5 Exercises For Your Write Brain

5 Exercises For Your Write Brain

by Lisa Heidrich

  As writers we are sometimes cooped up, prisoners to a keyboard and computer screen for hours… resulting in muscle stiffness, fatigue, decreased circulation and the possibility of other health issues. Prevention is easy if we keep the following in mind. Our bodies are engineered to move, crave refreshment, (washed, filled with good nutrients and water, moisturized and massaged) and require exercise (stimulate muscle growth, circulation and strength). Incorporating an EASY exercise program that fits into our writing schedule entails one decision,DO IT. Exercises for writers begin from the top down and here are a few suggestions to push you in the WRITE direction.

#1) POSTURE how is your body alignment as you sit at your favorite writing place?It is critical to insure proper body alignment and posture. Shoulders back, feet flat on the floor, knees at ninety degree angle, chest up and out. Take a deep breath in via the nose and count to 5, exhale through your mouth 5 seconds with eyes closed. Feel better? This breathing exercise expands your diaphragm, stimulates abdominal muscles, and rests your eyes. Lift your shoulders up toward your ears and hold for 10 seconds, release and repeat. Turn your head from side to side looking over each shoulder and hold for ten seconds, repeat keep stretching and rotating your neck and awakening every tense neck muscle.

#2) SMILE and hold. Did you know that exercising your facial muscles is important? Lift your eyebrows up and open your eyes WIDE and hold for 3 seconds, release and repeat. Pucker your lips as far out as you can then draw them back wide and over your teeth lifting your neck muscles, making an “OOO” and then “EEE” movement with your mouth repeat 10 times. No more wrinkles, just smile them away.

#3) LIFT your arms over your head and stretch fingers as far as you can reaching for the ceiling, hold for 5 seconds, repeat. Extend your arms out to the sides at shoulder level and make 8 big circles in a forward motion and 8 big circles in backward motion.

Motivating Monday

What motivates you as a writer? Is it the people you come in contact with each day, or the lessons life teach you? or maybe it's the beauty of nature- the flowers in bloom or the rustling of the wind through the trees.

We are all motivated by something. What we choose to do with the motivation is the difference between the true writer and the procrastinator. Find your rhythm, don't be afraid to tap into it and move with it, just don't hear it and ignore it. Write, write and then write some more. Before you know it, you will have a page, before long, you will have a chapter, and if you really listen to the rhythm, you will have a book.

You never know what your words will do for someone who is just waiting to read them. Who knows, it could change a life.

What are you waiting for?

Are you writing everyday?

Exercise the writing muscle every day, even if it is only a letter, notes, a title list, a character sketch, a journal entry. Writers are like dancers, like athletes. Without that exercise, the muscles seize up.
- Jane Yolen