A healthier lifestyle can have a positive affect on everything we do. Things like regular sleep, diet, and fitness can even help us to self-publish a book. It can provide the clarity, discipline, stamina, and time management skills to focus on the writing, editing, marketing, promoting and problem solving needed for issues that come up in your book project. If you think about how long you plan to be working at it- completing, producing and publishing a book can take upwards of 3 months to a year. Or more. Good health allows you to be consistent and work on your project with less physical and mental stress and distraction.
This is important because self-publishing is demanding. Its like committing to train for and run in a marathon. Can you imagine how a poor lifestyle could affect things like your motivation to write, financial discipline, time management, etc. It is all connected because aspects of your lifestyle can either hinder or benefit you self-publishing your book. So I decided to share one of my Yoga sessions with my instructor with you.
Nothing too major, but it might just help loosen the stiffness in the backs of those late night writers. First I had a sip of water, unroll the Yoga mat and placed it in the middle of the floor. I began by standing at the back of the mat. I leaned forward, folding at the waste. While in the forward fold I crossed my forearms and let them hang over my head. Feeling the sensation of resistance in my back, I tried to let it go with the use of deep breaths. But it would hold on. I took deeper breaths as I hung there for a few breaths. I began to alternately bend my legs with the breath, and my back loosened allowing me to fold deeper. Head hung at the end of my neck, as I felt the sensation of my hamstrings lengthening. I was uncomfortable at first. But I breathed and swayed side to side a bit.
Then I did a half raise with hands on my shins. Straightening my back, then released forward into a fold again, exhaling lower. Repeated the half-lift and lowered a few more times. I inhaled and held it at the top and exhaled at the bottom. Putting my hands down to the mat, I walked forward with finger spread wide, into Down Dog. While there I focused on pushing my tale bone up, extending my spine, and pushing the ground away. I made a foundation on my hands with wide spread fingers.
Enjoying the feeling of weight on my wrists, I smiled. On my toes, with partially bent legs, I pushed my heels toward the ground. Then walked my dogs by straightening one leg, then the other. Pumping and breathing. Followed that with rotating my heals left to right. Still slowly breathing, I rolled myself forward into a high plank. My shoulders welcomed this movement.
Then I moved back to the Down Dog, focusing on my core and glutes to sort of pull myself back. And I pushed the ground away. Repeated this motion a few times. Then back to Down Dog. I rolled into a plank pose. Down, I went, to knees for a push up. I needed to do a modified one. Then into Up Dog. Squeezing the buttocks and opening the front body. I also pulled the shoulders down and back to elongate my neck. All the while I breathed in and out.
With the breath and straightened arms, I pushed back into Down Dog. Repeated that a few times. Knees went down again. Out of Down Dog I slowly let hips down to the mat with bent elbows. I could feel the stiffness more here as I pushed my torso upward, with my hip down. My hands out in front pushing the ground, shoulders down, chin was tucked. I further challenged myself and straightened my elbow out of the Sphinx pose.
That Seal Pose was really more uncomfortable, even with wider feet. Breathing was made more difficult as I pulsed my elbows from bent and straight. Then all the way down. I extended my right arm to a right angle. I bent the left leg. I lifted it and rolled it across to the right behind me. I push into the right arm. I wiggled the left leg out and in for moment. I return to my belly. Then repeated this on the other side. After that twist I shook it out. From my belly, I pushed back into child pose. I held it there a moment with widen knees, hips pulled back, and arms extended out to the front over my head. Finally, I slowly walked my hand back pushing up to a seated position. Sitting on my heals is challenging for myself. However, I tried to ease into it for a couple of seconds, this will help to strengthen the position so I can be relaxed there. And that is where I concluded the yoga session. The whole session took about twenty minutes.
In conclusion, self-care has got to be a high priority for anyone working on self-publishing a whole book- in addition to the other mental and physical demands often placed on you. To avoid burnout stay committed to your healthier lifestyle and you’ll surely publish a good book.
