Tag: Experiments

A drawing of overlapping patterned circles in fall colours with the word “update!” at the top. Update on Christine’s September Circles
fitness · habits · health · mobility · self care

Update on Christine’s September Circles

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

Ok, so I am reporting back a little early but since I don’t think there will be a drastic change in my results over the next two days, we’re in the clear.

On September 1, I told you about my experiment for this month – 5 minutes of circle-based mobility exercises each night before bed.

And, despite the fact that I was ‘going in circles’ this whole time, I have definitely made some progress towards increasing my mobility and improving my sense of well-being.

Here are my discoveries:

1) As I suspected in my initial post, doing circles seems to reduce the restless, twitchy feeling I was often experiencing while sitting in bed reading before going to sleep.

2) I feel far less stiff and achy when I get up in the morning.

3) My body feels a bit more mobile and fluid overall.

4) I like having a small physical practice as part of my bedtime routine.

5) If I had trouble settling into sleep in the evening, doing a few more circles was soothing.

Obviously I am declaring this experiment a success!

And I am giving myself bonus points and a gold star ⭐️ for sticking with my experiment even though this month included some travel with friends and coordinating a 10 day arts festival.

Normally that kind of shift in routine would affect any kind of new practice I was trying to incorporate into my days but I guess that my plan to go in circles was just the right-sized practice for almost any circumstance.

And since it has worked out so well, I plan to keep this circular strategy going.

Now to figure out an experiment for October…

A drawing of decorated, overlapping circles in fall colours Christine and the September Circles
aging · habits · self care

Christine and the September Circles

Christine HenneburyLeave a comment

In the spirit of Anne-Laure LeCunff’s Tiny Experiments, I am planning to spend September going in circles …but in a good way. 

Here’s the backstory:

For the last few nights, I have been doing about 5 minutes of mobility exercises before bed and the practice feels really beneficial. 

I didn’t start the exercises with a plan, I just did them one night while listening to the end of a podcast and I liked how I felt afterwards so I did them again the next night.

And since I often find myself feeling a bit twitchy and restless before bed – with an odd feeling or an ache in one place or another – but I haven’t had that feeling in the last few nights so it seems worth exploring if there is a connection between the exercises and the lack of twitchiness. 

This may be a coincidence of course but that’s part of the experiment.

I’m referring to it as going in circles because I made myself laugh when I referred to the exercises that way on Sunday night. 

And seeing as the routine includes rolling a ball under each foot and then doing ankle circles, knee circles, hip circles, upper body circles, arm circles, shoulder circles, and neck circles, it’s not wrong it just sounds a bit funny.

So here’s my experiment:

For September, I am going to go in circles for 5 minutes each night before bed and note whether or not I feel twitchy afterward and whether I feel more or less stiff each morning. 

I’ll report on my experiment on October 1.

A drawing of decorated, overlapping circles in fall colours
These imperfect circles were fun to make and they are a good representation of the imperfect circles in my practice. Image description: a drawing of 8 overlapping, painted circles in fall colours (shades of green, brown, red, orange) with a different pattern in black ink on each one (spirals, circles, grids, lines, triangles, squares) and each circle is outlined in black. The drawing has been cut out of a larger sheet of white paper in an irregular shape that resembles a cloud or a puddle. The outer edge of the paper is trimmed in black and there are gold dots between the black trim and the edges of the circles. At the bottom are the words ‘hello, September!’ written in black.