I’ve decided I have to get back to the gym. For over a year, I was going 2-3 times a week and was feeling great. Unfortunately due to circumstances beyond my control, I stopped going. I’ve found that not moving has had a strange impact on my writing…
When I was getting regular exercise, I was feeling great, losing weight, and had a lot more energy for writing and editing, as well as work, running around after kids, and everything else a busy Mum needs to do.
Lately, I’ve been feeling overwhelmed, had less energy to anything other than the bare essentials, and generally not feeling great. I have manuscripts that need editing that I just haven’t been getting to as I’ve been completely exhausted in the evenings.
So, I’ve decided to get back to the gym.
I’ve found a local gym that is open 24 hours, so I can go at 5.30 in the morning if I’m awake, or on a Sunday afternoon, or even on a public holiday. They also don’t have a lock in period so I can try it for a while to see if this will work for me. Many of the circumstances that caused me to stop going are still there, but the opening hours of this gym will suit me more than the old one (it was closed on Sundays and public holidays, and had shorter opening hours).
For me, doing regular exercise had the obvious health benefits, but it also had a healthy impact on my writing. Exercise helped clear my head and I often came up with new ideas or solutions to issues in a story. It also cleared my head to focus on editing when it was time to edit. It really helped with moving my writing forward. It also helped with ideas for blogging and I was sharing much more here and on my other blogs.
What surprises me most about this is I actually want to get back to exercising! This from the kid who failed PE at school three semesters in a row. I do know that if I want to achieve my 2015 goals, I need to get healthier, and I can’t wait to get started.
If you’re a writer, do you have a similar experience with writing and exercise?
