Writing feels like flossing my brain

(Not that flossing.)

For a lot of 2016, I had a slipped disc in my back, which finally got resolved in January. I’m not doing a load of physio, and one exercise in particular is a way to relieve pain round the sciatic nerve in my leg.

It involves gently and reasonably slowly, moving the leg back and forth, extending the ankle to point your toe, before pulling it back in again.

Here’s a very earnest man to demonstrate:

In my basic understanding of this, you’re moving the nerve and muscles around each other to simulate them and stretch them out.

Today, I finally worked up an article I had been planning for a while, and realised that writing gives me a similar sensation.

As I weave each sentence back and forth, I’m constantly re-weighing the constituent parts, often removing whole sections and realising where the true article lies. Often realising what I really mean.

I can’t find any other way to do it. I tried speaking articles out loud as I was thinking about them — that was a disaster.

What works, is starting to type, and following the thread where it goes.

But what matters is more than just the article — it’s the exercise of pulling my thread of thought and logic back and forth around my brain cells and experiences. It loosens up other ideas, starts some kind of chemicals flowing, which I believe really serve my ability to do all the rest of my job.

It’s the physio exercise for my brain that I know works best.