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Welcome to the Own Your Health podcast, I'm Cyndi Lynne, and I can't wait to help you step into your health power. How long has it been since you've experimented? Think about it. When we're kids, every day is a big experiment. Life is a big experiment.
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You try something, you see what happens. Maybe you get in trouble, maybe you learn something new. Maybe you climb higher than you ever have. Maybe you fall out of a tree. But we experiment and we engage with our surroundings and we try something new almost continuously as kids.
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When we get a little bit older, the stakes can be a little bit higher, consequences can be a little bit higher, and we stop experimenting. And another word for experimenting is trying something new. Trying something out.
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So, seeing how it fits, seeing how it feels. And I want to encourage you to do that, to try some new things. And I know that probably sounds scary, and you probably wonder why, if everything's working just fine.
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I have a routine I like, I have a pattern I like. Why do I want to go out on a limb? Why do I want to take a chance on something not working out and try something new? Well, there's loads of reasons, but one of the most important probably is that it's really good for your brain to learn something new, to try something new, to experiment.
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Now, this is a very broad subject, so let's bring it home. Let's bring it to some very specifics and see if any of these ring true for you. Have you ever been afraid to experiment with a new way of eating?
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There's all kinds of programs, there's all kinds of plans out there. There's Whole 30, there's Carnivore, there's Keto, there's Low Carb, there's all, all sort of different ways of eating. And when was the last time you experimented with something new?
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Now, if you absolutely love the way your body works and the way your body looks and the level of energy you have, then you're probably eating exactly right for you. But if you don't have the energy you want, if you don't feel the way you'd like to, if you aren't sleeping or digesting the way you would like to, it might be worth experimenting with a new way of eating.
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The same is true with exercise. You may want to try something new. Experiment and see if it works for your body. If you like it, if you enjoy it, if you want to continue it. How about experimenting with the way you look and appearance.
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When was the last time you changed your hair, changed up your makeup, decided to try a whole new wardrobe or maybe just dug way in the back of the closet to pick out something that you haven't worn for a long time.
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It's a little bit risky, but it's kind of fun, too. And it stirs up your mind, it stirs up your routine, it shuffles things up, and it makes things fresh to experiment.
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So why don't we do it more? Where is that resistance? When I talk to my clients and I say, okay, let's experiment with this, or what if we experimented with these thoughts? And this is one of the journaling exercises that I have folks work with, and I appreciate responses to my journaling comments from last week, and I will provide more on that in upcoming weeks.
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But in the meantime, when I recommend to clients that they try try something new on that, they try some new thoughts on that, they try some new patterns on, they're very resistant, almost 100%. And when we try to figure out why, when we try to figure out why they don't want to do something different, they don't want to change up their, their plan for the week, they don't want to change up how they interact with others, they don't want to change up dates.
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They seem to be very set in their ways. In reality, we find that they don't necessarily want to experiment with something new because there's this feeling that if you try something new, you have to stick with it.
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And you'll see people do this. You'll see people make huge commitments. You know, I am going to eat keto. Not a carbohydrate is going to cross my lips. I am going to exercise five times a week, come hell or high water.
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And you see people make these big commitments to new behaviors, but they very often fail because they've skipped the experimenting part. And I think what I see most often is that people equate experimenting or trying something new with having to commit to that something new.
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And that's the exact opposite of experimenting. I've had clients say, say to me, I don't want to. I don't want to do that, because if I don't like it and I stop, then I'm a quitter. And that's old messages. And I think a lot of us have heard those kinds of old messages in our mind before.
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When you had to sign up for something as a kid, and if you didn't want to see it through or you changed your mind or you didn't like it, maybe you were labeled a quitter. I know that's happened to me. And so it was very hard for me to experiment or to try to dip a toe in, to take a sample of something new in my life for fear of not remaining committed to it.
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But here's the thing with experiments, here's the thing with trying things out is that built into that word experiment is that it is a trial. And there is an endpoint to an experiment at which you evaluate how the experiment went, whether or not you liked it, and what actions you want to take from there.
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So when I make recommendations for my clients, I always say, all right, let's see how long you want your experiment to go. What makes sense for your experiment, for the change that you want to make. Now, if you're going to change walking shoes and you want to try something new, different form, a different way of walking, you may find out pretty quickly.
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It may take a week, two weeks, and you find out that, nope, this type of shoe, this walking stride, this isn't working for me. It was an experiment. I want to continue to try other types of shoes or other types of strides for my walking.
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Or at the end of the experiment, after a week or two, you may say, this feels fabulous. I think I found the shoes for me. And you may commit to using them onward from this point forward. The same is true with food plans.
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You don't have to make a big pronouncement. You don't have to make a commitment that you're going to eat a certain way for the rest of your life or for a year. But when it comes to food, you may want to give it a month's try and say, right, you know what?
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For the next month, I'm going to eat whole 30 plan. I'm going to commit to that. And then at the end of that 30 days, at the end of that month, I give myself permission to evaluate that experiment and decide whether or not I want to move forward.
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Now, this works with really simple things, too, but things that can really shake up our days, really change things around. I think I've talked before how when I travel, I tend to try new makeup.
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I tend to try, it's actually my same makeup, different ways of putting it on, different ways of using it, different focus of lip or eye. I enjoy makeup. People get pretty used to seeing me in a particular way, and I know I push those boundaries.
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But when I travel, I get to experiment every day. I can look different because nobody besides my husband or whoever I'm traveling with sees me more than one day. And I get to be someone new.
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Someone different looking. And it's fun. The other reason that people hesitate to make changes and even to experiment or try on changes is because they're worried about the feedback.
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They're worried about what people are going to say, what people are going to think. And I found that even for people whose who the opinions of others are very important to them, that the idea of experimenting with or the idea of trying something on makes it so much easier.
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So that if you are trying a new schedule for your week, you can get feedback from your husband, you can get feedback from your kids, you can get feedback from whomever, and you can say, you know what, this is something I'm trying.
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This is something I'm trying for a couple of weeks or a week. I'm going to see how it works out and then I'll make changes accordingly. And that takes the pressure and the panic off of everyone else thinking, oh my gosh, something is changing, you know, especially if it's mom that's making change, something is changing and I don't have control.
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So when you decide that you want to change something, I encourage you to experiment, to let yourself grow, to let yourself try things on, try on new ideas, try on new ways of speaking and interacting, try on new ways of showing up in the world.
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And that can be a tall order. And it takes a practice in a lot of different areas of your life, but it's fun and it's rewarding and it gives you an opportunity to grow. And by doing it through experiments, you don't ever have to feel trapped or hemmed in or worry about long term commitments.
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You always have the opportunity to try something on, evaluate it, and then make a decision as to whether or not it's something you want to continue or incorporate into your life or something. That was a great experiment you learn from and you leave it behind.
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So this is part of taking life a little bit less seriously because it is so important and living your life, your absolute best life, your absolute healthiest life, and you having ownership over all of that. So if you needed it, I give you permission to go out and experiment with something new this week.
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And if you're so inclined, let me know what it is and how it went. And if you want to do this with a friend, go ahead and share this podcast. I'd love for more ears to hear these messages.
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Until next week, let's go out and own it.
