Activity

Today’s post is by Jess Penrose

Balance of Writing Life and Health

Disclaimer: I am not a professional in any of the subjects discussed in this lesson, and am simply stating what I’ve found from research and experience.

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? If anyone destroys God’s temple, God will destroy him. For God’s temple is holy, and you are that temple.”

~1 Corinthians 3:16–17

Have you ever sat down with your computer or notebook, desperate to punch out that editing/plotting/writing before a deadline? Have you then locked yourself inside your room/study and just let yourself be enthralled with the story for an entire day? Has that day ever extended to two? Or maybe a week? Or perhaps even a month? Naturally you emerge from your room for the bare essentials for living, but that’s all you need. You’re a writer on a mission, after all.

Unfortunately—despite how amazing being a writer is—it does not make you invincible. You still need to live a healthy life by eating well, sleeping, and getting some decent exercise. (No. The exercise your fingers get does not count.) In the end, your writing-self will be thanking you for looking after your body while you write, plus, being more alive than dead tends to help your brain function better. 😉

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Food

Do you have a writing snack or drink? Coffee? Chai? Coke? Chocolate? Cookies? Cabbage? Snacks can be great, but they can also end up just leaving you drained of energy. Having a double strength coffee followed by a V Energy with your chocolate ice-cream when you’re beginning to get braindead will definitely wake you up and give you a ton of energy, but it also will shorten your attention span, make you even more fidgety, and will make you completely crash when it wears off. So, where you can, cut back a bit on your caffeine and sugar intake. Eating things like nuts, muesli, and other low GI snacks will help you have sustained energy, and they’re better for your overall health.

Also, please eat meals at meal times. Vegetables and meat. Eating a proper meal, three times a day, at regular times will seriously help you maintain decent health, as well as force you to take a break every once in a while.

Sleeping

One of the many aspects of good health in general, is to sleep. That doesn’t mean three hours at night and then another power-nap in the middle of the day. Sleeping a decent amount every night will really help you feel more motivated to write during the day, and you’ll look less like a zombie when you go to spend time with family or friends.

Some ways to help work on this, include:

Getting into a routine before going to bed. This could involve reading, going for a gentle walk, listening to some music, having a shower, or even just sitting and talking with family. Once you get into a routine, stick with it.
Exhaust yourself during the day. If your body has exercised and used up all of its energy, then it will find it easier to sleep.
Associate your bed with sleeping. Don’t scroll through your phone while lying in bed. Don’t watch movies while lying in bed. Ideally, don’t do anything but sleep in your bed. This will help your brain to associate lying down in bed with going to sleep, and should help you go to sleep.
If you’re still struggle with sleeping, and it’s really causing issues for you, that’s possibly the time to go see a doctor, or pharmacist. Sleeping is important, and God doesn’t want you to ruin your body for the sake of deadlines, or just not being bothered to sleep.

Exercise

Whether it’s a half hour walk as the sun is rising, a gym session in the middle of the day, or a swim in the evening, there is no doubt that exercise is good for you. Both mentally and physically, just forty-five minutes of reasonably exertive exercise will cause huge levels of improvement. Your heart-rate increases, waking you up more, and your brain releases more chemicals which will help you to relax, and also think quicker. Finding the time to exercise daily is worth it. Waking up a bit earlier (or cutting back on your social media time) can suddenly free you up to be out in the world, and helping further those good, healthy habits.

As well as the set daily exercise, I’ve found it to be really good to help me with my writing. If a scene isn’t being written, or my brain has just gone and thrown its enthusiasm to the abyss, I get up and go for a walk or a run. This gives me time to think things over in a place that is away from technology, as well as gives my brain back the chemicals and energy that it needs in order to properly function.

– – –

Working really hard at your writing is really good, but it is so easy to get caught up in the moment and forget to care about your own health. In the chaos of life, it doesn’t seem to matter if you miss a few meals, have a few sleepless nights, and never really stand up to exercise. However, over time, that will mount up and end up being a bit of a slap in the face. The longer you push yourself, the harder it will be to write, or to really live much in general.

In today’s society, we can be quite busy. But we still need to focus of maintaining a balance between writing and actually living a healthy life…just as we need to be keeping up with our family life, and other commitments.

The Challenge: Pick one aspect of your writing life to make more healthy. Try to stick with it for a day, then a week, then a month, then…forever?

Do you have any tips for each other about how to maintain this balanced lifestyle?

 

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