I don’t exercise to get fit or lose weight. I do it to get clear and clean in the head. And I do it every day, because I want to be clear and clean every day. As it’s a simple, do-able goal with an immediate outcome (I feel clearer and cleaner instantly, but I don’t lose weight from exercise for months, if at all), I’m rewarded for my efforts and incentivised to keep going. And going.
But another reason to exercise is for the mental agility it imbues, which, in turn, aids creativity. I read this interview with Murakami in The Paris Review recently that touches on this. I thought I’d share. As with everything uttered by Haruki Murakami, it’s elegant and clear and clean:
” When I’m in writing mode for a novel, I get up at 4:00 a.m. and work for five to six hours. In the afternoon, I run for ten kilometers or swim for fifteen hundred meters (or do both), then I read a bit, and listen to some music. I go to bed at 9:00 p.m. I keep to this routine every day without variation. The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it’s a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind. But to hold to such repetition for so long–six months to a year–requires a good amount of mental and physical strength. In that sense, writing a long novel is like survival training. Physical strength is as necessary as artistic sensitivity.
I totally agree with the repetition bit. And the every day bit. And the bit about physical strength being important to creative success. I draw on the physical depths I’ve gone to over the years to achieve all kinds of things. My four-week