2-18-13

Walking and Writing?

 So, recently a few events in my life coincided with each other and got me thinking.

--I listened to Taylor Swift’s new album.
--My place of employment started a friendly walking/exercise contest and my fellow call center gals and I decided to form a team and participate.
--I hit a rough patch of writer’s block and can’t seem to get past it.
--A conversation with a coworker made me remember something I used to do when studying and memorizing things for school.
--I listened to Taylor Swift’s new album (oh, wait, I know I already said that, but it’s really good and by now I’ve listened to it about 20 times.)

So now you’re wondering how these relate to each other and what it ultimately means.  Well, in that case, please allow me to explain.

First of all, I’ve been trying to get back into working out but have lacked the motivation and consistency.  When the opportunity came up to participate in a little competition I thought it was the perfect push I needed.  I’d be motivated because I wouldn’t be working out just for myself, it would be for the team, and of course I wouldn’t want to let my team down.  So far it’s been a very positive experience and really has helped me in many ways.  I’m now getting up an hour earlier in the morning to do the elliptical and using a pedometer to challenge myself to increase my steps throughout the day.  While this challenge has changed many aspects of my daily routine, it has not changed my evenings.  When I get home from work I still basically spend the rest of the night sitting on the couch and working on the computer.  Whether I’m writing, working on website stuff, or just surfing around on the web, I’m pretty much sedentary the whole time I’m home. Hhhhhmmmm, not really good.

I don’t remember exactly what sparked the conversation, but one of my fellow walkers/coworkers and I started talking about something and it made me remember something I used to do in grade school when I was trying to memorize definitions or vocabulary.  I used to walk circles around the kitchen table while repeating the words out loud.  Something about the repetition and movement helped me memorize and study.  Hhhhhmmmm, maybe I was on to something back then.

Writer’s block.  Well that doesn’t really need much explanation except that I know exactly what I’m going to write for chapters 7, 8, 9, etc…but can’t seem to finish chapter 6.

So back to my original point.  I may have found a solution.

What do you think? A treadmill work station?  I’m gonna have hubby make me one.  I know my walking won’t be as fast as it could and my typing won’t be as accurate as it should, but I think it just might work.  Maybe by being physically active while I’m trying to write will help get the creative juices flowing and keep me more active at the same time.  I guess we’ll see.  I should have it set up sometime this weekend and I’ll keep you posted on how it’s going.  But I’m curious on your thoughts.  Do you have anything you do to help you focus/de-stress/get creative/get healthy/etc.  I do believe that your physical body and your mental body affect one another equally.  I’d love to hear some of your thoughts.

Oh, and Taylor Swift???

She inspires me as a writer because I know she’s a writer as well.  I know many authors have a “playlist” that accompanies their book, songs that either inspired them or were part of their book.  I have many songs that I would include in the “playlist” for Coast to Coast but right now I only have one that I’d like to share.  It’s called The Last Time and it’s a duet with Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol.  If you haven’t already heard it you should definitely give it a listen.  I'll try to share a link so you can give it a listen.  And I like that I’ll be able to listen to her, while I’m walking…and writing.  Hhhhmmm, maybe it’s not such a good idea for me to try and do so many things at one time :)