Can Writing be Hazardous to Your Health?

Can Writing be Hazardous to Your Health?
Written by Linda Swingle

Say What?

Are there occupational hazards associated with our profession? The unfortunate answer is “YES”!

Whether one parks their hind-quarters in a chair positioned in front of the computer, a laptop, or nestled down with a good book while researching in a large overstuffed chair at the local coffee house, library, or book store, our profession requires a great deal of sitting.

As we apply our passion toward mental exercise, most times, we neglect exercising the body. Minutes of daily prolonged sitting easily leads to hours: those hours turn to days, and days into months.

While many view our passion for the profession as romantic and an idyllic way to ink out a living: unfortunately, our profession requires daily sitting and regardless how romantic, it does come with a price.

According to recent reports, doctors consider prolonged sitting hazardous to our health while dubbed by researchers as the “Sitting Disease.”

Imagine that! The advancements within our working world via technology will mark an era of creativity ‘dis-eased’ by prolonged sitting! The truth of the matter: this is as real as it gets.

Now get up and move! Dance! (Most likely, no one is watching) Take the dog for a walk, play cat and mouse with the cat, take your parrot to the park, clean that fish tank, swim, jump for joy….just move!

For more information and to learn how to avoid contributing to and counted amongst the statistics, click on the following links:

• http://www.livescience.com/36200-tips-sitting-work-day.html
• http://www.livescience.com/49518-sitting-cancer-heart-risk.html
• http://www.womenshealthmag.com/fitness/sedentary-lifestyle
• http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/08/29/sitting-health-risks-_n_5692271.html
• http://www.npr.org/2011/04/25/135575490/sitting-all-day-worse-for-you-than-you-might-think

Linda’s Favorite:
https://draxe.com/section/fitness/

A little about Linda Swingle: Works as an aspiring Author-Illustrator of humorous Children’s Books and board books. Lives with darling husband Scott and rescued, devoted Great Pyrenees-Mix Pooch Tieshka in Southern California. Born and raised in Baltimore and after twenty-five plus years in SoCal, still misses the beauty of seasonal changes, crabbing along the Potomac, the Inner Harbor, and the Orioles!

Linda, thank you for contributing to Writing and Illustrating. Your article helps reminds us to take care of ourselves, so we can write better.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy