This the 9th and final installment of the healthy habits for writers series.

Relaxation is not a luxury but a requirement to have your best life. All the money in the world does not make a happy full life if you don’t have your best health. School administrators, employers, physicians, clergy, people from all walks of life espouse the importance of relaxation.

Watching television, unplugging from the internet, turning off the phones are good things to do from time to time. But, it takes a little more effort to really get relaxed. Focused relaxations are very powerful in positively influencing your life. There are lots of things you can do. There are many ways you can relax and variations on most of them. I’m sharing with you seven that I’ve used.

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This the 8th installment of the healthy habits for writers series.

It’s important to know where you’ve been. It’s why we study history. Well—in theory it’s why we study history. The idea is that we should be able to operate within the parameters of out present, knowing what’s happened in our past and allowing for the variables that present with time and people.

To extend that further: if you know where you’ve been and have a decent handle on where you are, then you should be able to plan into the future. That’s how I follow it anyway. But why do that?

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This the 7th installment of the healthy habits for writers series.

How often have you worked an entire day only to realize that you are stiff and fully spent? It’s as though you went to a gym and worked out for hours— the stiffness only though. You don’t have any of the burn, or the afterglow feeling of having put in a good workout.

The reason is because you didn’t. That afterglow feeling is from the release of endorphins. And you don’t get it from sitting still. Your muscles are stiff from inaction and being sedentary for long hours. Before you say it, no, getting up and out for lunch, putting in and pulling out your chair, and lifting heavy foods with a mere fork don’t count as workout activities.

If you sit for hours at a time in front of a computer screen, if you’re not as young as you used to be, if you don’t have thirty young students you run behind, or one or two active children of your own, you may need to do more than groom, and eat, and walk to the door.

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This the 6th installment of the healthy habits for writers series.

The following are general life areas that very important. And they can bring to bear, a great deal of negative stress. Negative stress is the chronic, debilitating stress that threatens to block your productivity.

Stresses have threatened and succeeded in impeding my work on occasion. Still there are ways to manage them that can shorten their stay.

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This is the 5th post from the healthy habits series.

You can’t Put Sleep Off Safely

It’s not because your brain turns off. Quite the contrary, in fact. Many people claim to need 3 or 4 hours of sleep and they’re fine. And, while they may actually be able to function, they are putting their bodies at risk by obstructing some very important activities. During sleep, your conscious mind shuts off and your unconscious mind gets busy. Your unconscious mind does some pretty amazing things physically and mentally.

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This is the 4th installment for the posts from the healthy habits series. Even with the long pause between installments, I had to return to the set to share these things that have helped me.

Do you ever have trouble concentrating? Do you feel fatigued even when you’ve slept? Two hours ever feel like six? Have you considered it may be your posture that’s giving you a problem? Posture is important for everyone. If you think sitting to write daily gives you a pass on having good posture, you’re wrong. Consider your exertion:

• Sitting up in a chair
• Repetitive stress of typing
• Looking at your monitor(s)
• Concentrating on your topic

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