I find it important to stay connected with my body because there’s a lot of wisdom there. My head gets full of confusion and negativity. I’ve often thought that my body knows more than I do. We all know about ‘gut feelings’ or ‘skin prickles’ signs the body gives off that are so well known they’ve become parts of our language– often the body has a different take on life to the head and it’s worth checking in. Learning to listen to your body’s language is a useful skill for life and writing.

The body is an immense resource to a writer, a treasure trove of experience and sensation. From the moment we are born until the moment we die we are moving – even when we’re still.

Let’s take a moment now to notice that we’re breathing and that even a gentle breath is movement, lifting the ribs, expanding the chest. We breath 23,040 times a day, in and out. Let’s try a little experiment now. Speed up your breathing, breathe really, quickly, exaggerate, don’t do it for long – did that make you feel agitated, heated, panicky? It did me. Now try breathing long slow deep breaths. I immediately sense my shoulders relaxing and I start to calm down.

The way we move even when we’re sitting still affects us. What about blinking – we do that approximately 14,000 times a day. And your heart is beating all the time too, at least 100,000 times a day, pumping 260 litres of blood an hour. What a workout! To be alive is to move.