How Not to Hurt Yourself Writing or Reading

I feel bad about my neck

Hi friends!

Maybe you saw this tweet last week.

(Tbh, it’s the only tweet I’ve ever had go viral like this and Thursday I’m going to write a whole thing about the metrics of this including screenshots of this tweets analyitics and how it may or may not have affected subscribers to this newsletter, so if that interests you stay tuned or subscribe here!)

This reasonated with lot of people! Not only illustrators but writers, artists of all kinds, crafters, knitters, sewists, and muscians. Basically anyone who uses their hands to create something. I am very much not a doctor, and if you’re experiencing pain, please go see one, but the tips in that thread or below here may help ward off that pain to begin with.

I’ll also add that your posture really really really really matters. Not (only) in a sit up straight way, but in the angle of your head to your screen, where your shoulders are, where your arms rest kind of way. I was having a lot of neck pain a few years ago and I went to a chiropractor* and he had me text him a picture of me sitting at my desk at work. He texted back immediately and was like never sit there again. He wasn’t even trying to sell me some special chair or anything—he just said that the ergonomics of my workstation were part of why my neck was hurting so much.

So here’s the story of how I slipped a disc reading a book.

Soooo, I like my phone a lot. I have always been an early adopter and I was STOKED to get a smart phone. And a Kindle. I liked the Kindle when it was new so much Amazon tried to hire me as a Kindle Evangleist. True story! That on top of looking down at books, manuscripts, and a laptop screen all the time meant I developed a Repetitive Stress Injury from…. looking down. Thousands of times a day. Yeah. Bodies are dumb.

Then, I went to Seattle for a conference. On the flight back, my neck starting hurting, right where it meets my shoulder. I was in a cramped seat, of course, reading a book, of course, and just tried to tough it out. There was nothing I could do. Then the pain got INTENSE and still, there was nothing I could do. I just kept reading my book and massaging my neck and waiting to land.

And I HATED my book. HATED IT. I kept reading because that’s all I could focus on, but GOOD GRAVY I HATED THAT BOOK.

It was GONE GIRL. I’ll never know if I hated it because my neck hurt so much or if I really just didn’t like that book (Yes, I saw the movie. No, that didn’t help.)

By the time we landed I could barely move my neck. I got right in a cab and went right to my chiropractor. I came home in a neck brace, much to the shock of my now husband. An MRI later, I learned I had partially herniated a disk in my cervical spine from a muscle spasm, exaserbated by my RSI. Being dehydrated on a plane probably didn’t help. I had MONTHS of PT and for a while, until I figured out that I had to ALWAYS raise my screen higher, hold my phone higher, be mindful of my posture, I would be back in the chiropractor’s office at least every 6-8 months. But now, I haven’t been back for this issue for years and I can tell when I’m headed down the wrong path and know how to fix it.

Your body is different, obvs, and again I AM NOT A DOCTOR and this is not medical advice, but you have to pay attention to what you’re doing with your body if you want to keep doing those things with your body. You’d hear the same things if you were an athlete. Just because you’re not running laps doens’t mean you aren’t using your body. PAY ATTENTION TO IT.

Put your laptop up on some books and get an external keyboard. Make sure the table you’re sitting at isn’t too high and/or your chair too low. Make sure your feet touch the floor or something else. Think of parallel lines—your chin parallel to the floor. Your forearms parallel to the floor when typing. Your thighs parallel to the floor when seated. I’m sure there are recommendations similar to these things if you’re drawing or painting and if you have tips, feel free to leave them in the comments.

All this stuff applies to your brain, too. You have to rest your brain as much as you rest your wrists or shoulders or hands. Rest may mean not looking at a screen. (I KNOW!) Do a puzzle, go outside, try a sensory deprivation tank, stare at the wall, whatever that is NOT the thing you’re doing for 4-10 hours a say, or whatever. REST MATTERS. Rest is part of the work.

Well, that’s your lecture from ole Ma McKean today. Sit up straight and have a glass of water. We want to see what you’re going to create, today and years from now.

XOXOXO,

Kate

*I don’t really care what you think of chiropractors in general so don’t come at me with that mess. You do you.