Keep Moving

 

Terry here with our question of the week:

Writing is a sedentary, solitary pursuit for the most part. How do you take care of your physical and mental health while you’re at it? 

For me, mental health is closely tied with physical health. Years ago I used to be a runner, and when I hurt my back and had to stop running, my mental health took a sharp decline until I found other ways to get exercise. So for me, getting plenty of physical exercise means I feel good. 

 People often comment on my energy, and I think it’s directly related to exercise. A caveat is that my father was also a very energetic person and I probably inherited the “energy” gene. But I also know that if I don’t get enough exercise I start to feel sluggish and my energy level goes way down. A few days ago I had to concentrate on turning around edits for a book and I neglected to exercise for a few days. Finally one evening I realized I had to take a walk for twenty minutes or so. The first ten minutes, I felt so sluggish I wondered if something was wrong. But gradually I began to pep up and by the end of the walk I felt much more energetic.

 For me, I usually need to get exercise first thing in the morning, because if wait until later in the day, I end up making excuses not to exercise: a have to cook dinner, I’m tired, I need to call someone, etc. What do I mean by exercise? I mean the real thing. Twice a week I walk with a group of women, a fast walk of three miles in an hour. Two other days I have an hour-long exercise class. The one I take is by Zoom with anywhere from ten to twenty people tuning in. I never pay the any attention to what anyone else in the class is doing. I concentrate on doing exactly what the leader, Sam, tells us to do. By the way, I’m well into being a senior, and it’s a senior exercise class. My guess is young people would find it not particularly challenging, but for me it’s perfect. 

 As for the other three days, I usually take a day off and the other two days will take a bike ride (er, I mean a trike ride—yep I have an adult tricycle) or a walk. The other thing is that I try to get up and move around every hour or so when I’m writing, because if I don’t, I get stiff. Unfortunately, that doesn’t always work. For example a few days ago, I was deep into writing. I look at the clock and it was 12:15. FIVE MINUTES LATER it was 1:00. So sometimes I get so caught up that I don’t think to get up and move around. I know some people set timers so they’ll remember to do it, but I don’t like the idea of interrupting the flow. 

 Mental health. Happily, I have an optimistic disposition, and it serves me well. But sometimes I need more. Beyond using exercise to keep myself mentally healthy, it’s harder for me to figure out how to do it. Six years ago I moved to Los Angeles, and have to admit that I have a diminished life here. Previously, I enjoyed being social in the evenings after I’d finished working. In the Bay Area I could call someone spur of the moment and we’d get together. I had a lot of friends who were happy to do last-minute things. 

In LA, not so much. It’s partly a result of my not having years of cultivating friendships. People in my expanded age group have a set group of friends by now. But also, it’s the distances people have to travel to get together. I’ve made several friends in southern California that I really enjoy. But most of them live at least an hour away. It’s difficult to call someone up at 5:00 and say, “Come over for dinner.” They’re faced with an hour or more drive, and then an hour at the end of the evening. 

 Which brings me to a few activities I enjoy that keep me mentally in balance. One is attending events where I know I’ll run into other writers. I went to a panel a few nights ago that featured Tess Gerritsen, Meg Gardiner, and Jordan Harper. Jordan said he thought it was important to cultivate friendships with other writers because we understand the difficulties we all face. I agreed wholeheartedly. 

Which is why I also find that attending conferences is important to me. Seeing writer friends, catching up on their current projects, attending panels, and hanging out fills up my need for social contact. I go to bookstores when writers I enjoy reading will be talking and signing their newest books. Noir at the bar. Book fairs. It’s what keeps me mentally healthy. 

 So solitary, sedentary…it takes work to maintain body and soul, but it can be done.