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

I have been keeping a journal for may years. It is a wonderful thing for clarity and focus renewal. But there is an added benefit that I have to bring up.

Big Benefit

It calms me down. Recently, I was so wound up and put out over something not in my control, until I couldn’t focus on writing. Seriously. It demanded attention, if nothing else, to complain since I couldn’t make the situation right.

When I put it on the page, it helps—every time and without fail. From there, I can meditate and get centered. From this calm space I can get to work. Because, I didn’t just write out problem, I actually write it out of the way. So, it’s easy to let in the work writing ideas.

Like Talking to a Friend

If you have a situation that pops up and throws you all out of whack, try writing it out. It’s your journal so if you feel the need, you may include expletives. It’s even alright to say what you really feel about that last gift from your boss. This is not the place to censor yourself. Quite the contrary, it’s where you free yourself.

Say it how you feel it. If you get it right, you’ll find that you have a better handle on what gave you fits in the first place. You may find that it wasn’t all that serious. And, you may even find that a solution has presented itself.

Ultimately, you will find release in that you have the best sounding board ever. That’s what happens for me. You see, my journal is my unconditional, ever-present, non-judgmental audience. And who doesn’t need that?

Next time you have a problem that threatens to steal your focus, try writing it out. And if you care to, come back and tell me if it worked.

Related entries:

• healthy habits: mind, spirit and body
• 5 benefits of keeping a personal journal
• gaining perspective the write way

As technology advances, information and people can reach us wherever we are if we let it. Most cell phones let you receive text messages. Some phones let you read your email while you await your flight. I surf the web on my iPhone and it blows me away. That’s a lot of connectivity. And it’s a great help in professional writing.

After the research is done, though, some time should be spent in thought. It’s necessary to be clear in your personal thoughts to get your best writing. Disconnecting is a way to do that.

Disconnect to Reconnect

Disconnecting is a tough choice these days what with all the ways and people that you need to be in touch with. From time to time you have to relax your collection of data and communication with others, so that you can hear yourself.

Barbara Brown Taylor wrote a remarkable book a few years back, When God is Silent. Her’s is a brief discourse on the reason we sometimes think we can’t hear God. She contends, fairly, that it’s because we’re making too much noise with our own insights, plans and choices.

That’s a really cheesy nutshell review of a splendid book. The point is I think it’s true, that we make so much mental noise and are bombarded with so much data until we can hardly understand how we interpret it all. Disconnecting gives us space to think things through.

Personal Journals

Disconnecting will afford you time to find where you stand. Keeping a personal journal can actually help you with this so that you can reconnect to your most authentic self. It’s this best version of yourself that you want to bring to the work at hand. Here are some things you can get out of keeping a personal journal.

1. Relieve stress

When you make time to keep a personal journal, you are making time for yourself. That’s one of the reasons journaling is often overlooked—how often is it that the last person on your agenda is you? How often are you left off the list completely? Journaling doesn’t take a long time, or it can. But the time it takes is well worth it. After my journal times, I find myself refreshed and more peaceful. Calmness and openness that I gain make me more amenable to what the day will bring.

2. Achieve greater clarity

Writing out the thoughts in your head, means you get to focus just on them—without receiving new input from the news, friends, the internet. Just you and your thoughts. You can write them down and make connections and separations that are overlooked in the usual fast pace that you may be keeping. After reviewing ideas and thoughts more closely, you may even change your stance on a matter or two.

You can step outside yourself. Playing a role other than your usual position, can be a way of walking in someone else’s shoes. This can be a very powerful aid when you have the need to really express empathy. You may come to empathy where you had no hint of it before, if you write your way through.

3. Express creative ideas

When you write for you, it’s like pulling your thoughts out and making something concrete of them. The very action of writing in a personal journal can be quite freeing. And, with the benefit of relieving stress, comes the freedom to express yourself creatively. If you’re moved to draw, or list or diagram or stick in a photograph, by all means do it. You may want to write a poem or short story, this is your space to be all that you are.

4. It can be an invaluable record of events in your life

Where was your head at a particular time in your life. It’s really an interesting to get a mental snapshot of who you are and look back at it down the line. You can track your life changes and growth as a person by writing a personal journal, and looking back from time to time. Tracking may be too formal. You can get an idea of your present and future self, by having a clearer understanding of your past self.

And if you never look back through your old journals, (I once read about a lady who would periodically burn her old journals in a magnificent bonfire), just keeping them, creates something intangible inside. Often in ways that I can’t define, writing in my journal can inform me about who I am and have me grounded in my life. And when I look back at them, I have found myself laughing out loud sometimes at just where my head was.

5. Journaling is a form of cherishing

In my life, gratitude is very important. I have countless things and people to be grateful for and I never want to overlook that. Writing in your journal, reviewing your life sometimes moment by moment or in much larger chunks, lets you hold it more closely, more deliberately. It can be a joyous and amazing experience.

I wrote through my maternal grandmother’s illness. There were times when I would be writing and I would find myself crying, so accurate were the words I’d written. And I was fine with that. In fact I was grateful. In my notebook I created an accurate picture of what I was going through and that meant everything to me. Because, the last days that she and I shared were priceless.

Without reading those entries, I can call up the memories that we made in that time and smile or be moved to tears of joy, of appreciation, of gratitude. You can have these memories without keeping a journal. But I think writing them can do something empowering for you, as it does for me. Gratitude is one of the most powerful things that you can do for yourself. I have no idea how it works only proof in my life experiences that it does work.

How to Keep a Personal Journal

There are a number of ways that you can keep a personal journal. What I’m presenting here, is the frame for journaling sessions that have worked for me.

• Prepare to write:

One variation on this practice is to use meditation. I find that many times my thoughts will run together, crawling over each other the get to the page. When I have the patience and discipline, it seems to help to quiet my thoughts, reducing or removing any sense of frenzied hurry to write.

• What to write:

Explore your thoughts freely and fully, writing what comes to you. Switch your perspective and position on a topic, and write quickly. Write what comes seemingly from your hands and not your head. Try to write quickly for five minutes to ten minutes.

After the initial quick writing, take your time and go wherever your thoughts take you.

• When to write:

Books say to write daily. Many people who keep journals don’t write in them daily. I fall into the latter, though I try to write daily. More important, I think, than writing daily is to date each entry.

I try to write first thing in the morning, before new information enters, before my inner critic wakes. And if there’s anything pressing me, I will write in the evening as well.

• Where to write:

Some people are now keeping online journals. I’ve tried this and it worked for a while. However, my favorite process is to keep my thoughts in a composition notebook. My assessment is that I’m better connected when I write longhand.

As you get into the habit of keeping a personal journal, you will find that some things done differently will work better for you. Do what works, and keep writing.

If you don’t keep a personal journal already, I hope I’ve managed to get you thinking about it at least. Let me know what you think. If you do keep a personal journal, I’d love to hear how it benefits you.

A good resource:
Inspiration For You to Keep a Personal Journal

Related entries:

what’s allowed to feed the writing fire
at least take notes
creativity tapped out? i think not

I want to share with you the story of how I re-learned what’s allowed to feed the writing fires. It may be something you’ve experienced, and will inspire you to find out or rediscover what can feed your writing fires.

At times our own light goes out and is rekindled by a spark from another person. Each of us has cause to think with deep gratitude of those who have lighted the flame within us. – Albert Schweitzer

The Whole World is Mine to Draw From

You ever wonder how writers come up with ideas for their material? I wondered that too. Part of my quandary has to do with the label of writer and all the dread that title brings with it. It’s something I’ve turned over in my head from time to time, and a lot lately. In fact, on my last trip to my hometown I gave it a lot of attention and came up with an answer.

The Memory that Brought the Answer

I have a good friend who is a minister. One day, several years ago, he told me God loves you, to which I replied, Yes, I know. That’s what you’re supposed to say if you believe that, right? I think there must’ve been hesitation in my voice.

- Do you really know that?

- Yes…I guess.

- You don’t know that. But you can. What would you do if you really, really knew that God loves you?

For a moment I thought about it, the largeness of that truth. I responded.

- Pass out on the floor.

In our conversations there was always a lot of food for thought, fodder for the musing days. It was this memory that came to me on my vacation, while I was considering how I filter what informs my writing.

Extrapolating from the Memory

I thought for a moment about what informs my writing and then left it because it was time to go out. What I did carry with me was the idea to collect threads from the fabric of times spent hanging with my friends. After all, everything that comes to mind is fodder.

Wait! What?! Everything?

Going with that, in that moment, my plan was to catch everything I could remember or note.

Daydreaming, brainstorming, organizing, researching, editing are all part of the process, sure. But before that, comes the sparks of experiences that need to be fueled by imagination.

Some Things Happened on My Last Vacation

I felt a lot of conscious appreciation and cherishing this trip, of every little thing with my family and friends; more immediately than usual. I felt a lot of gratitude in the moments, as opposed to waiting until I got back to Houston to reflect on my time at home, in New Orleans. Gratitude plays a powerful part in good things that happen in life. I believe this for everyone, I know it for me.

Another thing that happen during this trip was that my nasty little inner critic’s hand was revealed, and his spell was broken.  I saw that he would discount many ideas as just not right before they had the chance to catch on. Many ideas didn’t make it to my notes.

I always understood intellectually that everything was fodder. But my sneaky inner critic lulled me and lead me away from that truth. Now, everything was coming awake in me and it was exhilarating. I want to say I grokked the truth of it.

Everything was talking to me; all my synapses were firing. I had to be open to going out and doing things (setting aside my couch potato habits) so I just let down my guard. It had the unexpected result of opening me up to other possibilities.

So, the question is What do I do if I really, really, know that everything I experience is mine to use?

My answer is Keep all I can catch. Whatever comes to mind, it’s okay in fact necessary to hear it, even the outlandish.

What’s Come of All This?

It was akin to a rebirth of my creativity. And it was greatly needed. Being truly open to everything was like being fully immersed in emotive sensory awareness. It felt safe and bounteous, if a little daunting. And it immediately fruitful.

Several poems came from the experience, and many new ideas to pursue.

I have a renewed vigor regarding everything I write. What was ash and smoke has been stoked to smoldering embers… pretty soon, I will be on fire again! Yes, I am smiling at this.

Everything is possibly material for a post, poem or other project. That holds true for all of us. Do you know this to be true for you? Do you water sparks before they catch?

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

Blogging is a lot of work, and it’s a pleasure too. I’m including my pictures, now, every chance I get. I may have to start shopping on Flickr or other image vendor site. More than likely though, it’ll finally push me to start to plan my photography shoots—to cover my posting needs. Lately, a bigger issue is my generally flagging FOCUS.

Focus Can be Hard Work

Although writing for my blogs is satisfying, several things must be present for me to generate accpetable posts. One of the most important for me is FOCUS. It comes to mind lately because I’ve been a bit distracted. To regain my focus, it’s important to know what’s blurring my vision.

Even for something that I enjoy, there are times when I’m just not fully present with it. In blogging everything starts to feel the same and there’s no newness to what I’m writing. It’s like smelling perfume; after you smell 4 I think, they all smell the same. And who wants posts that offer nothing new?

4 Things that Blur My Focus

1. There are times when I don’t have a clear purpose or point for my post. I have trouble writing just to be writing, when it comes to posting.
2. Getting ahead of myself is another problem I sometimes run into. I want to put everything out there in one epic post. Clearly, that’s not the best choice to make.
3. When I allow intrusions of random thoughts and concerns to intrude on my writing sessions, I can lose track in mid-thought.
4. I have trouble sleeping right now, because I have so many things on my mind to get done. The lack of sleep can make me a little fuzzy, which defeats the reason I’m awake. Often times it makes the other reasons worse, if it doesn’t precipitate them.

If I stop blogging tomorrow, I will appreciate the experience forever. Right now I’m staying awake to write and there’s no way that I need to be awake right now. There’s also no way that I’m going to press the publish button tonight because I know that what’s here may scare me when I’m fully alert. I know who’s in charge, but still I fight.

In a post, Problogger author Darren Rowse asked his readers how long they take to write a post. I saw answers that ranged from 10 minutes to days. I fall in there, as another responder said, depending on my focus. Lately, I’m near the slower publishing times.

Being Well-Rested can Fix Focus

I want to be one of the faster blog writers. Things that hang me up are all surmountable. I have a few tactics that I use to get the job done. Some of the things that help me are meditation and journal writing. Gratitude is a key salve in the process of sharpening my focus. These all help me to calm my thoughts. And the main thing that I do, before anything, is to rest more.

You need more than sleep. Usually, when I get blurred it’s because I’ve stopped resting, too. A rested mind is one that can easily clear thoughts. The ability to quiet your mind is how you prepare sleep. Sometimes, a simple word I use before I go to bed is “tomorrow,” to dismiss my thoughts so that I can sleep.

I have a schedule, but many times I want to go longer. When I notice my focus is not so sharp, I rely on discipline to stop when I’m scheduled and rest. In my resting times I do different things to clear my head to be rejuvenated.

So, why do all this for blogging? Really, I won’t be declared a master blog writer this week. But I work at it just the same because I know that improvement comes with effort over time. And as long as I can take joy in and appreciate what I’m doing, it’s worth my effort to see it through.

What do you do to regain your focus? How do you know when you’ve lost it? If any of this sounds familiar to you, please share your experiences.

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