Pay Yourself First by Gabriel Valjan

 

Pay Yourself First

 

A writer’s job involves a lot of sitting - scribbling in a notepad, or hunched over in a chair, typing. Do you have a daily exercise routine? What advice would you offer to other writers, to keep themselves fit and healthy over the longer term?

 

I thought of the myth of Antaeus, the wrestler in Ovid’s Metamorphoses, when I read this question. Antaeus remained undefeated, so long as he touched the ground. Readers learned that he drew his strength from contact with the earth because his mother is the goddess Gaea.

 

Exercise grounds me, and it helps me purge frustrations, in life and in writing. Call it working out, physical fitness, or self care, with or without the hyphen.

 

Wrote myself into a corner? Go for a long walk.

 

Tempted to punch someone, scream at them? Hit the gym, and lift.

 

Disheartened, discouraged, feeling defeated with the author’s life? Meditate, do yoga, or punch a bag.

 

Sense a theme with anger management?

 

Now for the serious stuff. Want to live longer (hopefully) to annoy a few people? Exercise.

 

Exercise gets a bad rap, thought of as a chore, and I don’t know why because I’ve found it pays dividends on several fronts. The struggle for solutions in the midst of the firefight of writing a novel or short story is real. You question your talent, your sanity, and whether you can deliver the goods. Exercise is an outlet for all of that negativity and frustration.

 

To touch the earth, so to speak…I’ve found that the solutions to most of my problems evaporate during moments of silence and clarity that come from physical activity. It’s paradoxical that by focusing on something else, such as the movement, the rep, or whatever, the answers come to me.

 

I feel grounded, victorious as Antaeus. There’s a second wind, a fresh perspective.

 

And there are endorphins. I LOVE endorphins.

 

Writing has always been detrimental to health. I’m serious. First, there are the emotional and psychological liabilities, in that there is no guarantee of success, however you yourself might define it. The literary profession is riddled with substance abuse, with writers who have struggled and lost their battles with the thirsty muse or recreational drugs. What you write might be misconstrued, seen as dangerous. Cancel Culture is the least of your worries. Look at what happened to Salman Rushdie and Naguib Mahfouz.

 

The act itself of writing is unhealthy. It starts with poor posture, the hunchback at the desk, the eyes fixed on the screen. There are shortened hip flexors, which affects men more. Then there is being sedentary. All the medical literature drives home the point that a lack of movement kills us. Like the great white shark who has to keep moving or it dies (never did confirm if this line from the movie JAWS was true), but humans were meant to move. The National Institutes of Health is explicit that, even with having major health issues, people who exercise live longer than people with the same health concerns who don’t exercise.

 

I’m an impatient person with excuses.

 

‘I don’t have time.’

‘I have an injury.’

 

Wah-wah, you wuss.

 

If you’re like the average American who watches 28 hours of TV a week, after a 40-hour work-week, you can find the time. Excuses don’t fly first-class.

 

As for injuries, I get it. They are legit, but don’t allow them to be excuses and limit your mind. I exercised and wrote while dealing with surgery and radiation. I don’t say that for the sake of pity. What choice did I have? The alternative was lying in bed and feeling sorry for myself. My personality won’t allow it. Life won’t allow it, because truth be told, most people don’t give a damn. To see you suffer reminds those around you of their own vulnerability. I’d rather do something than nothing. I also had perspective. It’s hard feeling sorry for yourself when you see a double-amputee on the mat doing exercises, or who swims faster than you. Been there, seen that.

 

All jokes and pokes aside, you have one life and one body. Barring bad genetics, do all you can with what you have because mortality is the great equalizer. Here are things I learned as a nurse:

 

US Healthcare is reactive, not proactive, so it is on you to be healthy.

 

People say, ‘How can someone allow themselves to get ‘that way’? That’s not the right question; it’s, ‘Isn’t it amazing that the human body can tolerate that kind of abuse for so long before it gives you the middle finger?’

 

Lest we forget there are those among us who do all the wrong things, have all the wrong habits, and who are too mean to die. Go figure.

 

As for the writing, I do the best I can.

 

This mind and that body have to carry you through life. And do yourself a favor, don’t think of them as separate. Body and Mind go together. The body follows the mind. Take care of both, and both will take care of you. Find activity that you enjoy and that you look forward to doing because it instills the habit, and do it. I exercise in the morning because that is what works for me, and it’s such a habit that I feel ‘off’ if I don’t.

 

No one will do the work for you but you, so pay yourself first.