avatarCaitlin McColl

Summary

Mindful Mental Health is a publication dedicated to exploring the intersection of mindfulness practices and mental health, offering guidelines for contributors on topics, writing practices, and submission protocols.

Abstract

The "Mindful Mental Health" publication serves as a platform for discussing the integration of mindfulness with mental health. It emphasizes the significance of mental well-being, equivalent to physical health, and defines mindfulness as intentional, non-judgmental present-moment awareness, as per Jon Kabat-Zinn. The publication covers a range of topics from yoga and meditation to psychological conditions and therapies, encouraging writers to share personal experiences and insights on coping strategies, self-care, and the mindful approach to mental health challenges. Contributors are guided by specific rules, including adherence to Medium's terms, appropriate content warnings, and the use of specific tags for article categorization. The guidelines also stress the importance of grammatical accuracy, non-graphic content, and actionable advice within heavy subject matter, with a limit on the number of daily submissions.

Opinions

  • The publication values the contribution of its writers and emphasizes the importance of crediting images and maintaining a high standard of writing.
  • It advocates for a balanced approach to mental health, discouraging suppression or explosion of emotions, and instead promoting acceptance and exploration of feelings.
  • The editor expresses a preference for articles that offer actionable takeaways, even when dealing with heavy topics, to provide readers with practical insights.
  • The guidelines suggest a supportive community atmosphere, encouraging writers to follow the publication and offering an affiliate membership link to support writers on the platform.
  • The editor, Caitlin McColl, invites contributions that align with the publication's themes of mindfulness, mental health, and the intersection of the two, while also setting clear expectations for content quality and relevance.

Submission Guidelines

Welcome to Mindful Mental Health

A publication to explore mindfulness and mental health

created in Canva Pro by author

(If you aren’t a Medium member and want to read this article in full for free, click this sentence! If you are a Medium member — thank you for your support!)

Hello and welcome to Mindful Mental Health! A publication on the topics of mindfulness, mental health, and mindfully dealing with mental health.

Instructions on how to write for this publication will be listed at the bottom of this piece.

Everyone knows how important our physical health and wellbeing are, but many forget that our mental health is just as (or perhaps even more!) important — as our mental health can drastically affect our physical health.

First of all, let’s define what I mean by Mindful Mental Health and break down each part.

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness is a buzzword that you’ve probably heard a lot of the last few years. And you might equate mindfulness with meditation. And yes, there is such a thing as Mindfulness Meditation.

But what is mindfulness more generally? As defined by meditation teacher and mindfulness practitioner and founder of Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction (MBSR), Jon Kabat-Zinn:

Mindfulness is awareness that arises through paying attention, on purpose, in the present moment, non-judgementally….in the service of self-understanding and wisdom

So you can be mindful in every area of your life — mindful eating, mindful walking, being mindful of your environment, mindful of your speech and conversations and relationship with others, and the list goes on. Basically it’s just about being more aware and present in your everyday life.

Just some examples of mindfulness practices/topics to write about are: yoga, meditation, breath practices, Buddhism, Stoicism, and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) which kind of bridges both mindfulness and mental health.

What is Mental Health?

According to Mentalhealth.gov, a definition of mental health is:

Mental health includes our emotional, psychological, and social well-being. It affects how we think, feel, and act. It also helps determine how we handle stress, relate to others, and make choices. Mental health is important at every stage of life, from childhood and adolescence through adulthood.

Over the course of your life, if you experience mental health problems, your thinking, mood, and behavior could be affected.

They go on to explain that our mental health can be impacted in three key ways:

biology — like our genes or our brain chemistry and neurological makeup

experience — through negative things in our lives such as abuse or trauma

history — through our families, and members who have history of mental health issues

Some examples of mental health topics you can write about: mental health issues (such as anxiety and depression, bi-polar, narcissism, dissociative identity disorder etc.), trauma, psychology/neuroscience and psychotherapy practices such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or the newer version Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), among others.

What is Mindful Mental Health?

Well, it’s just what it says, really.

Dealing with and exploring mental health issues in a mindful way — whatever that means to you!

Share your ways and experiences of how you are dealing with/coping with/improving and/or exploring your own mental health by incorporating mindfulness techniques or practices, including self care.

One of the main ways to help our mental health is not to suppress what we are experiencing (or doing the opposite and exploding) while going through the ups and downs of life, but rather to sit with our feelings, accept them and explore them. Learning to face our fears and our demons (as they say in Buddhist circles, have tea with our demons), instead of struggling against them so you are more capable of dealing with them in a more positive way.

A few examples of topics you can write about in Mindful Mental Health are: wellbeing, wellness, self care and self care practices, resilience, gratitude, positive psychology and social psychology.

Want to write for MMH?

Here are the guidelines:

  1. Agree to follow Medium’s Terms of Service and Rules/Guidelines. Including crediting all images appropriately (even ones you have created). And add a subtitle too (in sentence case). It just looks better.
  2. Topics. You can write on any of the three topics:
  • Mindfulness — e.g. yoga, meditation, breath practices, Buddhism, Stoicism, and Mindfulness Based Cognitive Therapy (MBCT) (which kind of bridges both mindfulness and mental health)
  • Mental Health — e.g. mental health issues such as anxiety and depression, bi-polar, narcissism, dissociative identity disorder etc., trauma, psychology/neuroscience and psychotherapy such as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) or the newer version Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), among others.
  • Mindful Mental Health — e.g. wellbeing, wellness, self-care and self-care practices, resilience, gratitude, positive psychology.

3. Please No Graphic Content. Please try not to get too graphic when writing about mental health issues, and if you write about topics that you think might be disturbing or upsetting to others, please put a TRIGGER WARNING or CONTENT WARNING at the beginning followed by a description of what you’re writing about — e.g. TRIGGER WARNING: Abuse (or trauma or death etc)

4. Heavy Subject Matter. If you’re writing about something super heavy, try to add some lightness to it. And I don’t mean make light of it, or turn it into something toxically positive! But, perhaps add some sort of actionable takeaway that you’ve had or experienced from your heavy situation.

5. Editing. Please try to have your articles as error free and grammatically correct as possible. It behooves you as a writer to put your best work forward. I won't do any major editing. I'll fix typos or missed punctuation if I catch it on review but that's about it. Unless your piece needs a lot of work, I'll most likely publish it without issue.

6. Tags. Use these tags to ensure your story goes into the right section of the publication.

  • if you’re writing on mindfulness use the tag: Mindfulness
  • if you’re writing on mental health use the tag: Mental Health
  • if you’re writing on mindful mental health use the tag: Mindful

7. Drafts or Self Published. You can submit self-published stories, but just be aware that if you do, they will appear on the date that you originally wrote it, so won’t be at the front on the Publication. Submitting a draft ensures your story is at the top and not necessarily lost in a sea of earlier dated articles.

8. Number of Submissions. Please don’t submit more than twice a day (I’m only one person — for now!).

9. Please also follow the publication as well — thank you!

And that’s it!

If you’d like to be a writer for Mindful Mental Health, comment on this article with “I’d like to write for MMH” and your Medium ID.

I look forward to reading and publishing your works on mindfulness and mental health.

Wishing you well 💖

Caitlin

If you’ve enjoyed my writing and want to read unlimited articles by myself and others you can join Medium via my affiliate membership link at no extra cost (I do get a small commission) which will help support me and thousands of others on the platform. If you feel so inspired:

Or, if you want to show your appreciation you can purchase a cup of coffee. It is greatly appreciated! I’d also love you to check out my personal publication Inkslinger Magazine.

©Caitlin McColl 2022, all rights reserved.

Mindful Mental Health
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