I spent the past five days at a writing retreat with Natalie Goldberg, author of Writing Down the Bones and 14 other books. I thought I’d signed up for a workshop about writing, but by the end of it, I realized we were also learning about harnessing the mind.

The retreat marked my first experience at a Zen Center. Despite my uncertainty about the location, the Upaya Zen Center in Santa Fe, New Mexico proved to be the perfect setting for a 5-day intensive studying and practicing “the way the mind moves.”

We spent each day from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. in silence, going about our daily activities without talking. We practiced Zen meditation, both sitting and slow walking. We made an effort to be mindful in everything we did, from conserving water, to participating in daily Samu (work practice), to engaging in quiet conversation when the time came to talk. And it worked; the mind opened up.

If you’ve read any of Natalie’s work, you’ll know that she is a master of the mind. She coined the term “monkey mind,” referencing that part of the brain we all know well, the critic, the one that tells us we can’t do it, we’re not good enough, we should quit.
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Natalie’s method for dealing with monkey mind is comprised of just four words of action: shut up and write. I like this method, and I asked her to write it in the front of my book above where she signed her name. Much like Luis’s “If you’re afraid to do something, do it anyway,” it’s a good reminder.

Besides learning to tame the monkey, she equipped us with lots of other useful tools for navigating the wily ways of the mind, like “go where the mind goes,” and “write whatever comes up, or nothing else will come,” and “continue under all circumstances.” These tools are fantastic for writing—try it; you’ll see—but knowing them makes me feel like I can tackle all of the other difficult or challenging things that come my way.

Zen is about understanding the mind. So, too, is Natalie’s method for teaching writing. Understanding the mind, knowing the way thought moves around in the mind, and how often we let fear (which is just monkey mind by another name) control us will not only make you a better writer. It’ll make you a better person.

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