Healthy Habits for Writers - Part one
Caring for your body posture is a huge part of being a writer.
Please don’t skip it.
You deserve to have a healthy body.
As writers we need to take care of our body and mind to prevent bad posture aches, repetitive strain injury, and mental burnout.
Today I am thinking about the bad posture aches and pains aspect. Reminding myself that I have only one body and if it is injured then I will not be able to write. I want to stay comfortable. My body has been in this world for sixty years now and I know I need to take care if I want to continue writing for the next…um…forty years?
I have a simple chair and table, both at a good height to
each other, the correct height for me to rest my feet on the floor but I still
find those feet of mine on the table bar, knees pressing into the table, or
stretched forward, ankles crossed, so bad for the circulation. What is this
body of mine like? When the words flow all thoughts of a good body position are
lost, it slumps, lazy muscles not wanting to do their thing, they know I am
pre-occupied and they slump.
The only answer to this is to take breaks. I fall deep into
the writing flow but can only hold my writing breath for so long. I naturally
surface after about an hour or an hour and a half. This is perfect. A break for
mind and body.
The best exercise for me is yoga. Gentle stretching, a
realignment of muscles and spine. Whenever possible I like to do this on the
deck of my writing hut, but lashing rain or freezing snow makes this impossible
sometimes. There is just enough room for my yoga mat in my hut.
Yoga and I have a long relationship. From copying my mum as
a child, to following a daily program as a teenager, to doing yoga with a child
on my back as a mum, going to a yoga group once a week with my mum, and doing
it alone since I’ve moved to France. I know yoga. I love the pull and release,
the holding of a position, the challenge of remembering the small corrections
needed to do the posture as perfectly as I can, tuning into my body and feeling
when it is aligned. I like to blend postures into flows, a bit like Tai-Chi I
guess. I try to be intuitive and choose different postures depending on the
need of the day. It’s too easy to stick to one or two sets of postures and
forget the twists or the balances or the upside down ones.
And I guarantee your words will flow better after a little
exercise so it’s not a waste of writing time.
Have fun exploring what is right for your body and let me
know the difference it makes.
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