Another theme during my interview with HUM4NS Unplugged was the power of personal experiments. This website is full of them, whether in sobriety, training or digital detoxes.
Experiments get plenty of lip service in startup culture, but we rarely utilise them in our personal lives.
For a while, I added a “One-Week Experiment” header to my weekly review. It was a place where I could move distant dreams into something I could try this week.
Yesterday I wrote about tending to your state, over trying to force actions.
It’s not such an either-or. Tending to state is just more indirect: you sacrifice some precision but trust that the breadth of effects will benefit you.
Take walking for example.
Walking daily primes the heart, reducing blood pressure and coronary disease risk. It helps regulate glucose and insulin; lubricates joints and builds bone density; boosts immune function and stimulates memory; lowers cortisol and tames anxiety; and sparks divergent thinking and creative insights.