The Writer's Perspective on Health, Happiness, and Prosperity by Debra H. Goldstein

The Writer’s Perspective on Health, Happiness, and Prosperity by Debra H. Goldstein

January begins a new year of dreams and hopes, but it is also a time for personal reflection. When I think about my family and friends, I wish them only health, happiness, and prosperity for 2020. Being honest, I’d like the same for me – but these thoughts take on different interpretations when one is a writer.

Health – We all wish to be healthy in the sense of no illnesses, injuries, or other personal calamities. Consequently, we are told to eat healthy, avoid alcohol and tobacco, exercise regularly, and get plenty of sleep. Writers? They fill the smoke-filled bars at conventions. Often, they eat on the fly because they are immersed in a project. They work in a solitary environment where they rarely leave their computers (which, by the way, is a good means of developing carpal tunnel syndrome from typing/ eye strain from not blinking/ neck and shoulder pain from poor keyboard posture). Finally, sleep and exercise go out the window when a writer is on deadline.

Happiness – Joy in the little things brings smiles to most people’s faces, but writers?  We are happy when people buy our books or tell us they like something we wrote, but we cringe at bad reviews, sales numbers that don’t meet our expectations, and when fans and friends don’t show up at signings. One writer, on deadline, compares the days she is immersed in writing to being in jail. I don’t find that a particularly happy image, do you? Or how about those instances when an idea is impossible to grasp or if it does invade one’s brain, it doesn’t work?

Prosperity – If prosperity is counted by the dollars earned or a declaration of being a New York Times Bestselling author, prosperity is the gold ring most writers can only dream about.

So, why do writers write? It certainly isn’t because it brings us pure health, happiness, and prosperity. No, after much reflection, I think it is because we must. We hope readers are happy with what we produce, but readership isn’t our primary purpose in spending our time writing. Although it may not be obvious, writers obtain health, happiness, and prosperity from the joy of sharing ideas through the written word. … and every now and then from reader reactions. Tell me, what about you? Why do you read and how does it impact your health, happiness, and prosperity?

OLDER AND HAPPIER

I'm enjoying being a part of Author's Alley at Malice Domestic.

In a few days I’ll be celebrating a milestone birthday. I’ll be three quarters of a century old. The good news is I will live at least another ten years according to a test I took from an article in the newspaper. That is if I don’t get hit by a meteorite or a falling tree while I’m walking in the woods. Or I don’t get tripped by one of my two cats when I’m coming down the stairs in the morning, or knocked over by Maggie, my large collie, as she enthusiastically greets me whenever I come home.

Dr. Martha Cruz of the University of San Francisco VA Medical Center is the lead author of a study that has a 12-item list of health questions that help predict changes for dying within ten years for patients aged 50 and older. The “mortality index” is designed for doctor-patient discussions about which treatments may be too risky for patients with limited life expectancy.The findings were published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Researchers analyzed data on almost 20,000 Americans over 50 who took part in a national health survey in 1998. They tracked the participants for ten years. Nearly 6000 participants died during that time.

The 12 items on the “Mortality Index” are assigned points; fewer total points means better odds.

·         Men automatically get 2 points. (that leaves me out) In addition to that, men and women aged 60 to 64 get 1 point; ages 70 to 74 get 3 points (that’s me or at least when I took the test); and 85 or over get 7 points.

·         Two points each; a current or previous cancer diagnosis, excluding minor skin cancers; lung disease limiting activity or requiring oxygen; heart failure; smoking; difficulty bathing; difficulty managing money because of health or memory problem; difficulty walking several blocks. (No points here for me.)

·         One point each; diabetes or high blood sugar, difficulty pushing large objects such as a heavy chair (How heavy? On a carpet or not?)  being thin or normal weight. (Whoa! Now how cool is that! I have a few extra pounds and apparently thinness in older age could be a sign of illness, Dr. Cruz said.)

The highest, or worst, score is a 26, with a 95 percent chance of dying within 10 years. To get that, you’d have to be a man at least 85 years old with all the above conditions. For a score of zero, which means a 3 percent chance of dying within 10 years, you’d have to be a woman younger than 60 without any of those infirmities – but at least slightly overweight. That’s me scoring a three since I’m over 60 and slightly overweight.

So this was very positive news for me. Add to that, my Advantage Medicare insurance company, Aetna, makes sure I go to a doctor regularly. They actually bug me and my doctor about that because I tend to put off going when I feel perfectly good.  I have sort of a Garrison Keillor Lake Wobegon attitude. Once a year is good enough when I get around to it. 

So back to Aetna.  They sent me more new research that shows people tend to grow happier as they get older. According to the research, it suggests that in general, people are choosier about how they spend their time as they get older, and they’re more likely to do away with activities or friendships they don’t really enjoy and focus more on people and things that matter most.

My cousin, Thelma, and my 80+ Uncle Adrian at a recent reunion

Research also shows we older and more mature people become better at seeing the positive side of situations. Of course, there are no guarantees anyone will be happy at any age, but the odds are better as we grow older. And, of course, being happy at any age depends a lot on what life offers us, although the research showed only about 10% of a variation in happiness is due to uncontrollable facts. That means 90% is rooted in thoughts, feelings and behaviors within our control.

It’s my opinion that a lot of our health and happiness depends on how we spend our life. 

On  a daily walk in the woods with my dog.

Do we keep active? Do we socialize with family and friends? Do we learn new things and challenge our brain? Do we look forward to each new day and what it brings? Do we give to others in some way? Volunteering is a very positive uplifting thing. Some research shows pets have a positive effect on our health, too. And most of all do we refuse to harbor negative thoughts, resentments, and anger whether it’s against someone we know or something else? It’s not that we should all be like Pollyanna cheerfully skipping through life, but if something causes us anxiety and anger, we need to try changing it if we can or let it go if we can’t.

What do you think is most important in bringing happiness?

How do you deal with anger, irritations and resentments?

What do you do to keep healthy physically and mentally?

The Importance of Exercise

                                                                             
Recently I heard that walking is done less by people in the United States than any other country in the world. In fact, the report stated that less that 13% of Americans walk on a regular basis. I didn't hear the whole report, just this little bit of information, but I'm sure it didn't include the walking we do to and from our cars or to the refrigerator to get a bowl of ice cream. I wonder if walking up and down an escalator counts?

I think probably most writers or office workers don't get enough exercise, and I'm probably one of them since writing is a sedentary job. Even much of our social interaction is done sitting at a computer or on a phone. And the times we meet family and friends in person; usually it's to go to lunch or dinner, or maybe to a movie, concert or the theater. More sitting.

I'll admit I've never liked the bend and stretch and other boring types of exercises. Years ago I'd sometimes exercise with some TV guru. It never lasted. I had a cheap treadmill once, but found that monotonous, too. When I had a stationary bike in my laundry room, I'd peddle away on that for a half hour every day watching Jeopardy on a small TV over my sewing machine. But that was years ago in another house and another time. I have no room for exercise equipment in this house, and going to a gym doesn't appeal. The closest one is almost ten miles away and rather expensive, and I neither want to spend the time nor the money going there.

However, the one exercise I do enjoy is walking. Every morning I go for a walk in my woods that lasts a half hour or more, and if I go beyond my woods, it's much longer. The only time I skip my morning walk is if I need to be somewhere else early, or it's raining hard, or the snow is too deep, or the temperature is in the teens with a wind chill factor much lower. I use two walking sticks. They're old broom handles, nothing fancy about them. The walking sticks serve several purposes. First, they help me stay upright when I trip over roots hidden under leaves. Second, I can swoop them in front of me those times of the year when spiders or little green worms booby trap the trails with their webs. This lessens having webs decorating my face and hair. Third, the sticks help propel me along and work to bolster my upper body strength. It's not that I need them for propulsion, but I'm always forgetting to use the little hand held barbells in the house to build muscles in my arms. Every little bit helps, in my opinion.

All the years of camping with my family; husband, kids, parents and younger siblings, always included a lot of hiking. We'd take at least one trail in the morning and usually another one later in the day. To this day, all my siblings like to walk, as does my youngest daughter, Mary. When I go to California to visit her, she always plans hikes for every day, often in a redwood forest. When my siblings and I get together for camping trips every year, hikes are a definite part of the activities. My youngest brother is even a marathon runner - an extreme form of walking, I'd say. He'd probably be horrified that I'm relating what he does to walking, but marathon runners do slow to walking at times during a race.

Other exercises of mine are carrying buckets of water to ponies and chickens, cleaning stalls several times a week and sometimes shoveling snow in the winter. But my exercise level really increases in the spring and summer. Then it's spading the vegetable bed (I never can get my little tiller started), planting, weeding and mowing (not with a riding mower, either) and so many other yard and garden chores. All this cuts in on my writing time, but I consider it helping me to live longer. So in the long run, I'll have more years to write. Did I mention before that I'm an optimist?

What do you do for exercise? Do you think you get enough exercise?