I was reading an article from a link on Darlene Steelman’s Talk About It Tuesday post. It was about a gamer who was only 23 years old and died in a gamer cafe and no one realized he was dead for about nine hours. He died from apparent cardiac arrest due to blood clots. Similar incidents have happened with gamers going hours without getting up because they are so engrossed in a game.

In May of last year, my best friend died of blood clots in each lung. It was believed that her lack of movement caused this. She had a bad knee due to an injury when she was younger, and the surgeon wouldn’t operate until she lost a great amount of weight. In the meantime, she could barely get around and spent most of her time at home and at work sitting.

I said all that to say this. We, as writers, need to be aware of the time we spend sitting and writing. Sometimes we can get so involved in our story that we just can’t stop. But, please, try to get up and move around from time to time. When my friend died, I really started thinking about this. Then, when I read the article, it really made me nervous for myself and all of you. I know some of you are already aware of the importance of taking breaks, and some of you are exercising. That’s great. But I know a few of you sometimes mention you aren’t getting exercise and that you spend hours writing. Please take care of your health. Take breaks. Get up and walk around for awhile. Get that blood flowing.

Ok, preaching is over. 🙂

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