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.

7 Relaxation Activities

1. Meditate:It can calm thoughts that overwhelm and cause anxiety and stress. It improves breathing, making your breathings slower and deeper. Proper meditation is simple and works by bringing you fully into your present, not in the future (planning) or the past (worrying about what’s already passed).
2. Breathe deeply: Inhale deeply through your nose and exhale fully through your mouth. This increases your oxygen intake, which is important, as most of us are shallow breathers. It helps to improve clarity of thoughts and increase energy levels.
3. Stretch: Stretching increases flexibility, and it helps to relieve muscle tension that can build up throughout your workday. Increases blood flow and oxygen to your organs.
4. Write: Journal writing is way of getting your thoughts on paper that can clog up your focus and creativity. In a personal journal, you write whatever comes to mind. It’s only for you, so you don’t have to be guarded or sensor your content. It can help you think things through, discover elusive solutions to problems, and reduce worrying.
5. Listen to Music: Listening to music alone or in conjunction with other practices can be very relaxing. Soothing tones and melodies can encourage deep breathing and relaxation of tense muscles.
6. Guided Imagery: Imagine a place, real or made up, that makes you feel calm or peaceful. Using multiple sensory images helps to keep your focus. My place is an imagined spot in nature.
7. Progressive Muscle Relaxation: A process of tensing and relaxing specific muscle groups. It increases your awareness of tension and the feeling of tension release in each muscle group.

What Relaxation gets You

Relaxation can refresh and rejuvenate you. The benefits of relaxing, taking time out, can put you back in balance both physically and mentally.

• Improves resistance to illness
• Improves clarity and focus
• Increases energy levels
• Improves self-control in difficult situations
• Improves your attitude which can improve personal and professional relationships

What relaxation activities work for you? How have you benefited from relaxing? There are many options out there. Do your research, talk to people, and find what works for you. You, your family, and your work will be all the better for it.

Related articles:

• Journal Writing to Relieve Stress
• Relaxation Techniques for Stress Relief
• Benefits of Different Types of Meditation Techniques
• 5 benefits of keeping a personal journal
• Relaxation Practices at Loyola University Maryland

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?

Seeing into the Future

If you sit to contemplate all the variables of life, you may never stand up, or move forward for that matter. However, if you should dare to get moving on anything, most effective projects succeed with good planning.

1. Increases focus: You’re better able to focus on what’s expected. A schedule eliminates the wonder of what comes next.
2. Flexibility: You understand what is expected and can decide whether or not to take on an additional assignment, or juggle tasks when something unavoidable comes up.
3. Efficiency: You can execute tasks to complete assignments without losing time in planning. I don’t mean don’t plan. Quite the contrary. Planning your day in the morning or the night before allows you to move quickly from task to task.
4. Routines: You have certain things that you can relegate to routine so they require less time to complete. Like using templates, routines let you plug in different variables to what has already worked for you.
5. Ease billing issues: If you’re an hourly worker, you work for the time allotted and that’s what you bill for. If you work on flat rates, you get a good idea of the time it takes to complete certain jobs. It’s not all of what you bill against, but the time factors in and having a clear picture helps you set your rates.
6. Meet deadlines: Scheduling make you conscious of the time and task and puts your deadlines front and center. Going back to focus, when you have a schedule, you are more inclined to keep your focus and therefore meet your deadlines.
7. Mastering the muse: This one, conceptually, is probably the most ethereal. However, it’s as tangible and measurable (after a fashion) as the others. When you stick with a schedule, you train your creativity to show up at an appointed time. Keep to a schedule for writing and see if you find that your blank page stare time shortens—even when you’re writing to new topics.

Big BONUS: Keeping to a schedule eliminates the BAD STRESS of guessing what is due, what comes next and what kind of time you have. It’s rare that you’ll be able to cover everything, but with enough time put into it, you should be able to relax with the knowledge that you are meeting your goals or not and why.

I have a schedule for writing at Telling Stories. It’s for pleasure but I have started to look at my writing there in terms of quarters and it helps for planning, too. Article types of posts are published once a week or so. Right now, through the end of the National Poetry Month, April, I will be posting a poem daily. Sometimes I’ll be writing to prompts that come from others. I can’t plan for the subject in advance. However, I’m already in the habit of writing a poem daily, so my muse is in the habit of showing up, which is important.

Well executed plans lead somewhere we all want to get to: the realm of the successful. That’s why we do the work we do. Obviously, right? So why not give it a shot. See if you don’t come to some interesting results by having a schedule. And don’t forget all the other parts to be considered when planning your schedule. You know, meals, snacks, exercise and such.

What do you think? What benefits do you find from keeping a writing schedule, or not keeping one?

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.

Cancel out Sedentary Living

These days, many people are concerned about living healthy lives. They take advantage of the information science makes available to have a better lifestyle. And this only makes sense when you consider people are living longer; no sense living it in a rickety body when you can do better. You can find the information that you need many places. I’ve compiled here seven exercises that help me break up my otherwise sedentary workday.

Dangers of Sedentary Living

There are serious health risks to not getting enough exercise. Some of the risks are obvious, others not so much. And because it’s so easy to get caught up in writing and researching, it’s important to make the conscious effort to get in enough exercise. It can spare you the time lost and expense that can come with serious health issues.

Many of the articles I’ve read on this subject, have stated that you shouldn’t jump into exercise without consulting with your doctor. I think this is especially true if you are ailing already. If you start and feel really poorly, STOP! and be sure to consult your health care practitioner.

Some diseases related to sedentary living include:

• heart disease
• diabetes
• obesity
• depression
• anxiety

7 Exercises to Counter the Sedentary Lifestyle

As I get older, aches seem to last longer. When I don’t exercise for a while, everything seems to want to stop. My digestion even slows down. Exercise is really important to me because I have a defective hip. One of the best exercises for me is swimming. My doctor told so. However, it’s rare that I can get to a pool. The following are exercises I’ve chosen because they help me, and make a difference in how I feel. There are others that I have on my list, but these are the seven I use most often.

1. Stretches: extend muscles to their maximum then just a little further, hold for a 5 count and release.
   • arms: rotations with locked elbows; swinging with bent elbows, like walking in place
   • legs: sitting on the floor, reach for toes
   • torso: twist and bend at the waist; 3 count
   • neck: turn head left to right, as well as tilting; 3 count
2. Marching: in place, lifting my knees high and swing my bent arms in exaggerated fashion
3. Finger flex: bounce extensions pressing fingers into each other
4. Walk: brisk and slow, intermittently
5. Dance: music sets the tone so choose wisely upbeat, but no salsa to start
6. Deep breathing: fill your lungs, count four, exhale slowly
7. Mini massage: massage the muscles in your hands and forearms

Benefits: These exercises can improve muscle tone, circulation, digestion and breathing. They burn calories, too. Using them and building on the frequency builds physical stamina. Another benefit I almost forgot about, being physically fit improves emotional and mental stamina, and clarity. Improving muscle tone and burning calories has a very nice benefit of better fitting clothes. (I really loathe shopping for LARGER sizes!)

Implementing: I choose exercises from this list and go for fifteen minutes, twice each day that I do them. And to that, I’ve started slow, with two to three days a week.

What do you think? What are your routines for getting the exercise you need? Let me know how you counter your sedentary lifestyle.

Resources:

• Exercise for a Healthy Heart
• Writers and Sedentary Lifestyle

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.

1. Health: Most of us get sick from time to time. But if you start to notice the same minor illnesses popping in often, it may be an indicator that you need to change some things.

Often times poor health is a result of missing your sleep, worry, and of poor diet. It may have been okay to lose sleep for days on end when you were young, in school, playing, but for work being sleepy can make you punchy and destroy your focus.

So, to help put off chronic, minor health issues, to think clearly and work most effectively, it’s important to get your proper rest and sleep. Worry can be alleviated by sleep, which points up how circular this situation can be. Worry can also be alleviated by keeping a journal, #7 below.

2. Diet: A healthy diet can affect your work day. There are many options to choose from and dietary suggestions are all over the internet, if you’re healthy enough to eat what you want. If not, consult your health care provider. Here are some suggestions that I followed that help me.

1. Eat fruit for breakfast.
2. Let your first drink of the day be water.
3. Eat light lunch to fuel your body without over filling.
4. Between meal snacks should be brain foods.
5. Dinner should be nutrition packed and not too heavy. If you eat before an evening workout, allow for that drain by having a healthy snack or juice after.

3. Tools: I have simple equipment to do my work. My tools need to work. Computer, external drives, scanner, phone. And I get a little bent out of shape when they don’t work.

When my external hard drive is really behaving oddly. It turns on and off as it pleases. Once for 2 days I fiddled with the thing, the outlets and the connections. I was about to pull it apart when I moved it to a different outlet on my surge protector, (again). A few seconds later, I heard the familiar whir letting me know it was booting up. Finally I called in because it made no sense. From my detailed description of my experiences and experiments, I was diagnosed with needing a new power cord. Since I replaced that I’ve had no more trouble.

Needless to say the experience of possibly losing my external drive gave me a lot of stress.

1. It’s not just backup, it’s also primary storage for many files
2. It’s larger than my internal drive, so it’s not like I could move it back to my computer at all
3. It was giving my problems at a time when I really wanted to focus on the project I was in the middle of

Make sure your tools are current and in good working order. Learn all you can about the tools you use, so that you can use them efficiently, without having to learn every time you use them.

Make sure you have the proper backup system for your needs. If you don’t have a backup system and you don’t worry about it, it may be because you never lost critical data. In that case, preempting such an experience will save you more than you know.

4. Family: My family will make demands from time to time, with no regard to my work or my plans. They make noise, ask questions, make plans, and assume I’m available.

Most times it’s light-weight stuff that I can easily counter. However, there are those times when the pressure to accommodate and comply is stepped up. You know when you can be available. When you can’t protect your space like your income depends on it—because it does.

Over time teach your family that your work and activities matter, even if it is work at home. Some people take it less seriously when you’re at home.

1. Keep a schedule that allows time for family and activities—unless that’s not part of your reason for working at home.
2. Have your boundaries of space and time set clearly for family members to see.
3. Leave home sometimes when there are unavoidable schedule conflicts. You don’t want to miss deadlines if you can help it.

5. Friends: My friends pressures are far different from my family. It’s passive rather than active, like with my family. They invite me to things, and the enticement takes on a life of it’s own. Once the invitation is received and the phone is hung up, I spend my time trying to make happen, whatever was asked.

I get caught up in the vacillation. Yes, I can go. No. I better not. But if I move this and hurry that, then I might just make it. But, wait! I can’t rush that; I’ll miss something.

If none of this sounds familiar, never mind. But, if you’re like me and have great friends that don’t push you into anything, only try to include you, then you know the pressure inherent in being included in fun stuff. This is just another area where self-discipline can see you through. You don’t have to be perfect, just good.

1. Schedule in fun activities when you’re not working.
2. Put your work first. If you can finish it, so much the better. If not, be aware of how much time you’ll need to get the job done and take that time.
3. Reschedule with your friends, if you have to. Friends will understand.

6. Community: We are social creatures. That means we require some measure of social interaction. If you work alone all day, and all night when you’re pressed, you need to find social interactions. It takes more than staying abreast of things by reading the news listening to the radio. Social interaction is how you keep your finger on the pulse of humanity. And isn’t that what you draw on to write whatever you write?

While this is less obvious for people who live with families, it can be a problem for them too. If you’re a writer, (1) you need to be able to communicate with an audience of at least one; (2) you need to be aware of topics and trends that proliferate the airwaves if you write time specific pieces; and (3) you need to network to get your ideas shared.

1. Talk to people online via social networking.
2. Get out and connect with friends and family.
3. Read blogs on topics that interest you and leave useful comments.

Find the fun side of participating. As people who write out of passion and drive, we do have a tendency to want to isolate. Often we feel that this is our more natural state and participation is purely an effort. (Maybe I’m just telling on myself.) In either case, it’s important to make that effort. Finding common ground with others can be a major source of positive reinforcement and knowledge. You’d be surprised at the many things you can learn from people.

7. Writing: It’s not just for work. Writing helps you to work things out, the list out your concerns before they become worries. Keep a personal journal for writing out your random thoughts. It can help you to organize your thoughts. Eliminating the chaos in your thoughts can make you much less stressful throughout your day.

1. Write in a notebook. The physical action of writing can help you connect more deeply to your quiet, nagging thoughts.
2. Write in private where you are free to be fully uncensored, and don’t censor yourself.
3. Think about the fact that you’re not writing solutions, but problems concerns and observations. Often the solutions will come.
4. Keeping a journal can also help you to be prepared for other eventualities that upset your balance.

So that’s it for these seven stress areas. I hope you got something out of some of them. There are other areas that can stress you, putting you out of balance, and making productivity very slow. Be vigilant and be pro-active to counter the effects of stress.

If you have stress areas, how do you deal with them?

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.

Physical Regeneration

The health benefits of sleep should entice you to get the rest you need. Your body heals at an accelerated rate with the natural production of a proteins that help to repair the body. Proper sleep allows your body time to get rejuvenated from regular activities of life, as well as extra exertions.

Mental Regeneration

There is much that remains unknown about the way the brain works. What is known is quite interesting. When you dream, your brain actually works through events and problems. You may not recall the dream the next day. However, it may happen is that you discover you have a solution to a problem, answer to a question that had eluded you the day or days before.

What is Proper Sleep?

No, it’s not an official term. It speaks to what I’ve found to be optimal conditions for sleep for me. Say you’re tired, it’s been a long day. No way you won’t sleep. I’ve had nights when I know that I was asleep as soon as my head touched the pillow. But it takes more than a full day, tiredness, or even exhaustion to get your best sleep. To get the full benefit of sleep, it helps to get enough hours and be in a good sleep environment.

Enough Hours

You can push yourself relentlessly, trying to make everything happen when you insist. It probably won’t work: you could likely put everything and more in jeopardy. And you still won’t have your work done.

I tried to push myself to work until the wee hours of the morning, during the weekdays. Then on the weekends, I would sleep for most of the day. People call this make up sleep or some such thing. In the short-run, it works—kind of, temporarily. But, there are long-term dangers, including permanently disrupting your sleep pattern. You can see how that would interrupt all the other beneficial things that sleep does, right?

I can. And actually I did see first hand. I once met a lady who was hospitalized for hallucinations and odd behavior. The cause of her problems was prolonged sleep deprivation. Once you can’t control your sleep patterns, the problems can snowball quickly. At the time of being hospitalized, this lady’s sleep deprivation was about a week and it was a matter of not enough hours, not zero hours of sleep.

Find out how much sleep is optimal for you, and try to stick with that as often as possible. You can look it up and see what the accepted standards are. Then experiment to learn what works best for you.

Good Sleep Environment

There are things you can do while you’re awake, to improve your sleep time. Exercise and nourishment are very important to having good sleep. Here are some more things you can do to enhance your sleep environment.

1. Sleep in a dark, cool, quiet room. Other environments may cause you to wake in the night, or to sleep fitfully.
2. Sleep at night, when you’re naturally inclined to. Unless you work over night regularly, you want to sleep when your body’s internal clock dictates.
3. Sleep on a firm bed with good pillows. Firmness will support your back and spine, reducing the chance of soreness.
4. Sleep on clean, allergen-free bedclothes.
5. Try to only rest in your bedroom. By keeping your work in another area, you are conditioning your mind to go into relaxation mode when you enter your bedroom.
6. Put away your worries and stresses of the day. I add this especially for any who suffer from anxiety attacks like myself. Try meditation to calm your racing thoughts and put them aside until after you sleep.

Benefits of Getting Enough Sleep

So what are the benefits of sleep? We have deadlines to meet, titles to work out, topics to research, perspectives that we need to decide on, just to get started. There’s a better alternative to forging straight through: SLEEP when you’re supposed to. Take a look at some of the benefits of sleep:

1. Improved memory
2. Improved alertness
3. Improved creativity
4. Clear thought processes
5. More energy
6. Improved social experiences
7. Better digestion
8. Better work sessions
9. Greater resistance to getting sick
10. Less stress in difficult situations

It’s a fact that you can work through your day, better, when you’re rested. You’ll be alert to new ideas, making almost intuitive connections. And, really, it’s nice when you wake and have solutions and new, creative ideas. Now, isn’t that worth turning off the computer and putting away the puzzles of the day?

Try to get the sleep you need on a regular basis. Reschedule your tasks to fit your work into a work day. Make yourself content with accomplishing all you can in your work day; this will go a long way to preparing for sleep.

If you’re a skeptic, like I was, try it for yourself. Take one or two weeks off from pushing yourself to the limit. Get good sleep and see what changes for you. Please share it in a comment below. Or if it’s long, post it on your blog and leave the post link in a comment below. I’d love to read your story.

Further reading:

• Sleeping Well: What You Need to Know
• How to Get Better Sleep by Diana Rodriguez
• While You Sleep, Your Brain Keeps Working

Related posts:

• healthy habits for writers
• daydreaming and i’m thinking of…
• Anxiety, a poem

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

You spend your days working at saying things in just the right way. As soon as you finish one article, you can move on to the next in your list of projects waiting for your focused attention. The last thing you need is the distraction of poor posture and the complications it can introduce.

I learned the hard way about the importance of good posture and how it could improve my work life. I was reduced to severe headaches, neck pain, loss of focus, and muscle cramps before I learned that my posture was part of my problem. Then I learned to replace the bad habits with healthy habits of good posture.

Benefits of Good Posture

1. Good posture informs your disposition. Proper posture can call up a positive attitude. When you stand straight and tall, it is a more confident posture than to slouch. When I am upright, I feel more invested in my work, and more positive about it. Conversely, when I slouch, it feels like my heart is not in what I’m doing, and I can be easily distracted.

Also, your disposition informs your posture. You know how when you’re working on something and it starts to fall into place? Do you ever notice that you tend to sit up straight in those times? That’s an automatic reaction to your mental state of becoming more excited and engaged.

2. Good posture adds energy to your life, makes you more productive and more fun to be around.

I have bad posture in general. So, I have to practice at using good posture. And focusing on posture has made me notice my reactions to good and bad stances, physically and emotionally.

When you sit at your desk, do you slouch and stare at your computer? Or do you sit up straight and knock out tasks one after another? If you’re in the latter group, you are experiencing some of the benefits of good posture. You tend to be more relaxed physically, which affects your emotional state as well. You can be focused on work without being tense in general.

3. Good posture is attractive. When you walk straight and tall, your demeanor tends to match. It can help you to command attention when addressing an audience. Opposite to that is slouching, which can sometimes make you seem uncertain, unconcerned, and uninvolved.

4. Good posture tells others that you are self-confident, you matter to yourself, you are involved and present with what you’re doing. I tend to get a better reaction from people when my posture is good.

5. Good posture can help you to have a healthy working life. This is not to say that you should sit for hours on end, even with good posture. Quite the contrary; you should take breaks and stretch.

- Good posture improves breathing. And since most of us are shallow breathers, this is an important consideration. Good posture keeps the ribcage expanded which encourages deeper breathing. More oxygen gets into the blood which improves brain activity.

You are actually more energized when you breathe deeply. Your body runs more efficiently and your thinking is clearer.

- Good posture improves digestion. Using proper posture will allow your organs the space they need to function properly, instead of slouching which can compress your organs.

- Good posture relieves stress on your body. You won’t strain your muscles, bones and joints, so much when you practice good posture.

6. Good posture improves your rest at night. The best position to sleep in is on one of your sides, either will do, or your back. This keeps you from putting strain on your spine. Sleeping on your stomach can cause spinal strain. The key to any position you lie in is proper use of your pillow. Seriously. Your pillow should prop your head up so that it allows your neck and spine to be straight and not bent.

The Healthy Habit of Good Posture

You may have noticed that there are a lot of reciprocal connections. That’s why I tried to illustrate the connection in a circular connection rather than a straight line.

Let’s review the graphic starting with proper rest. Proper rest allows you to have proper posture, since you’re not drained and dragging. Proper posture will cause less strain on muscles and joints, giving your more energy and alertness in the day. Because you have energy and are alert, you can last longer throughout your work day. Stamina is needed for a regular work day, and a day when all your writing assignments are due. When it’s time sleep, you’ll be able to relax and get into a good sleep position, (lying on either side or back), and have better sleep. Better sleep means that your body will get the proper rest it needs to repair, rejuvenate and revitalize for the next day.

Full circle. And that is the nature of cycles in life and in our bodies. My posture is much better than it once was. Now that I make the effort to get it right, my body and brain function better and that changes my attitude. My attitude, my demeanor in life and work, tends to select my posture.

Using Proper Posture takes Work

• Practice and relax into it. Learn what your body needs. If you’re like me and have a physical infirmity, then you may require a professional assessment. Otherwise, you need to get straight. It’s not a foreign thing. You need to remind your body of the proper posture that you had as a child. We do so well when we start out, and then later learn the bad habits.
• Your spine is the key. To have a healthy back you need to stretch regularly and train your stomach muscles. Tone abdominal muscles work with your back muscles to give your frame the support it needs while allowing easy and relaxed movement.
• Your sleep position matters. According to many articles, and my doctor, the best sleep position is on either side, or the back (with proper pillows), not the stomach. Remember to position your head so that your neck is properly aligned and not bent.
• Your chair matters. There’s a great deal of money invested in the study of ergonomics. This is studied because taking care is a lot more cost-effective then repairing damages. And, sometimes the damages are irreparable.
• Your work setting is critical. Along with your chair, the distance from you keyboard, the elevation of your keyboard and monitor all matter. Avoid positions that take your body out of it’s proper alignment.

Symptoms of Poor Posture

If you’re already noticing serious problems, you should talk with your doctor or chiropractic doctor. You want to replace your unhealthy practices with healthy habits before it’s too late. Because, poor posture can, over time, cause permanent damage to your body.

• Symptoms can include headaches, back and neck pain, muscle aches and spasms.
• Not-so-obvious symptoms can include digestive problems, shortness of breath, pinched nerves, sleep disturbance, and tiredness; things that people don’t readily attribute to poor posture.

There’s a wealth of information available on the internet, also. I want to bring up this really important thing that you can work on to have better health and a better writing life. It’s helped me and it may help you too. Read up, and take care.

Start now. Next time you’re sitting to work, fix your posture at the start. You may have to get used to it, but see if it doesn’t improve your overall performance. Come back and let me know. And, when you consider your posture, how do you interpret your own message to the public? I hope to hear back about your experiences.

Resources:

• healthy habits for writers
• Breathing and Posture for Better Health
• What is Good Posture?

I knew I was in trouble when I couldn’t focus on any thoughts. I seemed to be moving through a never-lifting fog. Only with the greatest effort was I able to hold on to thoughts long enough to complete them.

Once I learned I needed to take iron, and that was squared away, I decided to look for more information. I searched further to discover whether or not there was something I could do to improve my clarity and ability to focus. I learned some really interesting things about feeding my brain.

So, What does Your Brain Eat?

Scientists know a great deal about your brain. However, there is much still that is unknown about this organ that runs our autonomic functions as well as delivering the messages to our limbs when we think run.

Like many Americans, my eating habits leave much to be desired. I already knew that. What I didn’t know was the foods that could benefit brain functioning. What’s more, according to some research, without the proper fatty acids you are actually working against your intellectual ability.

Good food, foods with certain specific fats, vitamins and nutrients, can actually improve your brain’s functioning. From my experience I know that proper blood flow is critical to brain functions. What I learned was that beneficial fatty acids can improve your intellectual functioning. Your healthy diet should include the omega-3 and -6 fatty acids. Healthy brain functioning is only part of the benefits of omega-3 and -6 fatty acids.

Hara Estroff Marano brings up an important point that we generally eat and cook with the wrong fats for our brains; yet they’re generally considered heart healthy. Marano states that walnut and canola oils are good choices.

Dr. Edward Group III lists more foods that boost your brain power. They include berries, vitamin C and beta-carotene rich fruit and vegetables and other vitamins including B and E, and magnesium. Organic, live fruit, vegetables and nuts make great snacks and boost your brain functions. Foods rich in folic acid help your overall nervous system function as well as preserve the condition of your brain.

Things to Keep in Mind

Many people want to increase our intellectual power. After all, who doesn’t want more clarity and good moods.  It is pretty much an imperative, then, that we follow these guidelines when you consider that doing otherwise actually works against your brain power.

Cognitive activities like writing and meditating are possible with your healthy brain. Your mental acuity can be greatly improved, and all you have to do is add specific foods to your menu. And when you use your brain, you help to keep it in good condition. Four things to remember when you’re out grocery shopping:

1. Choose from walnut or canola oil for your cooking needs
2. Be careful of the fish you purchase as toxins are generally high some seafood area. Check out other sources like flax seed if you’re not a fish person
3. Eat organic, locally grown foods whenever possible, for freshness and better digestion
4. As with most things, you can have too much. Don’t go overboard; talk with your health care provider because there’s no recommended daily amount for fatty acids so far. Scientists only know that your body benefits from it and can’t produce omega-3 fatty acids

Resources:

• Foods, Vitamins & Herbs that Boost Your Brain Power
• What is Good Brain Food?
• Omega-3 fatty acid

A few months ago, I started my healthy habits postings and then I got sidetracked BIG TIME. This is the second entry of the 9 posts originally planned for the healthy habits series.

If I told you that you need to be in good condition to run a marathon, or to begin a diet, or to prepare for surgery, you would probably agree with me. However, you may not readily see the urgency when I talk about the need for optimal health to be a writer. But it’s true.

Three major areas work together for better and for worse, and they are mind, spirit and body. Achieving balance in each of these areas will enhance your writing life. Here are some of the insights I’ve gained over the years.

Mind

As writers, we can be really busy sometimes. Not just in writing, but in living with family, friends and obligations. Busy is good but you still need to take time to relax. The purpose of relaxation is to find the balance between all that involves you, so that you can present your best self to each situation.

Sleep only allows for a part of your rejuvenation. There must also be a deliberate, conscious effort to relax. Since life doesn’t take a break to let you catch up, you have to take action to regain your balance. I use meditation to quiet the chaos that can occur in my thoughts. What I get out of it:

• A measure of order and calmness
• Confidence that I can handle these things and whatever comes up
• Openness, availability to inspirations that may present themselves as solutions or new ideas

It’s something you have to remain vigilant about if you’re anything like me. Even though I know it works, when things get really busy, this is an area that I would neglect. It’s easy to overlook, but it’s easy to rectify too.

Practice

When I sit for meditation, I am making the effort to quiet my thoughts and simply exist. The deliberateness of the action is part of the empowering experience it imparts. Through meditation, you control your thoughts somewhat. Mainly though you make room to control your responses to your thoughts as order emerges from the chaos. There are different kinds of meditation you can practice. The one I use is the Morning B.R.E.W. meditation practice from Kirk Byron Jones. It’s empowering and gives me the chance to organize and regroup my thoughts.

Spirit

Being in a bad mood, or sad mood, can be very heavy and inhibiting. And this can stifle productivity, reducing your flow to a sluggish pace or even a standstill. Being in a good spirit allows work to flow. In this disposition, you can receive new inspirations and ideas, and your current work can be informed easily as this is generally an open and receptive disposition. Negativity is generally a closed disposition.

There are any number of things that you might try to make yourself feel better. Some people shop. I have friends and family, (I’m not alone in this), who sleep when they are feeling blue. In the past I’ve tried these to get relief, but none works every time.

There are times when sadness and grief are completely appropriate. But, we can’t remain there indefinitely and remain healthy. What does work for me every time is gratitude. Practicing gratitude requires that you have command of your thoughts, and can be open to the blessings that you have. See how meditation can be a stepping stone to this part?

Practice

Gratitude is the practice of being thankful for all that you’ve been blessed with. Name things: being alive, in your right mind, able to write, type, able to be a friend, or good weather, the health of your pet, a great gardener and so much more. Appreciating what you have around you and where you are in life can actually heal your emotional wounds and lift your spirits. Try it. Dwell on the good things and not the bad.

Body

Of course you need to fuel your body to be able to do anything. And, it takes muscles to sit and type or write for any length of time, or jog. Your body will do what you want if you do a few things for it.

Practice

Nutrition - Eat balanced meals of live, organic produce and range-fed meats and poultry. You want to stay clear of processed foods, as their additives, in most cases, can be detrimental to your health.

Water - Drink plenty of clean, purified water. It is what your body needs to sustain its processes from digestion to sleeping, to thinking.

Exercise - It’s important to raise your heart rate for at least 20 minutes, 3 times a week. You need cardiovascular and strength training. Walking is great for your heart and your emotions. Strength training is also very important as muscles in good shape let you move easily for writing, typing, sitting, or putting more paper in the printer. The exertion sparks the release of endorphins which work to give you energy and lift your spirits. Yet another connection.

Putting it All Together

Regular meditation, taking time out to allow you to regain your focus, your clarity, your openness
Gratitude Habit, because appreciation is a healing, humbling and powerful wellspring to tap into, also creates openness
Physical care, proper nutrition, and adequate water and exercise to fuel your body to be able to think and to sit to write

If you maintain a harmonious balance in these three areas, you’ll deliver your best performance every time in writing and other endeavors. That’s not to say that your writing will be perfect every time you execute because you do these things. But you’re off to a very good start working from a balanced, centered self.

There were times when I was exhausted, hungry, hurried and unable to focus. I was certainly not operating from my center. Once, I actually returned to a project after lunch and couldn’t figure out what the heck I’d written. That doesn’t happen to me when I have these areas balanced and well maintained.

You don’t have to be perfect at it or a totally consistent practitioner—I know because I’m not. Once you start, it will get easier as it becomes your new habit. You’ll begin to see and feel the difference as these practices take root and begin to restore you.

I hope you found something useful here. Let me know if you did, or if you have your own insights that you’d like to share.

Resources:

Posts

• Easy Ways to Get Your Five Per Day, from Natural News
• The Importance of Antioxidants in Fruits and Vegetables, from Natural News

This is the first installment for the post from the healthy habits series. Be sure to return for other entries in this set.

Do you know what to do when your health starts to flag?

You know how sometimes you get sick, your sinuses fill and apply pressure to your head to bulge, only there are no plates in your skull to allow expansion? Your eyelids want to shut but it feels like they can’t go over your eyeballs which are burning, itching, and stinging–even they feel swollen. Whoa, I had a flashback.

Anyway, it makes you wonder how you can avoid the next bout of flu or sinus infection. Or, you hear someone else’s story and you think it’s time you took stock. What do you do with that motivation? Start by reviewing some key lifestyle points. Thins often covers things that we overlook, underestimate or just let slide now and again, until bad habits are formed.

Often making simple, easy lifestyle changes can improve health, life and work. Following are five lifestyle areas that you can optimize with good, healthy habits.

1. How’s your diet? Your body is nourished by foods providing vitamins and minerals. I have a habit of letting many things get in the way of eating a balanced diet–until I get sick. Then I try to do everything right, to recover faster at least. In my search for good, healthy foods, I have discovered 2 things:

• I could prepare some of the foods I eat differently, and get more out of them
• My diet doesn’t include enough raw, live foods

Better eating habits can make you feel better and be more productive. In my next post I will share the dietary practices I am implementing, and why.

2. Are you drinking enough of the right fluids? Water is all your body really needs. Adequate amounts of water help to flush out toxins that can drag you down. It can be more refreshing than energy drinks, and it’s definitely safer—especially if you drink purified water. For example, did you know a cool glass of water can give you an energy boost.

3. Are you getting enough exercise? Enough is a term relative to who you are and what you do. But if you’re writing for a living, chances are you don’t get enough. Especially if you work from home. Showering, dressing and preparing breakfast before you sit at the computer probably isn’t doing all that your body needs. Adding 15 to 20 minutes of exercises to raise your heart daily is easier than you might think. Try dancing to your favorite dance music.

4. Do you get enough good rest? If you really love what you’re doing and are drawn into it, you may lose track of time. Doing this on a regular basis can cost you a lot for your health, and work. Develop and keep to your schedule. I find that my writing is much easier when I’m properly rested.

5. Can you identify and eliminate other stress? Many things can cause stress, besides a bad diet, dehydration and sleeplessness. And what gives me stress may not give you stress. Find out what causes you stress and work to eliminate it because prolonged stress can cause reactions like loss of focus, headaches and digestive issues.

Pay Attention to What Your Body is Telling You

When your health concerns become chronic, when they last for too long, you may need to see a doctor. You know your body. Be still and in your quiet times, attend to what’s going on that might be keeping you from your best health. If several symptoms happen together and persist for long, (in my case it was months), let your doctor check to be sure it’s not something serious. Assess your lifestyle, and begin to make changes.

Related entries:

• healthy habits for writers
• out of focus: the value of a rested mind
• The Health Dangers of Energy Drinks

Lately, the topic of healthy habits as a writer keeps coming up. I needed a starting place to consider what I was going to change. I’ve been reviewing my lifestyle and my less than stellar habits. I sometimes take health matters for granted, and allow bad habits to stand. In part it’s because I’m writing; I think how much damage am I doing.

However, since I need to make a lifestyle change, I’m going to share some healthy habits that work for me and may work for you. As I do the research, I’ll link the collection back here for easy reference.

What Happened with My Health

Recently I began to notice that I was chronically tired, even after I cut back on my extended working hours. I reviewed all my poor health habits and decided to do things a little better. I slept more and ate a little better and . . .

I thought maybe I just burned my candle at both ends for too long. Nothing really was helping so I thought it was time to see a doctor.

What made me see the doctor?

• it seemed like all I wanted to do was sleep all the time
• my focus and energy had abandoned me
• my memory was shot
• I was feeling down and unsure of everything

You can imagine what an impediment this can be to writing. Going to the doctor was the best move; it turns out I’m anemic. Making just a few changes, has improved health symptoms and put me on the road to recovery. It’s really good to have my energy returning to me. Work (writing) feels like play again; I’m enjoying again the pleasure of the writing process and research too.

5 healthful changes I’ve made:

• iron supplement added to my diet
• juice regularly to drink with the iron
• vitamin B12
• vitamins and minerals
• dancing (at home) to raise my heart rate

These practices I’ve put in place are working for me now. Of course my doctor only said to take iron. The rest was on the advice of others I trust including a man who also is anemic. We’ll see if I get any flack about taking initiative. And while I’m eating a bit better now, it’s only sporadic. It’s time for a diet makeover and to have that become my new eating habit. So, eating habits has made the list too.

What’s to Come

1. 5 lifestyle points to review
2. mind, spirit and body
3. what is brain food?
4. practice proper posture
5. rest well to work well: why is sleep so important?
6. 7 sources of stress and how to manage them
7. 7 exercises for writers
8. 7 benefits of keeping a writing schedule
9. 7 relaxation tips and why they work