Life Interruptions and the Call for New Routines
Less than 8 years into the launch of my writing career and public relations practice, I had to deal with divorce and, on its stress-bound heels, a diagnosis of chronic illness. Both came with fatigue and frustration. In today’s post, we explore the care and feeding of writers with the practical routines that sustain us into our senior health and working years. We’ve looked at some rituals of writing. So, now we continue with some of the habits of living strong, independent, and creative lives, up until life’s ultimate deadline.
“Stick to routines like any little old healthy lady,” said my doc proudly, injecting what he perceived as levity into my new life. “Eat, walk and work in a routine. Avoid extremes, including heavy foods or excessive spice or exertion.” I listened from my perch, wearing a baby blue paper gown, my legs crossed at the ankles. Self-employed, now single mother of two under age 6, sentenced to bland menus and sensible shoes, I was barely into my 30s.
Finding Balance in Transition and Community
Even writers who thrive on solitude need structure and community to stay balanced, especially through change.
Transitions can mean that you feel neither here nor there. Still, we rise and care to meet responsibilities to ourselves and likely others in our surroundings.
Military members I had the honour to work with replied when I asked how they managed the many moves their service required of them: “Seek community and routine”. Writers tend to work alone, yet we also know we can’t do it all alone. We break out of our self-imposed space to come out and be social and to connect with other creatives.
Work Routines and Rituals that Strengthen Both Body and Page
Writers, like athletes, live and die by their routines. Some sharpen pencils before facing the page. Others brew tea, light a candle, or insist on a particular chair at a particular hour. To outsiders, these rituals can look quirky or obsessive, but for a writer, they are the scaffolding that holds up the creative day.
As a senior and a writer, I’ve come to see that these routines aren’t so different from the health practices doctors recommend for ageing well. Both sustain energy, protect independence, and keep the mind sharp. And oh yes, they require consistency. And both, when practiced with care, extend not only life but the quality of life — and in a writer’s case, the quality of words on the page.
Healthy Habits That Boost Creative Energy
Think of the writer’s morning. We ease into the day with a cup of something warm, maybe a notebook at hand. The first words often feel stiff, like muscles that need stretching. In the same way, the body of a senior benefits from a protein-rich breakfast and a few minutes of movement. A strong start sets the tone for the day. For writing, it prevents drift and distraction. For health, it prevents muscle breakdown and loss of balance.
Sunlight is another example. Writers are famous for hiding indoors, hunched over their desks. But stepping outside for ten minutes of morning light fuels Vitamin D production and strengthens bones — just as it fuels the imagination by reconnecting us to the wider world. Writing and ageing well need this reminder: creativity and resilience don’t grow in the dark.
Hydration on paper looks like the dullest advice imaginable: drink water. But if you’ve tried to write through brain fog, you’ve felt the difference between a hydrated mind and a dehydrated one. Adding electrolytes to that first glass in the morning restores minerals and wakes up both the body and the page. Clarity, after all, is as vital to a sentence as it is to muscle coordination.
Writers also wrestle with stress. The blank page raises cortisol levels as surely as a crowded freeway. That’s why many writers begin with journaling, affirmations, or meditation practices that mirror a senior’s morning stress reset. A few minutes of calm breathing or gratitude writing lowers the body’s alarms, making way for steadier focus and gentler energy. And hey, gratitude written or expressed on the exhale goes a long way to shifting the mindset from stress to openness to positive surprises.
Even social connection has a place in both worlds. Writing can be a solitary act, but our work from blog post to book doesn’t survive in a vacuum. Sharing drafts with friends or connecting with readers sustains a writer’s spirit. Similarly, seniors who greet a neighbour or call a friend in the morning boost oxytocin, protect against loneliness, and strengthen resilience. Both writing and ageing well depend on staying woven into the community. The number and quality of our relationships are said to add to longevity and health, and it ain’t bad for business either!
Can success be in the sip? Yes, even our beverages matter. Writers cling to coffee the way sailors cling to ropes, but rotating in green tea with *matcha offers antioxidants and steady energy without the crash. For seniors, the added leucine supports muscle synthesis. For writers, it supports stamina at the desk. I have recently rediscovered *Earl Grey tea since research showed it has significant benefits. I chose to ignore it when I went ‘off’ it due to its perfumey aroma, for me.
The larger point is this: the “care and feeding” of writers is not so different from our personal overall care in living to life’s deadline. In both cases, our goal is to stay strong, independent, and creative. You don’t need to take on all ten health habits at once, just as you don’t need to perfect every writing ritual.
Will you start small? Are there two or three that fit naturally? Adapt some routines and you’ll see they are less about discipline and more about identity — the way you live, the way you write.
The reward is the vibrancy in the years, and for writers like me, more energy for sentences that carry life forward, word by word.
Next post in this series features some writers’ health and productivity routines, plus a checklist of the latest understanding of what energy-generating daily routines look like.
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