If you’ve been keeping up with the Endless Possibilities Blog Tour from the Write by the Rails crew, then you might have seen the Part I of this post. I’m an author, but I’m also a Holistic Health Coach. I love writing about health & wellness, and then I love to jump into the paranormal and urban fantasy realms. Both are therapeutic
A quick review:
·     Hide the potato chips.
·     Have a fun water glass/bottle
·     Set a timer
·     And, schedule time to move
While those are some of the basics, I’d like to point out a few, deeper ways to really enhance your health AND your writing skills.
Meditation & Visualization
Some times, we get so caught up in the events of our lives that we can’t think or even see clearly. Start with taking just a few minutes and the start and end of your day to stop, focus, and breathe. This simple process can make a tremendous difference in what you’re able to accomplish and how much calmer your state of mind is. I don’t care whether you call it prayer, gratitude check, meditation, or whatever other terms you can think of. The purpose is to calm your mind down and just be. And yes, this is harder than you think. We live in an online, fast paced society. Most of us don’t know how to get our brains to calm down.
The practice is simple:
·     Sit up, resting your back against the headboard of the bed, a wall, or the chair.
·     Close your eyes.
·     Take a deep breath in and up, pulling your navel into your spine and expanding your chest. Then out and down, letting your chest collapse downward and your stomach rounding out. For those musicians and singers out there, yes, this is different than the breathing methods you’re taught. The beauty of this method is, that if you’re doing it correctly, your mind can’t be wandering. You have to truly focus to keep your breathing pattern working in this manner.
·     Just be, for however long you like. Or, however long you’ve set the timer for.
Try this daily for a week and see what progress you make on not only your writing, but your sanity too.
Get Physical
This is taking exercise beyond the idea of just get up and get moving. I challenge you to hit the gym, check out the weights, and push your body more than you have before. Now, that doesn’t mean jump all in if you’ve never touched a weight! And yes, for many it will be far outside your comfort zone. Take the gym up on the free personal training session. Most gyms have that offer. Learn about the machines, read fitness articles to figure out a routine. Alternately, you can always ask me too. I have a number of routines on my site and happily create custom ones with links to illustrate what the exercise movement is.
For those who are already active, step it up yet again. Take a kickboxing class, hit the heavy bag, or train for a 5K. Exercise gets the blood flowing in the body and to the brain. Personally? I love to hit the heavy bag. Of course, I train without gloves and tend to scare the guys out of the boxing room. That’s just a bonus. However, I notice I also have better focus when I’ve let go of whatever stress was hanging around, getting that physical forces it to release.
I’d love to hear how you keep your health up and your stress down! You can share here, or even send me an email at staciakelly at gmail.com
Stacia D. Kelly, Ph.D., is the author of the fiction works, “Phyxe: Goddess of Fireâ€, “Ichiâ€, and the upcoming “Gaian.†Her non-fiction work includes “Reduce Youâ€, “Museâ€, and “Nine Months In, Nine Months Out.†Read more at www.staciakelly.com.