Top tips on blogging and creating healthily part 2

Ok so last time I spoke about:
sight
light
food
hydration
This time I want to start by talking a little about temperature. Having a nice ambient temperature in these cold winter months is important. Our bodies will burn a lot more energy than normal trying to keep warm.
If we are trying to work in a cold environment I bet you find it hard to concentrate, I can't do anything if I am cold other than perhaps update my blog.

I go into hibernation mode where all I want to do is stay in bed, hey If i can do it from bed bring it on! So the cold does not feed our creativity.

 See this is me not practicing what I preach I can hardly type I am so cold.

Next on the list for this time is BACK HEALTH. I will bet a million quid that most of us creative types suffer with bad backs and necks. This I will guess is down to bad work positioning. Slouching while embroidering, sewing on the soft squishy sofa, felting on a table that is too low am I ringing any bells yet?
I try to imagine myself in a period drama, corset and all sitting bolt upright on a very uncomfortable looking chair doing my needle work and this does make me sit up straight.
At regular periods during the day do a set of back extensions ( either sitting or standing) try to elongate your spine, imagine being pulled by the top of your head, chin out shoulders back as far as they will go, try to make yourself as tall as you can. Then relax, repeat this ten times just to remind you back muscles to hold you up.
We need to keep our backs strong if we want to remain creative into our old age. Ask at your gym ( if you go to one) for some back strengthening exercises. I might write a blog post on this topic alone in the future.

We move onto something a little more "binky bonky" Music and singing. Yeah whatever I hear you mumbling. I always used to work in silence, no radio, no TV, but although I still enjoy some quite moments a bit of music and singing does massive good for the soul and spirit.

I am in no way a hippie or a Jesus freak ( though I do like a good hymn) Try a bit of singing and dancing while you are creating your next masterpiece, even if you are tone deaf. I guarantee it will make you feel happy.

And finally for this post WORK SPACE. Now if you are anything like me I can be described as a mucky puppy.

As my creative mind is whizzing back and forth I'll start one thing and then move on to another and leave the first thing in the middle of the room. Then I'll think of something else an idea maybe, jot that down leaving the thing I was doing on the table then I ll think of something else and so on and so forth. You get the picture. Next thing you know You can't remember where you left the first thing, you've had a great idea but can't find your note book, then when you find it you can't remember the idea you had in the first place.

This does us no favors. I do try to put things back in the same place each time (though my husband would disagree) I try not to get involved with too many things at once and I try to finish one project at a time.

Having a little focus does not strangle our creativity but helps it come out in a more orderly fashion ( sometimes)

Another thing I would like to say about WORK SPACE is to try and keep it tidy, I know I am untidy but even for me there is something distinctly off putting about a messy work space, I get confused and start talking myself out of starting things because everything in front of me is so jumbled.

When I am not creating I wok as a painter ( of houses) and I find that I concentrate far better in a tidy work space. My sister would be having a fir if she were to read this as when I was a kid I was the messiest kid on the block.