Healthy Writers Series: Exorcising Your Writing Fears With Exercise

By guest blogger Tania Dakka.

Photo Copyright © Milli Thornton

Whenever you step into a world that’s full of established greats, you feel like you just can’t measure up. So you work quietly, behind the scenes, doing your best to get the approval of every reader around you—your family, friends, coworkers.

Build Yourself Up

Learn to trust and love yourself enough to seek self-gratification in what you do. Exercise can help you do that. Building your body builds confidence. Exercising as a regular practice will bleed over into your writing. Being active and achieving baby-steps fitness goals will boost your self-confidence—and that is the voice your readers will hear when you write.

Exercise Has Writing Side Effects

There’s a whole array of benefits that come with exercise. Let’s forget about trying to lose weight for now. Let’s concentrate on the benefits to what we love: our words.

Regular exercise boosts your mood, your immune system and your focus. People who exercise feel the benefits in their wallets, as well. Studies show people who exercise regularly earn 10% more than their non-exercising counterparts. They earn more because they’re sharper, more focused, and more confident.

Simple Moves You Can Make To Reap The Benefits

Ready?

Exercise for fifteen minutes every day. That’s it. That’s all you need to do.

The moves you do don’t need to be complex. They don’t require equipment or a gym membership.

One of my personal faves is a three-minute round of shadow boxing. I crank up Cinderella Man by Eminem (the clean version) and duke it out with the wall. There is little as invigorating as pretending you’re beating your archenemy to a pulp.

If your archenemy is your inner critic? Well, what an excellent way to metaphorically kick its rear!

There are loads of exercises you can do to get your blood flowing. Just choose anything that’s pleasurable for you and do it to the best of your ability for fifteen minutes a day.

The point is to start somewhere. Fifteen minutes of walking will get your blood flowing nicely.

The Easiest Way to Develop the Fitness Habit

Now you’re armed with the know-how to boost your writing confidence. But you’ve got to get into that habit. Using an exercise session as a way to ease into your writing routine is an awesome way to maximize your efforts.

James Chartrand of Men with Pens touts the benefits of a pre-writing routine. These are ritualistic acts that you go through before sitting to write, thereby setting your frame of mind on “writing mode.”

Using exercise as part of your pre-writing routine guarantees two things:

1) That you will exercise several times a week (or maybe even every day), and

2) That you’ll reap the rewards of the feel-good hormones your body releases whenever you get your blood pumping.

Your confidence will be higher at the end of an exercise session! Use that time to pour your soul onto your screen. And then watch as your confidence exorcises your writing fears.

Can you commit to investing 15 minutes into your writing on a regular basis?

Tania Dakka

Tania Dakka is a Freelance Writing Project Master and fitness advocate. Get tips and lessons from her blog to eat clean and stay fit so you’ll produce the best work you have in you. Check her out at www.taniadakka.com, Twitter (@TaniaDakka) and Facebook (Tania Dakka).