In my twenty five years as a psychotherapist, I spent most of my day in a chair. A sedentary life in which I focused my mind on being of therapeutic help to others. Exercise had to be planned as an extracurricular event. Yoga class once a week with a weekly ambition to add more daily, which never transpired. By the time I finished notes and billing, it was time to go home. Beat. Mentally exhausted.
Using the mind without engaging the movement of the body is a very unhealthy way to live. It’s antithetical to how I coached people to live their lives. The demands of my profession and the ever-encroaching obligations of the healthcare industry became paramount distractions. These necessities were dictated by others who had little regard for my well-being. My passion for hiking, kayaking, gardening, yoga and meditation was relegated to an occasional vacation or weekend ‘blitz.’
When I retired and decided to become a mystery suspense writer, I had to consider what that meant for a body that had endured an adult lifetime of inactivity. Changing habitual routine behaviors was the mainstay skill developer in my years of private practice. Theirs, not mine. So I had to reinvent my perception of a writer’s life.
While my coffee is brewing (one bad habit breaker at a time, please!) I do yoga stretches: a quick series of triangle, mountain, goddess, warrior, and tree pose - both sides. Then forward bend, mountain, shiva - both sides. Slightly invigorated, I return to begin the day with three hours of writing. In Easy pose. The well-known, cross-legged, meditation posture starts my transition from meditating to writing. Fluidly.
I do not sit at a desk to write. I do not occupy an “easy chair.” I do not sit on a comfortable couch. I prop pillows for support on my bed, sit in easy pose with my iPad in my lap and I write, stretch, meditate, write, contemplate, breathe, write, stretch, plot, sketch, listen to music.
Then I begin the business part of my day. An Indie-author wears many hats. One of them is interacting with social media, developing and implementing a marketing plan and engaging with my BETA readers and book launch Street Team.
Then I take a hike.
Spring, summer and fall, I deliberately take a hike in the woods, the campground, the fields. You name it. In the winter, I keep my snow shoes by the door. I take an invigorating snow hike. When I return I brew a pot of tea. Return to Easy Pose.
The world looks different. My mind is energized. My characters speak up. I see my settings. When my body is included in the writing process, I can live in the very stories I am writing. I can truly show up as a writer.
When I learned how to do all my writing in Easy Pose, everything became a meditation. So now my creative life, my business life and my spiritual life are all variances of the same thing. Even cooking or baking. The yogini is in the kitchen, twirling and tree-posing her way through preparing food.
Those lamas and monks always said, “everything is a meditation, so live deliberately.”
That’s next. Living my life, thoroughly, deliberately.
So ha!
🐾 Anneka _,