When I was a kid I couldn’t sit still. My parents have many horror stories about trying to get me to go to sleep or to simply sit still. As a teenager I was involved in sports, as a young adult I was active in martial arts and partying dancing. But in the last 7 years, I’ve slowed down drastically. So much so that I often don’t even recognize myself.
I know it’s mostly due to my curse ability to focus so strongly on one thing. You see, 8 years I decided I wanted to be a writer. And I firmly believe that if you want something, and you go after it, you’ll get it. I was right. I am a writer. And when I was neck deep in deadlines my ability to focus helped me a lot. However, now that I’ve got no real deadlines (only those imposed on myself) I find that when I sit down to write I get antsy within 15 minutes.
Where the hell did my ability to focus go?
I think I left it behind in the gym somewhere. Seriously.
All my life, up until I dedicated myself to becoming a writer, I was physically active. Then I become mentally and creatively active, and my physical self began to wan-until now.
I turned 40 last year, and I became suddenly very aware of my health. Not just my weight, but my health. Not just physical, but mental, and the way they work together. For the first half of my life I was physically active, but I never saw myself as particularly smart or creative. In the last 8 years I’ve come to realize that I am smart, and creative, but I’ve seriously neglected my physical self.
And only recently, in my efforts to gain back some of my physical health have I realized just how deep the connection between the two sides are. People say it all the time, that working out will help keep you mentally sharp, but it’s just like them saying an apple a day will keep the doctor away. It’s something we hear so much that it’s lost it’s punch. At least for me it did.
Lately I’ve been walking more. Just that. Not going to the gym, not working out, just walking. And that restlessness that used to hit 15 minutes after I sat down in front of the computer has settled a bit. I think it will continue to settle, and my ability to focus will come back more and more with each day. I’m pretty sure I’m just babbling here, and not explaingin myself very well…so I’m goign to quote from my friend Charlene’s blog post on Quiet Mind.
“If your mind won’t quiet indoors, try getting outdoors. Take your notebook and pen with you. Do enough physical activity to tire you out a little, and focus your mind on your task so it isn’t running away with you, and find quiet. Along with it, you might find the plot solution you need, the idea you were missing to make some task easier, or the answer to a personal dilemma. A quiet mind is like a weeded garden.”
It’s good advice.
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For years I worked as a communications professional in a high-stress industry. I couldn’t believe how much I could get done in a week – I ate to-do lists for breakfast and trudged through sometimes 80-hour weeks. And then went home and wrote 10 pages a day – whether they took me two hours or four hours. I thrived on deadlines.
Then, my now husband told me to slow down…focus on my writing. I had a dream to wake up, go for a run, come home and write until noon. Walk the dogs. Make lunch. Write until 4. Make dinner for my family and have the evening free.
Sigh. I’m lucky if I wrote 2 pages a day!
I’m back in the workforce, cramming myself full of deadlines. I’m working out – even riding my bike an hour a day TO work. And then I go home and write 10 pages a day. Seems deadlines are actually the only way to light a fire under my muse.
Wishing you much success in exterminating the ants in your mental pants…
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Sasha, mind and body so work together. I neglected my body while focusing on writing, too, and getting the balance back is hard work. It’s paying off, though. Activity outdoors seems to have much more impact than indoors for quieting the mind. Your patio retreat ought to help with that.
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Sasha,
I’m the same way. I can’t focus unless I’ve had some physical activity in the day. Whether it’s an interval run around the neighborhood or a workout at the gym, I’ve learned that if I get out and get moving, get some sunshine in, then I can focus far better and get more done, whether it writing fiction or non-fiction.
~S