Writing as Refuge

Writing as Refuge ™ is a contemplative practice that nurtures inner peace, inspiration, and resilience. The practice can help us to:

discover our authentic voice
increase awareness and self-acceptance
transform our story into a healing narrative
honor the stories that have shaped our lives

WHAT: Writing as Refuge ™ workshop
DATES: next workshop is coming soon!

Writing is medicine. It is an appropriate antidote to injury. It is an appropriate companion for any difficult change,
Julia Cameron

Bring a pen and a journal. Writing as Refuge ™ is for writers and non-writers and people who are interested in writing as a mindfulness practice for transformation and resilience.

In finding our own story, we assemble all of the parts of ourselves.
Marion Woodman

The stories we tell about our lives determine how we will heal. Learn Writing as Refuge ™ to transform your personal story into greater meaning and purpose.

Meet Jen Johnson,
Writing as Refuge ™ teacher

Jen Johnson is a mindfulness and writing teacher and coach. She teaches online webinars and workshops on mindfulness, Writing as Refuge ™, and resilience. Jen has taught writing at Mars Hill University, Asheville Community College, UNC-Asheville, Antioch University, Story Circle Network, and in private workshops.

Jen is the author of the book chapters “Mindful Writing for Transformation” in Transformative Journaling for Therapists, Coaches and Clients and “Making Peace with Your Inner Critic” in The Creativity Workbook for Coaches and Creatives. Her writing has also been published in PainPathways Magazine, Psychology Today, The Healing Muse, Creativity Post, blogs and wellness sites, and professional training manuals.

Telling our story does not merely document who we are; it helps to make us who we are. –Rita Charon, MD

Neuroscience and Narrative

Writing as Refuge ™ brings our attention to the present moment and allows us to meet whatever is unfolding with kindness and curiosity. We can use this practice to more skillfully relate with difficult experiences and to cultivate more positive mental and emotional states, thus facilitating greater resiliency. Page by page, we write our way into a more inspired and meaningful life.

Word by word, the language of women so often begins with a whisper.
Terry Tempest Williams

Sitting down with a cup of tea to pay attention to our inner world with writing can nurture awareness and inner strength. Pairing writing with mindfulness practice can help to deepen the positive effects of transformative writing. Writing meditation practice can encourage new insights that lead to a greater sense of wholeness.

I write because I don’t know what I think until I read what I say.
Flannery O’Connor

Writing as Refuge ™ is a beautiful way to start the day. When we set aside the judgment and fear and simply focus on the present moment with this contemplative practice, it allows us to meet ourselves and our experience with kindness and curiosity. It allows us to objectively observe our experience without becoming so overwhelmed by it.

The stories we tell will determine how we heal. Writing about our lives can help us to see our inner stories from a fresh perspective. Writing helps us to see ourselves and the stories we are telling about ourselves and our lives more clearly with a greater sense of curiosity and courage.

Identity is both declared and created with narrative.
–Rita Charon, MD

Discover Your Authentic Voice

Discover your authentic voice. Connect with a deep sense of creative freedom. When we practice writing from the heart and soul of who we are and meeting whatever arises on the page with kindness, we grow to discover our authentic voice.

Writing is really a way of thinking — not just feeling but thinking about things that are disparate, unresolved, mysterious, problematic or just sweet.
Toni Morrison

Writing as Refuge ™ is a mindful writing practice that encourages an exploration of our inner landscape of beauty with non-judgment, curiosity., and compassion. When we explore our internal experience with kindness, this nourishes a practice of self-compassion in our everyday lives and allows us to grow in our appreciation of our inner beauty.

Studies have shown that combining mindfulness practice with writing has benefits that include increasing the effects of writing to transform our experience and support mental health.

Writing as Refuge ™ as a Path to Freedom

Mindful writing practice can support us in our journey toward personal and creative freedom. Developing a writing meditation practice can be a lovely way to cultivate a more meaningful and inspired life. When we write regularly, new insights and understandings begin to emerge that can support us in forward movement and growth. The practice can help us to shift from a fearful mindset to an inspired and courageous mindset.

I write entirely to find out what I’m thinking, what I’m looking at, what I see and what it means. What I want and what I fear.
Joan Didion

As someone who has struggled with fear at times in my life, I love the way this practice nudges me more toward a sense of fearlessness.

Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don’t feel I should be doing something else.
Gloria Steinem

Writing as Refuge for Transformation

Writing for transformation can help us to shine a light of awareness on aspects of our lives that have remained in the shadows.

In writing about our lives from a fresh perspective, we gain new insights and make meaning from difficult experiences. We see ourselves more clearly. We own our strengths and develop a greater sense of empowerment and agency over our own well-being.

Write what should not be forgotten.
Isabel Allende

Writing for Resilience

Writing for resilience practices can help to cultivate positive mental and emotional states that support healing and resilience. This mindfulness practice using writing as meditation can help us to pay attention to whatever is arising in the present moment in our mind, body, and soul and to practice responding to our experience with kindness and curiosity.

When we pay attention to the stories we are telling through a writing practice, we begin to see themes that emerge. Through regular meditation practice, we begin to see the opportunities for growth. Making time to write supports us in paying attention to our present moment experience and being able to see ourselves and our stories from a new perspective.

When we see ourselves and our stories clearly, we have the freedom to see them from a fresh perspective in a way that transforms our stories and thus transforms our daily life and positively impacts our mental health.

So long as you write what you wish to write, that is all that matters; and whether it matters for ages or only for hours, nobody can say.
Virginia Woolf

Making space in our writing practice for whatever arises in our lives can support the deepening of our mindfulness meditation practice as well as our personal and spiritual growth. When we’re feeling stuck in daily life, making time to write is an act of self care, a radical act of standing by ourselves and validating our ordinary experience.

Storytelling is at the heart of life… In finding our own story, we assemble all the parts of ourselves. Whatever kind of mess we have made of it, we can somehow see the totality of who we are and recognize how our blunderings are related. We can own what we did and value who we are, not because of the outcome but because of the soul story that propelled us.
– Marion Woodman

Writing as Meditation

In writing meditation, we practice meeting ourselves and our writing with kindness and curiosity. This can lead to many benefits in daily life including increased self acceptance and increased self esteem and self confidence. Practicing meeting our own voice with kindness can support us in owning our voice and having a greater sense of agency in our daily life.

Whatever we rest our attention on grows. Mindfulness writing as a meditation practice can help us to refocus our attention in ways that support mental health. Developing a regular mindfulness practice, through meditation and writing, can help you to feel a greater sense of peace and happiness.

Discover your authentic voice –in writing and in daily life– with mindful writing workshop.

Wherever you go, you meet part of your story.
Eudora Welty

Mindfulness Writing

Mindfulness writing is a writing meditation practice. Writing meditation practice can encourage a mindfulness approach to writing that facilitates an attitude of kindness, curiosity, and non-judgment toward our writing and ourselves. The practice can also facilitate creative flow and a greater sense of creative freedom, because we’re relating with ourselves and the writing with kindness and acceptance.

We write through our eyes. We write through our body. We write out of what we know.
Terry Tempest Williams

Here, we make art from everything. –Carole Maso

TESTIMONIALS

“Jen Johnson offers a sanctuary for creative discovery in her mindful writing workshops. To the searching adult, Jen is a seasoned master of the well-placed prompt; she can ignite the imaginative spark lying dormant in every soul. Jen elicits from her workshop participants a surprising and spontaneous outpouring of heartfelt expressions. From Jen’s guidance, attendees learn, within, to nurture a deep sense of contentment and empowerment.” – Ethel Simonetti, Durham, NC

“Writing from the heart is something I’ve always wanted to try, but I allowed life’s distractions to get in the way. If I am honest with myself, it’s really because I didn’t feel I was any good at writing. Jen’s approach is helping me to trust my inner voice. I can’t wait to keep going!” —Geraldine

“Writing about my father’s early death and the losses that surround that event has helped me to be more aware of how his absence has affected not only my childhood, but my whole life. I’ve learned that meditation is never perfect meditation…that it isn’t the perfection of each sitting that matters; it’s the fact that I’m practicing to sit that’s important. I’m so grateful for the through, thoughtful, compassionate, and helpful way that you’ve welcomed my work. Thank you for all of that and more.” — Kaaren

“I have new tools to use on my grief journey. Writing has helped me to put some difficult thoughts on paper, sometimes causing me to remember things that I guess I had pushed deep down—many sad memories, but some happy ones also.” — Shayne

“One of the most important insights gained from this workshop was discovering that it is possible for me to find a calm center so I can deal with and write about difficult emotions.” –Paul

My voice is born repeatedly in the fields of uncertainty.
Terry Tempest Williams

Writing Courses and Workshops Previously Taught include:
Writing as Refuge ™
Mindful Writing
Mindful Writing for Resilience
Mindful Writing for Transformation
Mindful Writing for Transforming Grief
Mindful Journaling
Grief Journaling
The Still Place: Mindful Journaling for Transformation
Mindful Writing: The Path to Freedom
Mindful Writing: Discover Your Authentic Voice
Mindfulness Journaling
Narrative Witnessing: Healing Bodies & Souls
Expository Writing
Argument Essay
Writing the Personal Essay
Writing for Healing
Narrative Witnessing: Stories of Survival
Narrative Medicine: Writing Stories that Heal
Invisible Wounds of War Writing Workshop

Meet Jen Johnson, Writing as Refuge ™ teacher