The Grasshopper #8, Good and Bad Sitting

Two ways to turn sitting into a positive

Photo by Susanna Marsiglia on Unsplash

Writers, and many other creatives, spend way too much time sitting. Sitting for long periods of time is extremely unhealthy, both physically and mentally. I’ve been recovering from a fractured lower spine and my profession has not been helping. I found myself in the worst shape of my life.

Ironically, I’m doing more writing than ever, both here with my newsletters, and on Medium. So, I finally had to take a couple of steps to deal with the mental and physical downsides of sitting.

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Bad Sitting, the Writer’s Curse

What to do to counter this very unhealthy thing

Why am I writing about a health issue in a newsletter about the writing life? Because for me, writing is a big part of my day. Not just the actual act of tapping words out on my iPad, but the research, most of which is done online. I write about current events, among other things, and I try to read around the stories. What does that mean?

I lean pretty liberal. Not woke, I hate political correctness, which is just another form of righteousness, the need to be right. So when I write about current events, politics, or climate issues, I have to actively ensure that I’m trying to see the issues from a variety of points of view.

So, I’m often reading for at least a couple of hours a day, mostly in the morning, sitting on my couch. Not the healthiest posture for sure. I have tried standing desks and they don’t work for me. 

On top of this already unhealthy scenario, I fell two months ago and got a pressure fracture of a lower vertebrae. Yes, I actually broke my back, which is incredibly weird to even think about.

The healing process is progressing very slowly and can be quite painful. Frankly, I’m pretty tired of it, but I also now sympathize with the many people I see who have more chronic conditions. My doctor tells me I will heal.

But all this sitting is bad, there’s no getting around it. I’m a walker and walking is part of my rehab, but I’m still limited to under a couple of miles at one time. My normal routine would include 3-4 miles daily, not only for exercise, but because walking is a great time to write in my head with no pressure to capture anything.

So I finally decided I had to address this couch potato life, even with a cracked spine. I’m trying a new routine. I set a timer on my iPad or phone for thirty minutes and when it goes off I get up, no matter what I’m doing. If it is a workout day, I do a couple of sets of things like push-ups and squats. If it’s a break day I have a stretching routine that takes around five minutes.

I always reset the timer after it goes off unless I am doing something active. This process almost immediately changed things. First, I learned how fast 30 minutes goes by when I’m writing or researching. Especially when I’m writing because my sense of time passing goes on hold until I’m done.

There’s no question that I was doing damage with my old routine because even this small change has me feeling much better.

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Good Sitting

If you sit for an hour, you owe your body an hour

“The Buddha, who did not use the word “meditation,” spoke instead of “mental development” in a similar manner. His version of good-enough attention (i.e., mindfulness) came in the aftermath of his interaction with Sujata. Rather than beating himself into submission as he had been doing in his years of asceticism, he changed his relationship to his inner turmoil, adopting a more compassionate stance. The effect was startling. His mind, as if it were a lotus long starved of nourishment, flourished into full flower.”

Dr Mark Epstein, The Zen of Therapy, Uncovering a Hidden Kindness in Life

Sitting is not all bad. In fact, sitting with intent is very good for our mental state and a pretty good way to break through logjams, like the dreaded writer's block. But what does sitting with intent mean?

I am of course talking about meditation, sitting with a specific purpose. According to the Epstein quote above, the Buddha considered it mental development, an exercise in understanding the relationship between thoughts and reality.

Sounds complicated, doesn’t it? That’s actually a problem because meditation and mindfulness have become huge topics across the west and there are a zillion techniques for learning how to do it. Which is too bad because there is nothing complicated about actually doing it.

Btw, I’m not saying it is easy. We’ll get to that in a minute.

Meditation can be considered sitting with awareness. Mindfulness, a somewhat different perspective, is the act of focusing on what you are doing in the here and now. As Thich Nhat Hanh says, ‘when washing dishes, wash dishes’. Immerse yourself in the task at hand and do the best you can.

Both meditation and mindfulness are actions. They are not sedentary like sitting watching tv or poking around the internet on your phone. They are focused activities with the same concentration on technique you’d use while lifting weights or pursuing a craft where there is little margin for error.

Which gets me to why writers should try it. Experienced writers find themselves in an immersive state when the writing is flowing and going well. It can feel like you've submerged yourself in deep water and when you surface from a writing session it is like coming up for air.

You’ve moved from one state to another, from conscious act to subconscious. When we sit in meditation we are using a basic ritual to enter a similar state. I’ll describe my ritual at the end of this piece.

Most writers use a ritual to enter that place where their focus is entirely on writing. You may have a location or time of day or a series of actions that take you into that place. You’ve trained yourself to go there by going through a series of actions that tells your mind to go into writing mode.

Mine is pretty common. Rise early, read a little news, drink a coffee, and write. Somewhere between 500 and 1000 words later I emerge, a little disoriented, if things go well. Sometimes they don’t and you never hit your stride. That’s ok unless it always happens.

That might be when a little meditation session is needed.

I have a shelf full of books on Buddhism and meditation. The subject fascinates me, both for mental development and the perspective on why we are here. But you do not need to know anything about Buddhism or the philosophy of self to sit.

I use a cushion and sit cross legged with my palms in my lap faced upward. My back is straight and my head is upright with my gaze just slightly lowered. Eyes open. I bring my attention to the flow of breath in and out, not forcing it, just observing the flow. I count breaths, one for each in/out.

In my case, the counting is a way of keeping myself there for a set period of time. If I want to sit for twenty minutes, my usual minimum for getting past the thought storm, then I’m talking about 120 breaths.

This is my routine. It is based on Soto Zen which just teaches simple sitting. If you need a guide try Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind by Shunryu Suzuki. Simple essays on sitting and a classic.

So what about that thought storm I mentioned? The reason you adopt a process like this is your mind and body are going to conspire to keep you from sticking with your sitting. You’ll itch and ache, you think of things that must be done now, or you’ll drift off on a daydream and forget your counting.

What you are experiencing is the conscious mind basically doing its thing, being conscious. The only thing you can do to get past this is to stay with the breathing and counting. Don’t fight the thoughts or give into the itches and aches. Eventually they will fade. 

This can be a lot harder than it sounds, but you will get better at it with a little practice. And you’ll notice a change in your ability to focus as a writer. But the difficulty is like beginning a strength training regimen, a little painful and requiring a level of concentration you may not be used to.

I really debated going into meditation as a subject here, but I find it incredibly useful as a way to train myself to write with greater clarity and to learn to let go of all those surface thoughts and dive a little deeper.

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“When you do something, you should do it with your whole body and mind; you should be concentrated on what you do. You should do it completely, like a good bonfire. You should not be a smoky fire. You should burn yourself completely. If you do not burn yourself completely, a trace of yourself will be left in what you do.” 

― Shunryu Suzuki, Zen Mind, Beginner's Mind: Informal Talks on Zen Meditation and Practice

The idea of burning yourself completely and leaving no trace of your existence is not a bad goal for writing. When I edit, I try to weed out any self-indulgent prose, that is to say, anything that says, look at me!

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