Category: PERSONAL CARE

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Shroomsperiment!

Experiment: Take 3g of psilocybin (magic mushrooms) and see what happens.

Photo by Marco Allegretti

Ok, so why…

  • Psychedelics such as psilocybin (aka magic mushrooms) have had a major revival of late. Shrooms seem to be popping up all over popular culture.
    • Michael Pollan’s fantastic book How to Change Your Mind: What the New Science of Psychedelics Teaches Us About Consciousness, Dying, Addiction, Depression, and Transcendence talks about early research into the potential benefits of psychedelics in the 1950s. Pollan reports how moral outrage toward LSD in the 1960s and government prohibition created a long gap in our knowledge about these compounds. Recent interest, political and medical lobbying, and the resulting legalization in certain cities and states have literally brought them back out of the woods.
    • Sam Harris, in his Waking Up app and on his Making Sense podcast, has discussed details around his mushroom trip experiences. He warns that not all trips are good trips, but that there is value in the bad trips too. He cites his trips, both the good ones and the bad ones, as among the most powerful and meaningful experiences in his life. He goes so far as to say he thinks his daughters would miss out if they didn’t get to experience a psychedelic like psilocybin or LSD at some point in their lives.
    • Tim Ferriss, author of the 4-Hour everything [Workweek, Body, Chef], has been a staunch, vocal supporter of research into psychedelics and how they can aid in treating PTSD, anxiety, and depression. Here is a Psychedelics 101 list of resources he’s compiled. In a related post, he shares, “Psychedelics have saved my life several times over, including helping me to heal from childhood abuse.”
  • These admirable influencers and many others have written about their mostly positive—and all enlightening—experiences on psychedelics.
  • Studies have shown that shrooms (psilocybin) are our friends with benefits, including:
    • Potential use in treating:
      • Depression
      • PTSD
      • Obsessive-compulsive disorder
      • Cluster headaches
      • Cancer-related or other end-of-life psychological distress
      • Eating disorders
    • Potential to help curb addiction to:
      • Nicotine
      • Alcohol
      • Cocaine
      • Opioids
    • Feelings of euphoria
    • Spiritual benefits
      • These can be hard to quantify, but 2/3 of patients in one study considered their trip to be “either the single most meaningful experience of his or her life or among the top five,” ranking it on par with the birth of a child.
  • For these reasons, psilocybin had been on the (very) short list of recreational drugs I’d had interest in trying for a while.
    • Add to that a sense of urgency, since we were expecting a baby in early 2022, and I knew this experience would be harder to coordinate after her birth.
    • I checked this experiment off my pre-baby bucket list in the fall of 2021, but I’ve been preoccupied with all things baby for a while, so here we are.
      • Side note: Our daughter Amaya was born in February 2022. She is healthy, sweet, and lots of fun and work. Perhaps being a new parent will be the subject of a future blog post.

Uh oh…

  • Bad trips are an absolute possibility. Sam Harris and others have described having trips in which you are stuck in a psychologically painful or disturbing loop.
    • The one comforting note here is that those who have had horrible trips still benefit from these in the long run—maybe due to uncovering a new truth that was hard to swallow—as they still cite these “bad trips” as among the most meaningful moments in their lives.

About that…

  • I wasn’t too worried though, because I was better informed than many are when they try mushrooms for the first time. I’d read Michael Pollan’s book mentioned above, listened to several podcasts on the topic, and pored over a bunch of articles and YouTube clips. Here is one clip I would recommend.
  • As a result, I knew:
    • If I had the right set and setting, everything would likely be fine.
      • Set refers to your mindset. It’s in your best interest to calm your mind and enter the experience with a positive outlook.
      • Setting refers to your physical setting. Are you in a noisy, crowded, stressful place or ideally a calm, quiet, open, and natural one?
    • Psilocybin mushrooms won’t kill you. On a bad trip, they might make you think they can, but they can’t. This was one of the most reassuring things I’d learned.

I betcha…

  • I’mma love it and will feel a deeper connection with nature.
  • At the same time, I think I’ll be fine with letting this be a special, big occasion type activity, as opposed to something more regular like a glass of wine with dinner.

Here’s how it went down…

GIF by Face The Truth - Find & Share on GIPHY
  • Everything was planned to allow for a low stress start to our trip. We’d booked an Airbnb nestled in the mountains in NorCal. It would be Will, 3 close friends, and me.
  • One friend burned sage in the house beforehand to cleanse the environment.
    • Not a bad idea, I thought, to match the mysticism and sacredness involved with this experience. A mushroom trip is not like a keg stand or bong hit, and it helps to treat it with a little more respect.
    • But also, ICYDK, sage smells fantastic.
  • We started by sitting in a circle and each sharing what we hoped and expected to get out of the trip.
  • Then, we opened our tin of dark chocolate magic mushroom truffles, broke off the planned amount—3 grams each for our journey, cheers’d each other with our chocolates, and consumed them.
    • Side note: I’ve heard dried psilocybin mushrooms on their own taste bitter and nasty, but these chocolates were heavenly, so I’d highly recommend the chocolate route.

NATURE

  • We then went outside and lied under a massive tree during the warm, sunny afternoon, closing our eyes and relaxing for a bit to let the mushrooms do their magic.
  • The effects started somewhere between 30 and 60 minutes in for me.
  • Andrew, Will, and I walked around the grounds for a bit and I had started to feel a bit of euphoria, heightened senses, and an increased appreciation for the beauty of nature.
    • These would continue to grow over the course of the trip. I would feel more connected to all living things and the presence of some greater good.
  • Andrew picked a small fragrant, yellow flower bud and smelled it. He shared it with Will and me, and its scent was far stronger and more interesting to me than I imagine it normally would have been. The scent went from being like listening to FM radio from the next room over to walking among a live string orchestra mid-concert.
  • Upon returning to the “mother tree” that we spent some time under, I became mesmerized by the forest I was looking out at. It appeared to be breathing and it was as if I could see the trees and their branches alternatively growing, receding, and then growing again.
    • I found geometric patterns amidst the collection of trees that I doubt I ever would have noticed. Now, they gladly revealed themselves, and things like the veins of leaves became more pronounced.
    • I felt protected by the tree we were under, its branches seeming to hang down over us like an umbrella.
    • The leaved branches appeared to creep down closer to us, as if to shroud us in a loving embrace.
Loop Trip GIF by Psyklon - Find & Share on GIPHY
  • Everything seemed a little brighter. I had to check a few times to confirm that I indeed had sunglasses and not regular, clear glasses on.
  • I felt more aware of insects and was completely ok with them.
    • A bee was crawling on me as I was jotting down some notes, and I recall thinking this is OK. It’s all good, buddy.

TIME & MINDFULNESS

Only that day dawns to which we are awake.

Henry David Thoreau, Walden
  • Time seemed to expand as we gave greater attention to the present.
  • We experienced an amazing, seemingly endless sunset—and a whole evening of wonder—that, fortunately in this case, felt like it lasted far longer than it did.
    • This is possible when you’re inhabiting the present moment. And psilocybin is a natural medicine that guides you to do this.
    • You escape the treadmill of thoughts and the stream of technological distractions.
    • The experience is an invitation to move from a doing mindset to a being one. It’s less “what am I trying to accomplish?” and more “what is happening now?” “What am I feeling, hearing, and seeing in this moment?”
  • In pausing the doing—the ceaseless forward motion of life—you zoom into and appreciate the richness of the present moment and become more alive.
    • When you decide to “go” again, things are different because of the pause you took. You’ll be able to continue with greater perspective on what’s most important in your life.
    • Note: You can create such pauses in your day by focusing on your breath, even if just for a few seconds. I’ve found a physiological sigh to be a great way to reduce anxiety. This is a useful tool for a time-strapped new parent!
  • This experience was a powerful reminder that life is simply the sum of many moments.
    • When we’re not fully present for most of these moments, we 1) miss what’s important in our lives and 2) miss opportunities for personal growth and transformation.
    • When you truly focus all of your attention on the moment, you get so much more out of it. If you can carve out a little time for it, meditation is one of the best ways to practice this.
    • In summary, my epiphany…

To live longer in the same amount of time, be present.

GENERAL THOUGHTS

  • All the intentions I set before the trip manifested in some form during the trip.
  • It came to me that my purpose in life is to make others feel good.
    • I had a strong desire to express gratitude for the people around me, which happened to be mutual.
    • My cousin Jessie and I had a moment of mutual appreciation that we ended up in the same city at this time in our lives. We’d barely gotten to spend any time together as kids, and now we were reveling in the chance to enjoy a close friendship as adults.
    • I spent a lot of time checking in on everyone else, including our dog Zara. (To be sure, we did not and would not give her any mushrooms… although she could probably benefit from them given her general anxiety. 😆)
    • I realized this nurturing side has grown and is continuing to grow, probably as I prepare to be a dad. It comes from my parents, especially my mom.
    • My friends there shared that they appreciated my sense of joy and wonder, more than I realized. This, I mused, comes from my dad.
    • It was a reminder to be loving, compassionate, and forgiving with myself, because I’m probably more critical of myself than others are, and it allows me to bring my best, most secure self to others and for others.
  • I wanted to both capture everything happening during this experience and simultaneously just be in it.
  • It was easier to “catch and release” potential negative thoughts, nipping them in the bud.
  • I contemplated how alcohol and TV are fine to enjoy but should take a backseat to other activities and conversations, because there’s already so much to do and experience—especially to foster greater growth and happiness—without them.
  • We all loved coloring in adult coloring books with markers, far more than expected. The pages transformed in cool ways, e.g., dots growing and shrinking and shapes shifting. The transfer of the color from the marker to the paper seemed somewhat magical too.
  • I experienced a strong oneness with our dog Zara.
    • I realized I’m almost always moving, either physically or mentally, much like Zara. Others agreed that she and I are connected that way.
  • I felt in control during the experience, which was something I’d wondered about prior to it. I probably would have been fine even at a higher dose.
    • There was a lot of laughing and happiness throughout.
  • The first day after was a little less fun, being reintroduced to the less savory aspects of the world. Also, things were slightly duller in comparison. It was kind of like returning to the regular grind after an inspirational retreat.
    • But I quickly remembered Sapana’s sage advice to take the experience with me into my daily life.
    • The next few days I was able to recall, inhabit, and appreciate the experience and its teachings.
  • Some of us enjoyed dancing to rhythmic music. We felt a little less self-conscious and more able to just let our bodies move in a way that felt good.
  • I had brought some family photos, a suggestion I had read about. I was glad I did so. Looking at them and sharing them with my friends allowed me to feel a deep connection and sense of gratitude toward my family members.

OTHERS’ EXPERIENCES

Some highlights from my friends’ trip experiences:

  • Andrew demonstrated clairsentience: the ability to perceive emotional or psychic energy that is imperceptible to the five standard senses. The type he experienced deals with feeling sensations through other people’s body. He felt the sensation in his throat of the bubbles from a sparkling drink Sapana was having across the room.
  • Sapana experienced this too and said she does so regularly. She experiences the emotions of others around her, tapping in almost like X-Men’s Jean Grey or Eleven from Stranger Things. This can be overwhelming for her since it can be a heavy load to carry.
    • Though we couldn’t really tell during most of the trip, she let us know later that she was having a negative experience for much of it.
    • She was being bombarded with thoughts of death and the feeling that she had a choice of whether to live or to die in that moment. (Again, magic mushrooms can’t kill you, but they can potentially make you think otherwise.)
    • This was likely due in large part to some serious health issues her mother had been facing at the time, which had brought life and death to the forefront of her mind.
    • Also, later in the trip, she was able to pull out of those feelings and talk to us all about it, which I imagine was therapeutic for her.
  • Will experienced more intense color visuals and patterns, including feeling like he was inside a lemon at one point and a strawberry at another.
    • He also experienced synesthesia, seeing the music we were hearing as different color patterns.
  • It was fun to watch Jessie and Sapana dancing. They had very different styles—Jessie’s bold and staccato, connecting more with the beat, and Sapana’s smooth and flowy, connecting more with the melody. Yet, both fully inhabited the music.

Where I Failed…

  • Personally, it was quite a success. I had just one regret:
    • Despite my efforts to check on everyone, I didn’t realize what Sapana was going through at the time. This was at least partly because she didn’t let us know, whether that was to protect us or because she didn’t know how to. Still, I could have helped her more had I known.

Where I Won…

  • I took notes during the trip to remember key highlights. This post is the result of those.
  • I picked a great natural setting for us.
  • Bringing both Zara and the pics of my fam turned out well, helping me to feel closer to them all, especially to my parents.

What Surprised Me…

  • The greatest surprise was the distortion of time I described above and the resulting everlasting sunset.
    • Perhaps our dilated pupils also contributed to this, permitting the dwindling light to linger a little longer.
Tripping The Simpsons GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY
  • I didn’t expect to feel as lucid and in control as I did while having such an altered experience.
    • Psilocybin can be quite different from alcohol and weed in this way.

Whoomp, there it is…

  • Do I recommend it? Yes, with two tips:
    • Learn more about it to determine if it’s right for you and so that you feel adequately prepared. This helped me greatly.
    • Select a set and setting that are likely to enable you to have a great experience, ideally in or near nature.
  • Would I do it again? Absolutely. It’s more meaningful than a glass of wine with dinner and should be treated more as a once-in-a-while type of experience. That said, I’d love to do it again when the time is right.

Thanks for reading! Please leave me a comment with any feedback, what you think my next experiment should be, or just to let me know you stopped by. Some ideas:

  1. Recap of experimental abstract painting installation I created during the pandemic
  2. Daily Journaling Practice
  3. Daily Affirmations, e.g., writing out by hand a mantra 15x/day
  4. What I’ve learned as a new parent, e.g., including how it’s one giant experiment
  5. Your suggestion?

Re(Sources):

Wherever You Go, There You Are: Mindfulness Meditation in Everyday Life by Jon Kabat-Zinn

https://www.psycom.net/psilocybin-magic-mushrooms#:~:text=to%20be%20conducted.-,In%20addition%20to%20treating%20addiction%2C%20psilocybin%20has%20also%20shown%20impressive,treating%20depression%20and%20death%20anxiety.

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/benefits-of-medical-mushrooms

https://www.newsweek.com/magic-mushrooms-psilocybin-shrooms-denver-legal-how-take-1445041

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How I Finally Started Reading More Books

Experiment: Read visually (rather than aurally) for 20 minutes every day for 30 days.

Ok, so why…

  • The pandemic was highly destructive. But like most things that radically impact our lives and culture, it produced some positive effects. One was an increased opportunity for many of us to introspect. To clean house once again, both literally and spiritually, by doing more of what brings us joy and following less of the other noise.
  • Also, in Dan Pink’s fascinating book When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing, he explains that common milestones – birthdays, holidays, the new year, or even the weekend – provide natural opportunities to start or stop a habit. With my 38th birthday approaching, I felt ready to challenge myself again and keep trying new experiences.
  • While I’ve become an avid reader, finishing a couple of books each month for years, I do nearly all of this aurally via Audible. Audible is a godsend because I can read with my ears while cooking, cleaning, eating, walking, and working out. I’m not planning to stop this anytime soon, because there is so much I want to read—about 300 titles on my ever-growing To Read list—and I can soak up way more information at a far faster rate this way.
  • However, there is an argument to be made for uni-tasking when reading certain materials. I recently listened to and loved the book Essentialism, which argues for focusing on the one most thing most important thing right now before moving on to the next. When my husband asked me what the book was about, I found myself struggling to give him a quick summary of all the key points. It’s a straightforward book. But I realized in that moment what I’d long suspected: my comprehension, and more importantly, retention are better when I read—and only read—visually. So, this is an attempt to build that habit and see what happens.

“New goals don’t deliver new results. New lifestyles do. And a lifestyle is a process, not an outcome. For this reason, your energy should go into building better habits, not chasing better results.”

James Clear, author of highly recommended book Atomic Habits

Uh oh…

  • When am I going to fit this in? Morning seems the obvious choice to ensure it gets done, but according to Dan Pink’s book mentioned above, I’m a 3rd bird. This is the catchall group that’s neither an early bird nor a night owl, i.e., a 3rd bird somewhere in between. At this stage in my life, my ideal sleep time would be 11pm-8am, but I already shift it an hour or so earlier for work and to meditate and/or workout before work.

About that…

  • I chose a number of minutes rather than pages as my success metric because it’s simple, achievable, and more consistent from book to book. It’s much harder to plan around something with a more nebulous time requirement, e.g., reading 20 pages. That could be a few minutes for a simple book with lots of dialogue, large font, and a small page size or much longer for a book with dense content, small font, and textbook-sized pages.
  • I researched habit trackers to help keep me on track. Ultimately, I realized I could just use Asana, which I already leverage for my personal To Dos as well as shared family To Dos.
  • If you don’t have a something like this already, the two that sounded best to me are Habitify, mainly for its simplicity, and Coach.me for its community features, including a discussion thread with tips from others who have worked on the same habit. Both are available on Android and iOS and their basic habit tracking features are free.
  • Here’s how I set up my daily task tracking for the month in Asana:
Reading is sexy. Let’s go Hot Boy Summer, y’all!

I betcha…

  • I expect to enjoy this habit and want to continue it. I will most likely choose personal development and other nonfiction for visual reading, i.e., the stuff I most want to retain. For fiction, biographies, and other lower stakes books, I’ll continue to use Audible and crank up the speed to 1.5-2X.

Here’s how it went down…

  • At first, it was a lot like starting an exercise routine. It is something I value and enjoy, and yet I also find making time for it to be a chore . This soon changed though. I chose material I enjoyed, e.g., Tim Ferriss’ behemoth Tribe of Mentors or a surprise birthday gift from my sister, The Art of Drag. This helped it shift from feeling like an obligation to feeling more like a “Treat Yoself” moment.
Parks And Recreation Treat Yo Self GIF
  • I struggled to fit it into my morning routine on days when I was also trying to meditate and work out before work, so I became more flexible with when I did it—as a lunch break or after work.
    • As you likely know, it can be hard to find the mental willpower after a full day to exercise, especially to do so alone.
    • In contrast, reading later in the day was far easier due to having material I enjoyed.
  • When first building a habit like this, it’s not the best time to take on War and Peace, though I would like to get to that book eventually. Set yourself up for success and choose wisely! In short…

“Read what you enjoy reading until you enjoy reading.”

-Adam Gray
  • I still listened to some audiobooks during this experiment, while cooking, eating, and exercising. I just made sure to do this for books I didn’t need to take notes on, like the latest from my favorite writer Malcolm Gladwell.
    • I enjoyed and would recommend this book, The Bomber’s Mafia, which he originally produced as an immersive audiobook—with historical audio clips throughout—and later published in print.
    • You don’t have to be a war history buff to enjoy it either. I’m not one. It focuses more on a smart, scrappy brotherhood, a riveting rivalry, and intriguing ideologies around the most effective and humane way to bomb another country.

Where I Failed…

  • Asana. This was an “it’s not you, it’s me” sitch. I realized that I typically only use Asana on the weekends for things I want to get done then. I also avoid push notifications from nearly every app on my phone (sorry, not sorry ‘bout it). So, I wasn’t getting the daily alerts that would have been useful in this case. Since I’m a Slave for Goo…gle Calendar, I ended up just creating a recurring daily time block there.

Where I Won…

  • Mission accomplished!
  • I ended up doing my reading in the morning or at least by midday most days. This gave me an early win, a sense of productivity, and honored my lifelong learning principle.
  • I finally made some significant progress on Tim Ferriss’ Tribe of Mentors and read over 1/3 of a book on Zen Buddhism I’d heard good things about: Dropping Ashes on the Buddha.

What Surprised Me…

  • Two things used to happen when I’d try to read:
    • I would frequently daydream, sometimes rereading the same line or paragraph, unaware until I snapped back into the moment.
    • I’d get sleepy and start nodding off.
  • Over the course of the month, I’ve found my ability to stay present, especially while I was timing myself, has improved. Meditation also helps with this. I’ve also stopped falling asleep, for which I credit both my reading selections and focus on sleep health—which could of course be another whole post.

Whoomp, there it is…

  • Full circle moment: I went back through the digital bookmarks I saved in Audible for Essentialism to review the key points of the book. In the first bookmark I’d saved, the author recommends starting your day with 20 minutes of reading. My conscious mind had completely forgotten this part, but perhaps my subconscious mind had not.
    • Side note: saving digital bookmarks in Audible and going back through after you finish the book to take notes on these is a great way to retain more of what you hear when you read by ear.
  • I enjoyed the experiment enough that I plan to integrate this habit as a regular part of my lifestyle.

“Once you stop learning, you start dying.”

Albert Einstein

Thanks for reading! Please leave me a comment with any feedback and/or what you think my next experiment should be.

Did you dig this experiment?

Re(Sources) & books mentioned:

WHEN: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing
Atomic Habits: An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones
https://www.pushkin.fm/audiobook/bomber-mafia/

Essentialism
Dropping Ashes On the Buddha

https://collegeinfogeek.com/habit-tracker/

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CoachArt: Laugh & Learn from Afar with a Kid in Need

Experiment: Teach a skill of interest to a chronically ill child (and/or their sibling)… over Zoom.

Ok, so why…

  • It’s a way to give back during a time when many of us are blessed to have jobs that allowed us to work remotely—and thus stay less at risk of disease—and have been impacted less overall than many others by the socioeconomic repercussions of the pandemic.
    • It’s quite manageable from a time perspective—one-hour lessons once a week for 8 weeks.
    • With the ability to teach remotely now, it’s also more convenient than ever.
  • It’s a great learning experience, especially for someone like me who does not have kids of their own yet. As Atomic Habits author James Clear says, “The teacher learns more than the student… The way to learn is by doing.”
  • It’s fun!

Uh oh…

  • How am I going to hold the attention of a 6-year boy for more than 5 minutes—especially if he’s got Zoom fatigue from using it all day for school?
  • Am I qualified to teach yoga?
  • What if he hurts himself?

About that…

  • I’d done this program in 2019, teaching creative writing in person to a couple of pre-teen and teen siblings.
Pre-Pandemic: Playing a Roll-a-Story Game
  • I thought it’d be fun to switch it up and work with a younger child this time and on a new hobby.
  • I’ve been practicing yoga weekly for at least 10 years so felt experienced enough to at least teach the basics to a beginner.
  • For the sake of the family’s privacy, I won’t get into the specific health condition they’re dealing with or my student’s real name. For this post, let’s call him Juan.

I betcha…

  • He’s going to be a natural at some of these poses, as flexibility comes easily at a young age. (Jealous… me? What, no, never…)

Here’s how it went down…

  • There are plenty of free resources available online to help with lesson planning. CoachArt provides a Pinterest page with sample ideas and you can find several other sources with some searching.
    • I’ve saved my resources, so if you happen to volunteer to coach a kid in creative writing or yoga, let me know and I’m happy to share them.
  • Each weekend, I’d spend a little time—no more than an hour—planning the lesson for the coming week.
  • I’d start with icebreakers, including getting to know you questions or spelling out our names using our bodies. Then I’d get into the main lesson, focusing on mindful breathing one week, animal poses another, holiday-themed yoga, or how to do a vinyasa flow.
  • I even got a couple of yoga books, for which CoachArt reimbursed me, to use in the lessons. I would read the books to Juan while he did each of the corresponding poses.
Breaking the Ice

Where I Failed…

  • Silly me… I tried closing each session with Savasana, the sweet, relaxing pose we adults cherish at the end of our practice as a reward for our hard work. Juan did not need and was not really feeling this. I scrapped it after our 2nd lesson.

Where I Won…

  • I soon realized that I was going to be able to teach Juan a few new poses and explain a little bit about the purpose of yoga, but I was going to need to be flexible with how much we tried to cover each week.
    • I made the lessons 40-50 minutes vs. the typical 60–70-minute lessons I’d spent in person with older kids. And I let go of my expectations on how much material we’d get through.
    • Some days he had more energy and was able to focus a little longer. Others not so much. I learned to watch and listen to him and adjust to meet him where he was.

What Surprised Me…

  • Physical flexibility was not an issue for Juan, as I expected. But balance was. It was interesting to see how much harder it was for him to balance on one leg than it is for me. I guess that can take practice at any age.
  • He was more worldly than I expected. In one of our icebreakers, we chatted about his love of Halloween and how we dressed up as a marshmallow one year. “How cool,” I said. “I’d never seen someone do that.” Then he clarified he meant Marshmallo the DJ, ran out of the room, and returned with a completely legit Marshmallo mask. Our lessons included plenty of fun moments like this.
  • Juan would often make up new yoga poses for us to try. It was a great reminder of the importance of play in life, something that’s easy to forget when you don’t have much interaction with kids in your daily life.
  • He shared a sweet, colorful, hand-made Thank You card with me during our last session.
Practicing our Lion Breathing over Zoom

Whoomp, there it is…

  • I would highly recommend this experience and plan to repeat it. In order to keep learning, growing, and pushing myself, I think I’ll work with a new student(s) on a new hobby. Some of the others I signed up to potentially teach include Computer/Digital Media, Cooking, Baking, Poetry, and Hip-Hop Dance.

Thanks for reading! Please leave me a comment with any feedback and/or what you think my next experiment should be.

Re(Sources):

CoachArt.org

Posted on

Daily Acts of Kindness

Photo: Clay Banks

Experiment: Commit an Act of Kindness Every Day for A Month

Ok, so why…

  • I’m often focused on personal goals and self-improvement. This is an opportunity to shine the spotlight of my efforts on others. Trust, I will still benefit from the feelings of good will. But just because I can’t be purely selfless doesn’t mean I can’t inch a bit closer.
  • The world needs less stress, misinformation, and fear-inducing media… and more love.
  • Making other people happier is an easy way to make yourself happier. As my girl Anne Frank said, “Whoever is happy will make others happy, too.” So let’s create a happiness pandemic. Kum-bah-yah, namaste bitches, and LFG!

Uh oh…

  • I had to cut a significant number of my ideas that did not align with the current social distancing requirements. Giving up your seat on public transportation or sending dessert to another table at a restaurant, for example, are simply not options right now.
  • Rather than scrap or postpone this experiment though, I’ve opted to modify and move forward, because now is exactly the time when most people could use a little extra love in their lives.

About that…

  • The only person I’m recommended to come within 6 feet of, my husband, is going to be the easiest, obvious choice for many acts of kindness. In order to infect enough people with my kindness, I am limiting myself to a max of 5 of my 30 acts for him. The rest will all be for other people, including many strangers.

I betcha…

  • This will test my creativity and perseverance. I’m doing 30 unique acts, so this is something I’ll have to think about and plan out every day for a month. I may hit additional roadblocks given the rapidly changing environment, but that’ll keep things interesting and make this a worthy challenge.

DO try this at home…

  • Let’s goooooooo! Here are my 30 acts of kindness. What 1 could you try today?
  1. Wish someone happy birthday along with a compliment.
  2. Send flowers to a nursing home.
  3. Smile at everyone you encounter for a day and gaze kindly into their eyes as long as possible without being creepy… this doubles as a Comfort Challenge. Mother Teresa said, “We shall never know all the good that a simple smile can do.” I say, just remember to blink so you don’t look…
  4. Make someone a playlist.
  5. Leave a larger than normal tip just because (on delivery or takeout).
  6. Call your parents and have them share an old memory that makes them smile.
  7. Put change in someone’s expired parking meter. (Keep in mind that re-metering is illegal in some cities, especially when you are allowing them to stay beyond the time limit. Also keep in mind this makes it more fun.)
  8. Make an anonymous donation to a local charity.
  9. Let a coworker vent about an issue and, if appropriate, offer your advice.
  10. Leave a random uplifting note on someone’s windshield.
  11. Buy a $5-10 gift card and leave it somewhere for the next person to find, e.g. taped to gas pump with a “take me and pay it forward” note.
  12. On a local block, pick up all other dog poop (plus your own dogs’ poo if you have any, obvi). This also reduces the “social proof” that not picking up your dog’s droppings is acceptable for those considering this form of shit littering… or what I call shittering.
  13. Order and mail pictures to friends that elicit fond memories.
  14. Give someone in your home a massage. (Even a little shoulder rub can go a long way when a loved one or roommate is stressed.)
  15. Drop off or mail someone a book you think they’d like.
  16. Write a list of things you love about someone. Send it to them.
  17. Call an old friend you haven’t spoken with in years to reconnect.
  18. Keep your phone away entire time you are with someone (in your home or while on a video call using a computer or tablet).
  19. Send someone a handwritten letter or postcard.
  20. Cook someone a meal (in your home or that you can drop off somewhere).
  21. Give someone in your home a really good hug.
  22. Send someone a souvenir from your city (or from a past vacation).
  23. Recall a time together with a friend that makes you smile and send that friend a “thinking of you” message about it.
  24. Send someone a care package.
  25. Drop off coffee and treats or have a gift basket delivered to your local law enforcement or fire station.
  26. Send a Thank You note to a career mentor (or two) that has helped you.
  27. Send a free trial or discount for an app or service you enjoy with some friends who might appreciate, e.g. sharing a discounted meal prep service trial or a free month to a mindfulness app—a particularly welcome idea for most right now… On that note, I’m a fan of Sam Harris’ Waking Up app. Feel free to try a month for free here. I also love Sun Basket, which you can try here with a $20 discount (or $40 discount if your order is >$60).
  28. Treat friends to a meal, e.g. offer to order for them from a food delivery app or restaurant.
  29. Wash someone’s car.
  30. Ask someone about their day. Listen deeply. (Use your body language to make it clear to them that you are engaging fully.)

Week 1-2 Notes…

  • It felt good to do some good deeds anonymously, e.g. slipping some $ into people’s expired parking meters like a mischievous philanthropist or an urban modern Robin Hood, especially because I am not sure if it’s legal to do that here.
  • Acts like this also give me a little fuzzy dopamine glow for a while.
  • I learned some fun stories from my parents, like how after my family rode Space Mountain at Disney World when I was a kid, my grandpa asked my mom with a half chuckle, “What were you thinking letting me ride that?” In hindsight, it might have been a bit much for a 70+ year old to endure, but he survived.
  • I am becoming aware of and seeking out more little opportunities during the day to be kinder.
    • The trick is to balance this with taking care of your own needs too, especially in the uncertain environment we are living in now. You don’t need to become a people-pleasing martyr, but most of us are pretty far from forgetting our own needs completely.
  • There is comfort in focusing less on one’s own issues and reactions to the global pandemic and instead shifting some of that focus toward making someone else’s day a bit brighter (or at least less shitastic).
  • This roundabout way to improving your mood reminds me of a Henry David Thoreau quote: “Happiness is like a butterfly: the more you chase it, the more it will evade you, but if you notice the other things around you, it will gently come and sit on your shoulder.” 

Week 3-4 Notes…

  • It’s been argued that there’s a bit of selfishness in any altruism. If the intent is to help improve the lives of others though, does that matter? It’s a healthy, less selfish form of self-care.
    • When you make an effort to do something good for someone else, it sends a subtle message to your mind that you must be doing alright if you’re able to focus some of your limited resources on helping someone else.
  • It felt great to send a gift basket to Oakland police. I doubt they get much love and appreciation despite the tough job they have.
  • Be patient and take a long-term approach:
    • Sometimes your acts will go unnoticed or unappreciated—even the ones that aren’t anonymous. That’s fine.
    • Be flexible. I offered to treat friends to a delivery meal of their choice, and they requested I donate to a relief fund for their school instead. Of course! It was a thoughtful idea on their part that spread the kindness a little further and to those in a greater state of need.
    • Timing can matter. The time at which you’re ready and willing to help someone may not always align perfectly with their moments of need. E.g. How do you plan to “let a coworker vent about an issue…”? One approach is to have a list of acts, wait to pounce on the right opportunities, and cross them off as you go.
    • If we adopt a LT approach, while some acts will make more of a difference than other acts, the net effect for you and others is undoubtedly positive.

Whoomp, there it is…

  • This was a fun one. It took some planning and creativity but was well worth it.
  • After doing this for a month, I have trained these muscles to better spot opportunities going forward where acts of kindness can fit into my life.
  • I’d love to repeat this one in the future, especially post-pandemic, with a completely new list.

Thanks for reading! Please leave me a comment with any feedback and/or what you think my next experiment should be:

  1. No Sweeteners (I currently use stevia 3-5 times every day)
  2. Daily Affirmations, e.g. writing out by hand a mantra 15x/day
  3. Daily Journaling
  4. Read 30+ minutes everyday
  5. Your suggestion?

Re(Sources):

51 Random Acts of Kindness Ideas + Kindness Challenge!
https://www.success.com/how-30-days-of-kindness-made-me-a-better-person/

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Whatever Floats Your Boat

Photo by Jaanus Jagomagi

Experiment: Try float therapy (aka sensory deprivation therapy) weekly for a month.

Ok, so why…

  • Unlike giving up coffee for two months, this one will be a breeze to plan and implement, and I’m ready for it.
  • I’m buoyed by curiosity. Since I first heard about this, I’ve wondered what it would be like to exist in total darkness with no real visual, aural, edible, or tactile stimuli, i.e. sensory deprivation.
  • With the digital whack-a-mole lifestyle we lead, I welcome the idea of another natural tool to help tune out the chatter for a while.
  • It’s all about the Benefits, baby…
    • Reduced anxiety, depression, fatigue
    • Pain relief, e.g. muscle tension and headaches
    • Improved sleep
    • Reported increased feelings of well-being, optimism and even mild euphoria
    • Potential cardiovascular health benefits due to reduced stress and improved sleep
    • Drastically reduces the effects of jetlag

Uh oh…

  • Who’s to say my monkey mind is going to be a willing participant in this relaxation technique?
  • Am I just going to be paying money to be isolated in a boring, dark pod for an hour? I’m seeing Scrooge McDuck locking me in his vault—except it’s filled with saltwater instead of gold coins—while he shuffles and sniffs the wad of cash I handed him for an hour.

About that…

  • Some people have reported hallucinating during sensory deprivation sessions… good or bad, maybe this isn’t going to be so boring, after all!

I betcha…

  • I love water. I drink a gallon a day and was one of those kids you had to drag away from the pool or beach after a long day of swimming, bodysurfing, and seeing how long I could hold my breath underwater—provoking great anxiety among the older women watching poolside. Feeling in my element in this element, I feel like I’m going to enjoy this… though I’m not sure exactly how or why yet.
  • Still, I doubt this is likely to become a part of my regular routine given the cost and impracticality involved.

Tell me more, tell me more…

  • How much does it cost? $45-79 / 60-minute session (depends on location and deal)
  • How long is a session? Typically, 60 or 90 minutes; 60 was sufficient in my experience.
  • What do you wear? Nada, as recommended… except the disposable earplugs they give you.

Do try this “at home”…

  • Search Yelp or Google for float therapy or sensory deprivation tanks near you and check the reviews. You can often find discounts for multiple sessions. 3-packs are common, and I would recommend them. More to come on this…
  • Minimize caffeine within 3 hours of a float. It’s hard to relax and clear your mind if you’re jittery.
  • Don’t shave the day of your float. That saltwater can be a real pain in the pores, allegedly. I still shaved my neck in the morning before an early afternoon session and didn’t have any issues.
  • Don’t pee in the pod, dude. For reals though. The first place I went to threatens a $500 charge for contaminating solution with bodily fluids, so no funny business y’all.
  • Turn on your inner Elsa and…

Let It Go GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

Week 1-2 Notes…

  • The first time you go is mostly about understanding how the experience works and how you’ll react when spending 60-90 minutes in quiet isolation with yourself… something many people have not done in a while (or ever).
  • At some places, there are soothing sounds—you can choose the type and duration of these—that played for 10 minutes at the beginning with slowly color-changing mood LED lighting during the first 10 minutes, followed by 45 minutes of quiet darkness, and then 5 final minutes of the relaxing sounds and lights again.
  • It felt like floating in a countryside lake at night, minus the chirping of crickets and twinkling stars. While the setting is neutral by design, the lack of distracting sights and sounds produces a relaxing effect.
  • The idea is to be calm and still, but at least at first I enjoyed gently swishing back and forth like a piece of seaweed, savoring the idyllic experience.
  • Time seems to move slowly at the beginning, but then you settle in, and all of a sudden the gentle lights and nature sounds come back on to let you know you’re almost done!
  • You then saunter off slowly with softer edges and a glowing sense of calm. I’m laughing at my own phrasing here, but it is an accurate sense of how I feel afterward.

Week 3-4 Notes…

  • What’s that smell though? Wait a second… my sense of smell isn’t being deprived. I want a refund! I kid, but there was a faint chemical smell from the bromine used to treat water between uses at one of the two places I went to. It’s easy to ignore this soon after the initial entry. (This was also way fainter during a morning session I did later in the month than during the ones I did in the afternoon, perhaps because fewer cleanings were required.)
  • The 3rd float was when it all really clicked. I had my initial busy barrage of thoughts—do I try to block these, do I indulge them like listening to a song stuck in your head in order to release it, do I try to focus on a specific issue I want to solve? And then, after about 10 minutes, when the initial music stopped and I hit a button to turn off the colored lights, I slipped into a deep state of blissful relaxation—like the black, watery void Eleven travels to in Stranger Things, just without any of the creepiness she encounters.
    • Now that I know the drill, I can get in, slip away, and more quickly reach that state of neutral Zen.
  • By my final session, I reached the theta brainwave state—that border between the conscious and subconscious mind. I recall at one point having to blink in order to check whether my eyes were open or closed… and ended up repeating this a few times. Trippy, right?
  • The post-float effects were more transformative and longer lasting too, giving me a calm glow that lasted beyond the day of my float.

Whoomp, There It is…

  • Did I enjoy the experience? Definitely. Will I continue it regularly? Magic 8-Ball says “Don’t count on it.” While I enjoy the benefits, the time/money investment and convenience factor don’t justify them for me on an ongoing basis… but I do plan to try it after my next trip abroad to reduce the jetlag symptoms.
  • As much as it is a sure-fire stress relief option, so are meditation—which is free and more convenient—and massage—which is similarly priced and bears additional physical benefits.
  • Would I recommend it? If you’re looking for an alternative way to disconnect and recharge, go for it. If you are interested, I would recommend trying at least 3 sessions. It takes some time to get into the first time or two, and while you definitely reap benefits with each session, the real magic starts at session 3 for most people, myself included. This is why you often see floats sold in 3-packs.

A Year & Change of Change Here…

It’s been over a year since I started this blog and all my tinkering. Here’s a quick recap of what I have been and will be keeping up with regularly and those changes that were less sustainable for me:

Yas, you can stay:

Sashay away:

Sashay Away Rupauls Drag Race GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY

Thanks for reading! Please leave me a comment with any feedback and/or what you think my next experiment should be:

  1. Slow Carb Diet (from The 4-Hour Body)
  2. CrossFit 2-3x/week
  3. Daily Affirmations, e.g. writing out by hand a mantra 15x/day
  4. Guided Breathwork
  5. Your suggestion?

Reference: https://www.healthline.com/health/sensory-deprivation-tank

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A Month of Meditation: The Proof is in the Sitting

Note this is a follow up to my initial Meditation post you can check out here.

Obvi but necessary disclaimer: No guru here, just a student of life interested in sharing what he’s gathered from multiple sources and experiences.

December seemed an ideal time to escape the holiday crazy train, look inward and prepare myself to best deal with the added end o’ year excitement. I’d also just gotten married (woo hoo!), traveled to South America for our honeymoon, was visiting family across the country for the holidays, and was getting ready to move cities… all exciting changes, but a lot of change, nonetheless.

The first few days of sitting to meditate were rough… I caught myself checking the time like a man on death row and realizing I’d been following a runaway train cruising off into some remote region of thought, including meta thoughts about the experience and what I’d write about it (d’oh) before nudging myself (more of a mental headbutt) back to focusing on the meditation guide’s voice. Day 7 was first day I made it through a session without once checking the time remaining – woo hoo!

What did I do right?

I found a great free beginners’ course on the Insight Timer app (with whom I have no affiliation) that had me looking forward to my sessions. I continued with guided meditations vs. freeform—meditating silently or to some ambient sounds—as it keeps me more focused. I learned tips and heard affirming messages–e.g. an orchestra of monkeys is banging their cymbals inside other people’s heads too–from the guides that helped make the process enjoyable and productive.

What did I do wrong?

I let the holiday/travel craziness influence the timing of my practice, meditating at different times of day. It worked for December since I’d been applying Dojo-like diligence to fitting it in, but I need to be more consistent for sustainability going forward. Ended up missing a day (d’oh) though learned to be more compassionate with myself with minor setbacks like this. After all…

“Better a diamond with a flaw than a pebble without.’

-Confucius

Final Meditations

The combination of this experiment along with two books I was reading at the time, Daily Stoic, and 10% Happier, has made another noticeable change to my outlook. There was a piece in Daily Stoic suggesting that our devastation is directly related to how likely we believe an event is to occur. You shouldn’t be (that) devastated about having to file your taxes this year because we accept and expect tax season to come every year. Along these lines, imagine your favorite mug already broken. If at some point, it gets knocked off the coffee table by your dog’s overactive tail—a likely scenario for me—you will be less bummed because you’ve made yourself conscious that this could easily happen at any moment and that you should appreciate having it until that point. Similarly, if, hypothetically speaking, you expect a president to sputter an endless stream of ridiculous, selfish, and inaccurate remarks, you may be slightly less enraged when his actions are fully in line with your expectations. Expect to be unexpectedly and inconveniently caught in traffic and understand it has nothing to do with you—no one is conspiring against you to make it happen—and it will lessen the blow a bit.

(I recommend both of the above books, especially Daily Stoic for those who appreciate the manageability of literally having just one page a day to read.)

Finally, I’ve concluded that meditation is like running and eating salads. I know it’s good for me and that I usually enjoy the experience more than expected but I sometimes struggle to take the first step/bite/breath. Just like setting out clothes the night before a morning run or buying the tastiest salad ingredients (yes to avocado and pepitas, no bitter greens or raw red onions, thank you) and finding an ideal time, comfortable spot, and tool to help simplify (ahem, Insight Timer) will reduce the friction to building good habits. Starting with guided meditations of 5-10 minutes and eventually building to 10-15 minutes work well for balancing benefits with compliance. Again…

“Perfect is the enemy of good.’

-Voltaire

I’ve carried my practice into 2019 with me and look forward to continuing it, knowing it ain’t gonna be perfect, but it’s gonna be good.

Leave me a comment with any experiences you’ve had with meditation, tips to share, or what you think my next experiment should be:

  1. Daily Intermittent Fasting (restricting eating to 8-12 out of 24hrs)
  2. CrossFit 3x/week
  3. Sensory Deprivation Therapy (Float Tank) 1x/week
  4. Daily Journaling
  5. Your suggestion?

As always, any other feedback is welcome.

In the meantime, I’ll be training for and competing in an insane, unsanctioned ultra relay race experiment called The Speed Project with some badasses from Electric Flight Crew.

Peace!

Posted on

A Month of Meditation: Moving from Glorified Naptime to Centered Practice

Intro: Flirting with Meditation… My first exposure to meditation came from Shirley the Loon on Tiny Toon Adventures levitating cross-legged and chanting her mantra, “Ohm, what a loon I am.” Fast forward a few years [ahem, decades]… With the constant inflow of emails, texts, beep-boop-beeps, deliveries, ads, and phone calls—which ironically have become the least problematic among these—I’m often operating in a semi-distracted state. In the past, I’ve dabbled with meditation and while not a cure-all, it’s like a little natural Adderall for the monkeys playing bumper cars in my mind.

My history with practicing meditation started off decently. I first used Headspace’s free Take 10 program, which involves 10ish-minute guided meditations narrated by founder Andy Puddicombe, with his soothing voice and delightful English accent. It’s highly beginner-friendly… I mean, there are animated cartoons to go with the sessions. I would highly recommend this as an intro to meditation.

While I loved the intro program, I opted not to continue with the paid version. The frugal gene I inherited from my wonderful parents questioned the need to spend any money on something I could easily do for free. The amount of money I spend on running each year tells another story. Don’t worry about that…

Next, I joined a series of group meditation sessions via Google Hangouts led by my friend Jess. This was both the best experience I had and the least practical to recreate. It was the best because Jess provided direction and she and the group added accountability with a side of solidarity. However, varying schedules alone make a group virtual session the least likely to be sustained—for me, at least.

Finally, I started using guided meditations on the excellent, free Insight Timer app. However, things deteriorated from there. While I continued to use the app nearly daily, it was to put on the soothing ambient sounds for 10-15 minutes of naptime. This has its own benefits, but meditation it is not.

 

Ok, so why… You’ve probably heard about the many benefits of meditation, like stress management, improved immune system, better sleep, improved happiness, and a better Uber rider score (ok, maybe not directly, but indirectly…). The main benefits I’ve experienced when I’ve practiced for multiple consecutive days are a calmer presence and ability to keep the little things in perspective, e.g. accepting that not everyone handwashes their dishes the second they finish eating and uses the dishwasher as a big, fancy drying rack like I do or that when our dog has a big accident downstairs, it’s usually just that. I would like to achieve these again and to be more present in each activity I’m doing and most importantly in my interactions with others.

Uh oh… How many times has a doctor, trainer, or Oprah suggested we just start simple habit X that will only take us 10 minutes of our day? It’s easy to say, “yeah, I’m gonna start doing that… not today, or tomorrow, but oh boy starting next month…” at which point, after 1,000s of emails/texts/ads/shows have throttled and distracted our mind, we’ve conveniently forgotten about it. There are often good (and seemingly good) reasons to make an exception and skip following through with the new habit but with good prioritization, you can make it happen.

About that… It’s been nearly 30 years since I could comfortably sit cross-legged. So, I will either sit cross-legged with a rolled-up yoga mat under my butt for support or sit up straight (without being too rigid) on a couch for the meditations. For the 1st couple weeks, I’ll use the guided meditations on the Insight Timer app, since the app was never the issue—just my use of it as a nap soundtrack. I’ll then decide whether I want to try freeform meditation, with just the ambient sound playing… but sitting up, not lying down… we know what that leads to.

I betcha… I’m confident I’m going to enjoy and appreciate the benefits of this experiment. Finding the optimal time and location and eliminating distractions will be the keys to keeping this as a daily practice.

Leave me a comment with what you think my next experiment should be:

  1. CrossFit 3x/week
  2. Sensory Deprivation Therapy (Float Tank) 1x/week
  3. Daily Journaling
  4. Daily Intermittent Fasting (restricting eating to 8-12 out of 24hrs)
  5. Your suggestion?

As always, any other feedback is welcome. Namaste, y’all!

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I Wore The Same 4 Outfits for 4 Weeks. Here is What Happened…

[This is the follow up to my Spending Less Time Getting Dressed! post.]

“Edit your life frequently and ruthlessly. It’s your masterpiece after all.”
-Nathan W. Morris

 

Week 1-2 Notes:

  • I love it. Fewer options means less time deciding what to wear. Since I picked some of my favorite clothes, I’m always wearing something I like. I never have that silly urge to wear something just because I haven’t worn it in a while… even though the sleeves are too long, and it’s got a coffee stain, and it’s from the 90s.
  • I’m so excited to pare down my wardrobe that I’ve already flagged 18 or 1/3 of my short-sleeved shirts to get rid of! Sorry not sorry, oversized polos – you’re dunzo.
  • You can do this too by going through each item in your closet. Maybe limit yourself to one section at a time to make it easier to start. For each item, if it’s not a hell yes, I’d wear this shirt this week—if there’s any real hesitation—flip that hanger around to flag it or add it to a give-away pile in your closet. Later, donate or trash everything in that pile or with a flipped hanger.
  • It can be hard to ditch your precious threads but anything that doesn’t look great on you or has noticeable stains or holes is ripe for pruning.
  • Darker options can be your friend if, like me, your somehow mysteriously end up with food or other unidentifiable spots on your clothing from time to time.

 

Week 3-4 Notes:

  • Ask for help: my partner Will was doing a load of laundry this week and he let me throw one of my Ts in that needed a full wash, which helped stretch out the time ‘til my next required load.
  • Workout clothes and athleisure wear are probably the biggest challenge because they need more frequent and thorough cleaning. Fortunately, you can save yourself from doing extra laundry loads by taking gear in the shower with you and washing with Dr. Bronner castile soap—an all-purpose wonder—or soaking in Oxi Clean in a tub or spare bathroom sink. (Full disclosure: I’m not getting anything from these brands for saying this, though maybe I should be.) This works best with non-cotton blends, which dry faster and are less prone to wrinkling.

 

Whoomp, there it is…

  • This was the spark I needed to do an aggressive shakedown of my wardrobe.
  • A shopping paradigm shift: If I feel the need to get something new now, it will likely be a color, cut, etc. that I already know works, if not an exact clone of something I already own rather than something completely different.
  • However, this experiment has shown me how few pieces of clothing I really need, which helps alleviate the already negligible shopping pressure I feel altogether.

 

What’s next? Drop me a line with any feedback. Also, please leave a comment with what you think my next experiment should be:

  1. CrossFit 3x/week
  2. Sensory Deprivation Therapy (Float Tank) 1x/week
  3. Daily Meditation (10+ minutes)
  4. Daily Intermittent Fasting (restricting eating to 8-12 out of 24hrs)
  5. Your suggestion?

I will likely pause the experimentation for a few weeks as I’ll be embarking on one of the most popular global, longitudinal experiments in history: getting married. Cheers!

Posted on

Spend Less Time Getting Dressed!

Experiment: Wear the same 4 outfits for 4 weeks (+3 for workouts).

Wardrobe minimalism. Jobs did it. Zuckerberg does it. Doug Funnie and the rest of your favorite ‘toon characters did it. I may be dating myself as an elder millennial with that last reference and I’m ok with that. In fact, Zuckerberg appears to have literally grayscaled this aspect of his life.

Ok, so why… Similar to my 1st experiment (eating the same 7 meals for 7 weeks), this one is all about reducing the number of choices you have to make in a given week to free up more time for your highest priorities… and your Netflix to-watch list. (Speaking of which, one more plug for Elder Millennial which should be on that list!)

Uh oh… This means not even one unique outfit per day of the workweek, let alone a full week. And given that I work out 6-7x/week, I’m gonna have to get really good about the sink suds, scrub, and hang-to-dry method. Also, I enjoy the variety of colors and styles I get to wear and my—as cliched as it sounds—freedom of personal expression.

About that… Confession: I work from home. This helps me in two ways. 1) I don’t have coworkers who would consistently see me repeating getups from one week to the next. 2) I don’t really have to wear much at all, particularly in these warmer months in LA… and without A/C. But I do still crawl out of my hermit cave and need to be presentable—as low as the SoCal standard may be—for meals with friends, group workouts, occasional client visits, and if for nothing other than to walk Zara thrice daily.

That said, I was originally planning on 7 outfits—one for each day of the week—+3 for workouts, which seemed somewhat reasonable given I don’t have a closet full of the same gray Ts like Mr. Z and will have to do a lot o’ hand washing. Well, I cut that 7 down to 4 to ensure this challenge is, well, challenging.

I already only wear a few pairs of shoes so no issue there. Socks and undies aren’t part of the issue and are exempt from this challenge because ew.

I betcha… I expect to benefit from some newly freed mental RAM as with experiment 1. However, I’m doubting the likelihood of me wanting to continue this approach as is. The constant manual laundry effort does not seem sustainable. If I’m really feeling less conflicted at the closet, then it may be time to invest in some multiples of my favo’ faves and ditch some of my third-string threads.

 

The Lineup:

Left half is a jacket and the 3 workout outfits. Right half is the 4 daily outfits.

If you see me wearing something else in the next 4 weeks, heckle away!

 

Do try this at home: Look at your closet and/or dresser and ask if I could only wear 4 shirts/sweaters and 4 pairs of pants/shorts for the next month—or better yet year—what would I choose? (Dresses would count as one outfit.) Sentimental but ill-fitting clothes are quickly stricken from the consideration set.

Items that are the most comfortable, best fitting, and versatile win for me. Solids are generally a great choice. In addition to matching with more other clothes, people are less likely to notice you wearing them over and over. I still included a few printed shirts because of their great look, fit, feel, and versatility… and, in one case, fabulousness.

Stay tuned for my results in a few weeks!

Grayscaling