Hello, darklings!
Nanowrimo is still going strong for me. I got a little behind because I didn’t feel well the last few days. I really am attempting that “be kind to yourself” thing, so took the opportunity to rest more, and will continue that hopefully… forever.
So something a lot of writer’s struggle with—pain.
Yeah, pain in wrists, back, hips, tension in shoulder and neck, etc. Carpal tunnel is a common writer’s ailment. Sciatica pain, too, as Stephen King can attest. Writing may seem like physically easy work, but sitting at a desk is murder on your body.
I’ve been doing some new things to combat that. Because as I age and my hormones shift, the usual maintenance hasn’t been enough. Even utilizing my standing desk here and there, my slumping has worsened, the low back and hip pain has intensified, sciatica takes more work to soothe, and eye strain has increased. Now my neck has joined these common desk-worker strains in the form of tension headaches. These headaches are annoying, because along with an ache, they add a pressure feeling, like a headband squeezing your skull, and that makes thinking difficult.
And I, like any writer, need to think. In ways, Being a writer requires us to look after our meat-sacks even more attentively, because we not only have to pay attention to our world, households, and jobs, but the many worlds and characters living in our heads, itching to get out. The more our bodies suffer, the more aches, pains, and mental stress occupy our imaginative real estate.
So this spurred a new campaign to find something that helped ease those stressors. They aren’t something that I can ignore. My craft is at stake!
I stumbled on NPR’s mini series, Body Electric, which is a journalist’s investigation into how electronic reliance has changed our bodies and what can be done to fight the negative side affects. And really, it does come down to a simple thing.
Stop sitting so much. Walk.
Five minutes every half hour. Nothing strenuous. Just so long as you are up and moving on your legs.
Easy enough, so I decided, why not? I’ll try it for a week. It’s certainly not going to hurt except a little bit of my production.
That moving is helping. It’s helping a shrike-ton. So figured I’d share in case it helps someone else.
The first biggest difference I noticed was my posture. Sitting makes my back and core fatigued, so I slump. Getting up and pacing for five minutes? For some reason my core muscles are all about it and I can sit perfectly straight with little bother for the next thirty minutes.
Eye-strain symptoms have improved. I try to step outside and scan the horizon for at least three of these little breaks. I do my best not to look at anything close to my face during that time.
Leg and back pain has lessened considerably, as well as some of the ruthless restless leg symptoms.
The tension headaches are getting better, though I still need to do more routine neck exercises to keep those at bay.
Mood wise? Definite improvement. No surprise there. I get really grumpy if I can’t think.
Has my productivity suffered? After all, those five minutes add up throughout the day.
No. No, it hasn’t. My short term memory is sharper, and my comprehension and cognitive skills are less fatigued. I work faster in the next half hour if I walk versus when I don’t. Usually, my brain is considering what I need to write or work on next, so when I sit back down, I’m right back into the thick of the work with little effort.
So I really want to devote myself to making this a habit. But that’s the difficult part—making it a habit. I’m definitely not used to interrupting my sitting work so often. Interrupting a groove, be it for writing or work, still seems counter intuitive despite the evidence I have in solid numbers stating otherwise.
Well. Good thing I’m stubborn.
Hope this helps some of you corvids. Move them birdie feet!
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