A Year of Wellbeing Experiments

Follow me as I research and try out a cornucopia of approaches to health and wellbeing

Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

Welcome to this introduction to the Wellbeing Experiments — the lowdown on what you can expect to find on this site and in these posts over the coming year.

What’s it all about, tell me what’s a-happening?

Every week I’m intending to try out and put into practice a different approach that claims to improve health and wellbeing and then report the results here.

Before doing it, I’ll outline the approach and the benefits that are supposed to accrue from using it.

After doing it for a week, I’ll then report on any changes in my health and wellbeing that I’ve experienced or observed.

If possible — for those of you who like hard evidence — I’ll measure the change in a quantitative way, using tools and techniques that already exist or devising my own.

But, given the short timeframe involved and the fact that I’m doing this at home on a budget, in most cases my qualitative assessment of the effects is what I’ll end up reporting here. (Sorry, number folks.)

The bottom line for me, personally, will be “Do I want to incorporate this into my life as a regular practice?” In other words, do I feel the benefits outweigh the costs in terms of time, effort, and any financial outlay involved, based on what I’ve experienced and observed?

If one week doesn’t seem enough to assess the effects, I’ll keep going with it (and continue on with other experiments).

What’s in it for me, sugarplum?

Given that I’m one individual conducting experiments with myself, I have to admit that it’s not scientific.

But I’m thinking that you might enjoy accompanying me on this journey, and I’m also thinking that it might just point you in the direction of something that you yourself might wish to try and then, if beneficial, incorporate into your own life.

That said — legal disclaimer here — I’m not promoting these therapies or giving advice, just reporting on my own experience with them. Please do not undertake them yourself without first doing your own research and understanding any risks involved.

What are some examples of approaches you will try?

In no particular order, and not to be considered a comprehensive or definitive list, here are some things I’m interested in and thinking about trying:

• positive self-talk (like having you call me ‘sugarplum’ above)

• stretching regimen

• rebounding (trampoline)

• vision improvement exercises

• increasing water intake

• hyperbaric oxygen therapy

• breathing exercises

• therapeutic or self-applied massage

• regular sauna sessions

• visualization or guided imagery

• free weights

• walking regimen

• juicing

• posture exercises

• meditation (different kinds)

• various detoxes

• skin brushing

• chewing thoroughly

• better housekeeping

• natural therapies of various kinds

• subtle-energy therapies

• myotherapy

• aromatherapy

• herbology

• eating sea vegetables, garlic, honey with turmeric, lemon juice in hot water, and other nutritional remedies

• castor oil pack

• ginger compress

• the Pennebaker Method (confessional writing)

• reading spiritual literature

• prayer

• laughter therapy

• feng shui

• Rebirthing, a technique used by the LRT (Loving Relationships Training)

Don’t worry — I have a ton of books on various therapies and approaches to health and wellbeing. I won’t run out of options for quite a long while.

That said, I’m open to suggestions. You can contact me at ellenendwell@proton.me.

What’s your goal in doing this?

This might seem crazy, but I want to reclaim the energy, focus, and enthusiasm for life that I had when I was kid.

I mean a kid kid, when I was ten or eleven years old and loved life.

Like when I would pogo in the driveway (below) — or later, in the early 80s, when I would pogo dance at parties to the Go-Go’s:

Or like when I would spontaneously break into doing the pony or the twist:

The sweet spot in life, for many of us, is that brief ‘summer’ between childhood and adolescence, when we’re no longer ignorant and gullible kids but not yet teens with all the pressure to grow up and look cool that seizes us with the development of adult bodies and the social expectation to parlay with the opposite sex.

I want to turn back time to that special ‘summer’ in my life. An incredibly exciting and provocative time, around 1967, when the culture was clearly in a state of turmoil and yet I was in a near-constant state of anticipation about what I could get up to now, in the present, as well as what the future might hold for both me and the rapidly morphing culture.

Joie de vivre might be the right phrase to describe it.

I want to reclaim that youth. I want to feel young again.

Is that too much to aspire to?

So please, feel free to join me as I experiment and try to identify approaches that just might do the trick.

And if you enjoy my writing, please check out my other substacks — Rock ’n’ Roll with Me where I’ve been writing about rock-and-roll artists, their lives, and their contributions from the sixties onwards, with a new focus this year on women in rock, and a new substack called Artist Healing & Gratitude Circle, which I conceive as a place for supporting the healing of artists and honoring those who have passed away.

When can I expect to hear from you?

I’m thinking Sundays are a good day to reflect on the past week and plan for the next one. So, if you subscribe, expect to hear from me this coming Sunday.