with material.

This 8-week course is a journey of self-discovery. In these generative workshops, we will explore different aspects of our lives and mine them for material. In doing so, we will gain new perspectives on ourselves, our obsessions, and our process. 

In each workshop, we will meditate and then freewrite. Throughout the course, we will use the tools of mindfulness to build a mindful writing practice, confront our inner critic, work with difficult memories, and discover new ways into our stories.

Activities, meditations, and writing prompts will be offered at the end of each class to help you maintain a mindful writing practice (spending time each day meditating, then writing) throughout the week.

You are encouraged to share writings created during the 6-week course during class and on Wet Ink. 

This class is offered through Writers.com.

Finding the Light at the Winter Solstice

Join me on Saturday, December 16^th for an early celebration of the Winter Solstice, the first day of winter on the astronomical calendar. It’s the shortest day, the longest night in the Northern Hemisphere. Let’s take time to pause and consider how can we turn inward in the season of hibernation and find the light.

Spend a couple hours connecting with your true creative self and others’ through meditation, visualization, and freewriting. Share your experiences and words in a safe, fun, supportive environment. Learn what mindfulness can bring to your writing practice and what writing can bring to your mindfulness practice. 

Coming into the Light: Mindful Writing for Healing

Have you lost a loved one by suicide? Are you ready to share your story?

Mural Arts and the Porch Light Program invite you to participate in Coming into the Light: Mindful Writing for Healing, a free 6-week writing workshop series led by Susan Barr-Toman beginning in mid-October 2023. Each week’s session will begin with a mediation to calm and focus us before writing into our grief and sharing our stories in a safe and supportive environment.

The Mindful Writing workshops is the first step in Porch Light’s new project examining the impact of suicide within our communities which will include a stage performance, a community mural production, and an exhibition. All of these will serve as a “community response” to this epidemic and will tell the story of our loss from a variety of vantage points. We invite you to join us as we aim to advance our individual and communal sensibilities around mental health and suicide. 

Building a Mindful Writing Practice – 6 weeks

Mindfulness silences the noise, so that we can discover what pulls on our souls. In this six-week course, we will take a mindful approach to our writing practice. Each week through meditation and writing, we will see how mindfulness can create a space for our creativity. We will explore how to build a mindful writing habit, silence our inner critic and discover the stories we want to tell. We will open ourselves to our thoughts and to the page without judgment and let our ideas flow. These are generative workshops in which we share our thoughts and writing, both encouraging and inspiring each other. No prior mindfulness or writing experience required. Be sure to have pen and paper ready! Registration deadline: Friday, October 6.

Be sure to have pen and paper ready as we will be writing by hand. No mindfulness or writing experience is required.

This is offered through the Penn Program for Mindfulness. Contact the program at 215-615-2774 or mindfulness@uphs.upenn.edu. 

Finding Balance on the Autumnal Equinox

At the autumnal equinox, day and night are even lengths. It’s officially fall, the time to harvest. And it’s my favorite season! Let’s take an opportunity to pause and consider the balance between day and night, light and darkness, and to reflect on what we have sown so far this year.

Spend a couple hours connecting with your true creative self and others’ through meditation, visualization, and freewriting. Share your experiences and words in a safe, fun, supportive environment. Learn what mindfulness can bring to your writing practice and what writing can bring to your mindfulness practice.

We will be writing by hand (if possible), so please remember to bring pen and paper. No prior writing or meditation experience is required.

Tiny and True: Writing Flash Essays with Mindfulness – 6 weeks

Flash essays are true stories told briefly. They can be written in as few as 6 words and as many as 1,000. Each one is a mindful event in that we bring our full attention and curiosity to a tiny moment and recognize the big universal truth it holds. As we examine its details, we discover our human connectivity, we discover metaphor.

Whether you’re new to flash or a veteran, this six-week generative writing course offers a mindful approach to finding vivid moments and getting words on the page. Each week’s class will begin with a close reading and discussion of published flash work followed by meditation and freewriting in response to a prompt. Over the week, you can work on writing in response to what we discussed in class and submit a piece to me for feedback.

We’ll share our writing with each other offering insight and encouragement. In addition to getting lots of writing done, you will learn about places that publish great flash essays for both inspiration and submission guidelines!

What’s Your Story: Memoir Writing – 4 weeks

Join me for this four-week session to spend time discovering what is the story you have to tell? Does it want to be an essay, a book or both? 

Each week will be a 90-minute generative writing session and discussion about the shape of stories. We will look at the work of published authors who have published essays that led to memoirs, who wrote memoirs in essays, and who have written memoir books.

These are mindful writing workshops, so we will begin with a meditation, focus with writing prompts, freewrite and dive deep into the nature of our stories. By the end of the four weeks, you will have a sense of your story and a draft of a chapter or essay.

Discover Your Story: Writing the Personal Essay – 90 mins.

Meditate, focus, freewrite, and discovery what you want to write about.

Join me for this 90-minute generative workshop and learn how to write a personal essay. The Personal Essay is a true story told from the first person perspective in a few pages. It is an act of discovery for both the writer and the reader.

This is a mindful writing workshop. After a brief mediation and through a series of writing prompts, you will find your way into your personal essay.

Connecting in 2023

In meditation, we sit with our true nature and in doing so we learn of everyone’s true nature. We are connected in our humanity. We all want love, we all have regrets, we all worry about the future. We are not alone. 

Start the new year with an openness and curiosity as you write without judgment. Spend a couple hours connecting with your true creative self and others’ through meditation, visualization, and freewriting.

Share your experiences and words in a safe, fun, supportive environment. Learn what mindfulness can bring to your writing practice and what writing can bring to your mindfulness practice. We will be writing by hand (if possible), so please remember to bring pen and paper. No prior writing or meditation experience is required.  Registration deadline: Friday, January 20.

Cultivating Flow: A 7-Week Mindful Writing Journey – 7 weeks

What feeds your creativity?  How can you overcome creative blocks?

In this 7-week Mindful Writing journey, discover new and forgotten aspects of yourself. The course structure is inspired by the seven main chakras of the Indian yogic tradition. Each week we will focus on a different area of our lives and explore it through meditations, visualizations, and writing prompts. Cultivate your unique path and your next creative steps whether that’s writing a poem, painting a picture, or starting a company. You are the author of your creative life! 

Sign up if you are eager to dig deep and jumpstart your creativity with these generative writing workshops. 

The Body Tells the Story – 2 hours or one day retreat

We are often in our heads, distracted and not present for our lives as they are happening. We are disembodied. When we become disconnected from our bodies, we can become disconnected from our truest self and our creativity. Our bodies hold our memories, our experiences, and are a way to our inner life and our unique ideas. Spend a morning reconnecting with your body and the stories it has to tell through meditation and writing exercises. Share your experiences and words in a safe, fun, and supportive environment. We will be writing by hand, so please remember to bring pen and paper. No prior writing or meditation experience required. 

Navigating Transitions – 2 hours

Transitions are hard. Ask any parent of a toddler. Whether these transitions are in our lives or in our writing, clarity and awareness are required. If we are going to meet these occasions and accept their challenges–good and bad, we need to have a solid understanding of where we are now, before we can take a step forward to what’s coming next. Spend a couple hours steadying your footing through mindful writing—meditations followed by writing exercises. Share your experiences and words in a safe, fun, supportive environment. Learn what mindfulness can bring to your writing practice and what writing can bring to your mindfulness practice. We will be writing by hand, so please remember to bring pen and paper. No prior writing or meditation experience is required. 

Letting Go & Opening to Our Creativity in the New Year – 2 hours

We often start the new year with a list of resolutions—goals of what we will achieve or promises to finally stop certain habits. Some of these items have made the list for years, maybe decades. 

In this two-hour mindful writing workshop, we will let go of past resolutions, to-do lists, and expectations and open to our creativity through meditation and freewriting. See what happens when you experience non-doing writing and let whatever arises arise. Share your thoughts and words in a safe, fun, and supportive environment. 

Mindful Writing for Caregivers – 2 hours

The stress of being a caregiver for family and loved ones can be overwhelming. We can feel as though our lives are out of our control. We may feel that this is not the life we signed up for. Mindfulness can give us the tools we need to deal with that stress, so that we can take care of ourselves while we’re taking care of everyone else. Writing can give us an outlet to process and release that stress. The combination of the two can be a useful practice even amidst all our responsibilities.

In this two-hour workshop, we will talk about and practice Mindful Writing with a morning of meditating and writing. Share your experiences and words in a safe, fun, and supportive environment. We will be writing by hand (if possible), so please remember to have pen and paper ready. No prior writing or meditation experience required. 

Begin Again, Begin Anew: A Mindful Writing Workshop – 2 hours

Each new year offers us an opportunity to bring our awareness to how we  spend our days and the moments that make them up. Mindfulness reminds us  that each breath we take gives us this same opportunity. As writers,  each endeavor is new, each sentence is something we’ve never done before. 

We learned much about ourselves and our world through the difficult  events of 2020. We were distracted, sick, anxious, grieving. Our writing  may have taken a backseat to the struggles of life during a pandemic  and the constant cycle of alarming news. But, we did learn that art (whether it be a novel, an album, a Netflix binge)  provided a much needed balm by connecting us to our humanity and  creating a sense of community. 

In 2021, you can begin again, begin anew, and be that balm for someone  else and yourself. Take a deep breath, regain your sense of wonder, open  to your creativity, and shake off the weight of 2020.

The Body Tells the Story – A One-Day Retreat or 2 hours

We are often in our heads, distracted and not present for our lives as they are happening. We are disembodied. When we become disconnected from our bodies, we can become disconnected from our truest self and our creativity. Our bodies hold our memories, our experiences, and are a way to our inner life and our unique ideas. Spend a day reconnecting with your body and the stories it has to tell through meditation and writing exercises. Share your experiences and words in a safe, fun, and supportive environment. We will be writing by hand, so please remember to bring pen and paper. No prior writing or meditation experience required. This is an expanded version of the workshop.

The Body Tells the Story : A Mindful Writing Workshop (3 hour workshop)

Our bodies hold our memories, our experiences. When we become disconnected from our bodies, we can become disconnected from our truest self and our creativity. Spend an afternoon reconnecting with your body and the stories it has to tell through meditation, movement, and writing exercises. Share your experience and words in a safe, fun, and supportive environment. We will be writing by hand, so please remember to bring pens and paper. No prior writing or meditation experience required.

Showing Up: Introduction to Mindful Writing – 2 hours

In mindfulness meditation, we set aside time each day to show up to our practice. We are present to our thoughts, emotions and feelings without judgment. What happens when we bring that same attention to our writing? In this introductory workshop, we will explore the benefits of mindful writing through a mix of meditation and writing exercises. We will focus our attention and free our imaginations. Those new to mindfulness and/or writing are welcome. Be sure to have pen and paper ready!

Bearing Witness Through Writings – 2 hours

So much has happened, is happening in 2020. Take a morning to pause and bear witness to what you are experiencing, what others are experiencing, and what the world is experiencing. Through mindful writing, we can process our thoughts, feelings, and emotions. We can gain clarity to create writing that expresses this historic moment in time. It does not need to be perfect. It is our attempt to be present. 

Remember right now, the world is relying on art in this time of distress and despair. The world needs your creativity. Writing will benefit you and your community. 

Give yourself time to reflect and write in this Mindful Writing workshop via Zoom. For a couple hours, find a place of stillness and connectivity through meditation and express your unique ideas through freewriting. Join a group of like-minded people who want to share their thoughts and words in a supportive online atmosphere. 

Navigating Transitions – One Day Mindful Writing Retreat

Transitions are hard. Ask any parent of a toddler. Whether these transitions are in our lives or in our writing, clarity and awareness are required. If we are going to meet these occasions and accept their challenges–good and bad, we need to have a solid understanding of where we are now, before we can take a step forward to what’s coming next. Spend a day steadying your footing through mindful writing—a series of meditations and writing exercises. Share your experiences and words in a safe, fun, supportive environment. Learn what mindfulness can bring to your writing practice and what writing can bring to your mindfulness practice.

Cultivating Calm and Creativity – 2 hours

During this time of crisis, it can be difficult to get in touch with your creativity. There’s so much worry; your mind is racing with fear as you look for the latest news. Or you feel badly, because you should be doing something else, anything else, but sitting down to write. Writing is either an anxiety-filled burden or a guilt-filled luxury.

But neither needs to be true. Right now, the world is relying on art in this time of distress and despair. The world needs your creativity. Writing will benefit you and your community.

Give yourself time to relax and write in this Mindful Writing workshop via Zoom. For a couple hours, find a place of stillness and connectivity through meditation, express your unique ideas through freewriting, and allow yourself to disappear into your imagination. Join a group of like-minded people who want to share their thoughts and words in a fun and supportive online atmosphere.

Leap into Leap Year 2020!! A Mindful Writing Weekend Retreat

Leap day! Every four years (almost) we add a whole day to our year. We do this so that we remain in sync with the seasons. This small adjustment keeps us in tune with the turning, tilting earth. What small adjustments can we make to keep us in sync? How can we give ourselves additional time and space so that we remain connected? What leaps of faith can we make?

Spend a weekend at Pendle Hill celebrating this very special day (additional day, bonus day!) by getting back in sync with mindful writing—a series of meditations and writing exercises. Be sure to bring pen and paper. Share your experiences and words in a safe, fun, supportive environment.

In addition to the workshops, there will be periods of quiet hours in which to write on your own (with your laptop if you like). On Saturday evening, there will be a reading. Participants are welcome to share what they’ve been working on or read from other finished works.

Held at Pendle Hill Quaker Retreat Center, Wallingford, PA.

Bucks County Book Festival Writers’ Workshop

I’m excited to share the stage with Rabbi Sigal Briar and Lynn Rosen for an afternoon of talks about writing and the writing life at the Second Bucks County Book Festival! Sigal session is “Creating Rituals for Writing,” Lynn’s is “The Discomfort Zone: Writing Your Way Through Fear & Overcoming the Inner Critic,” and mine is “Creating Your Writing Space: Mindfulness for Writers.” You’ll be relaxed and ready to write at the end of the day.

Check out the weekend’s schedule; there are plenty of authors to meet and the keynote address will be given by Anna Quindlen.

From the website: Enjoy THREE GREAT SESSIONS for aspiring and accomplished writers, age 17 and older. Our facilitator and three sought-after writing coaches will help you hone your craft, overcome fear, and provide the time and space you need to create. Coffee, water, and snacks included! Sponsored by Bucks County Community College with special thanks to the Village Improvement Association.​

Capturing the Muse: A One-Day Retreat for Writers

Join an Open Book one-day writing retreat and focus on your important creative work!

Give yourself the gift of a day of writing: a quiet day in a bucolic setting, surrounded by a small group of other writers. The Open Book Writers Retreat provides you with practical ways to overcome inner resistance to writing and to get the creative spirit flowing. We’ll work on calming that strict and cranky inner editor and we’ll use mindful techniques and writing exercises to stimulate your practice. And in addition to all this, we’ll create a calm, quiet, private space where you can write and, at the end of the day-long retreat, have something to show for your time!The day will present two hands-on workshops, with quiet writing time interspersed. The morning workshop will be led by Lynn Rosen, director of the Open Book program of events and co-owner of Open Book Bookstore. Lynn will address how to get out of your comfort zone and calm your inner editor. In this hour-long workshop, we’ll find ways to identify and address our fears and to overcome the internal obstacles that inhibit the creative process.

In the afternoon, a two-hour workshop on mindfulness for writers will be led by Susan Barr-Toman, noted writing teacher and published novelist. Susan teaches Mindful Writing workshops and retreats through the Penn Program for Mindfulness. Her workshop will focus on using meditation to connect with creativity and to flesh out the details in your writing. She will provide a series of hands-on exercises to stimulate your writing practice.

Open Book one-day writing retreats take place at the Manor House at Whitpain Farm in Blue Bell, PA. This beautifully-restored colonial farm house sits on the edge of acres of green space, surrounded by trees, a brook, and a wide, sunny vista. We will occupy the entire first floor and have full use of the home’s numerous rooms, from the 1704 Room with its original colonial stone fireplace, to the modern and expansive kitchen and butler’s pantry. There is plentiful space for writing at individual tables in the various rooms.

Capturing the Muse: A One-Day Retreat for Writers

Give yourself the gift of a day of writing: a quiet day in a bucolic setting, surrounded by a small group of other writers.  Join Open Book’s one-day writing retreat and focus on your important creative work!

This Open Book Writers Retreat will nudge you out of your typical writing patterns by helping you to exercise your creative muscles in a new way. We’ll focus on the spiritual and the artistic aspects of your creative process in order to help you break through to new insights and new ways of working.

The day will present two hands-on workshops, with quiet writing time interspersed. I will lead the morning workshop of mindful writing–meditations, writing exercises and sharing–in which we will focus on quieting the inner critic and connecting with our creativity.

The afternoon workshop will be led by Janice Merendino, winner of the Moore College of Art and Design 2018 Distinguished Alumni Award. Janice will lead a workshop that uses drawing techniques to support and enhance your work as a writer.

Connecting to Your Creative Self: A One-Day Retreat

Step away from the noise of the world with this daylong mindful writing retreat. Through meditation, writing exercises, and sharing our experiences, we will free ourselves to connect with our creativity and the stories we have to tell. No prior mindfulness or writing experience required. Be sure to bring paper and pen!

Beginning Again: Writing and the Writing Life –  How Mindfulness Can Inform Our Writing Practice

In this workshop, we will see how mindfulness can inform our writing practice. Through a mix of meditations and writing exercises, we’ll consider our writing practice and how to approach our work without judgment. We will focus our attention and free our imaginations.