Journeys with Mindfulness is a zine about transformative experiences of mindfulness and meditation. The zine contains six stories and several interactive sections that invite the reader to practice mindful moments and complete colouring pages.

Dr Chloe Asker (they/she) is a Postdoctoral Research Associate in the European Centre for Environment and Human Health at the University of Exeter. Read on to find out more from Chloe about the creation of the zine and the creative collaborations that brought it to life.

Introduction

Writing a thesis is a challenging and somewhat overwhelming task, moreover, it is read by just a few people – namely your supervisors, examiners, and any colleagues or friends willing to sift through the lengthy document. Frustrated with the unreadability the PhD thesis, I wanted to create an output from my research that would be short, enjoyable to read, interactive and easy to share. I was inspired to write a zine based on a chapter from my thesis. Briefly, zines are DIY self-published books that can take a variety of formats. They have a long history in the counter-culture punk movement, and are seen as a democratised and accessible way to share knowledge, ideas and even manifestos. This blog post will explore the conception, development and production of my zine, journeys with mindfulness.

Conception

My doctoral research was based on lived experiences of, or journeys with, mindfulness. As part of the research I worked with a group of participants, tracing their experiences of mindfulness as both a meditation practice but also as a way of living. Over the course of two mindfulness courses and follow up interviews I witnessed the transformative effect that mindfulness had on their lives. Giving my participants a space in which to recount their relationship with the practice offered an opportunity to reflect on their journey, which in turn prompted them to realise the deep effects mindfulness had on their life. One participant was nervous to meet with me, she thought she had nothing to say about her relationship with mindfulness:

As she spoke it became clear that her journey, although at times challenging, had certainly been transformative.

I was motivated to create an accessible output from the research that could communicate the transformative experiences that my participants had shared with me. I decided to write a zine based on a chapter of my thesis that explores their journeys. I experimented with the zine format throughout my doctoral research – finding the open format and structure useful to creative and participatory research.

Development

Lacking in artistic competency myself, I enrolled the help and support of an illustrator and designer, Isabel Mae Abrams. She worked with my written stories and transformed them into beautiful illustrations. This was her first time working with an academic, but had worked on similar magazine and booklet layouts during her undergraduate degree and in some client work. I wanted to support the work of an emerging illustrator and fundamentally adored her design portfolio and her politicised approach to illustration (which includes representation of different races, abilities and body sizes).

We met weekly at the beginning of the project to discuss ideas, aesthetic choices, and layout. The process of co-production was very open-ended. I wanted to give Isabel full creative control. I gave her some initial ideas on the layout and aesthetic of the work, but fundamentally I wanted the work to be generated from her interaction with the stories and activities in the zine.

We worked steadily on it during Autumn 2021 – having regular meetings to catch up and chat about the progress of the work. The zine was finalised over the Christmas break and we published it in early January.

Isabel aimed to do two things with her illustrations. The first was to portray a diverse range of people order to show that mindfulness is accessible to everyone and anyone. This was also coupled with a care and concern over the ways that their lived experiences were presented and illustrated. She wanted to do justice to their lived experiences and the transformations that had occurred.

The second aim was to produce a calming a joyful experience, choice of colour and layout was important to this process:

Isabel was greatly inspired by the project as mindfulness is something that plays a key part in her own life, and illustration is even something that can be mindful for her. She told me that being able to bring these unique stories to life was a great and important opportunity and challenge, and it’s amazing to see it turn into something so exciting and special that others can now also enjoy.

Production

The zine stories several journeys with mindfulness based on the participants’ stories (including my own). To make the booklet interactive and mindful in its format, we worked on a colouring page in the centre fold, along with pauses and a body scan meditation at the end. The zine also comes with three illustrated postcards – you can use these however you’d like. But one option is to write your experiences with mindfulness/meditation and send them back to us in order to continue the conversation on the benefits (or frustrations with) the practice (if you’d like to do this use our contact page to request more information). The zine has been stocked at 3 independent bookshops in the UK and is available to download here as a pdf, or you can read it on issu here. You can also request a printed copy of the zine and postcards here (these are free!).

Chloe Asker