The playful art of experimenting

Over the past 6 months I have been on a quest to connect with the part of me which is wise, knows what is best for me and wants to guide me on this curious journey we call life. This quest has led me to a sabbatical of sorts, and as such I have pressed pause on almost all of the usual, familiar, routine activities in order to create space in which to connect more with that inner voice.

I have affectionately called this sabbatical – Project Susan!

There will be more to share on Project Susan in the coming months because it has been quite the journey (!) and I feel there is much I can share with those who are also drawn to inner development.   For now, there is one thing I have discovered as Project Susan enters its 2^nd phase which feels like a game changer and it is.......

.........the playful art of experimenting.

I have begun to shift from a period of non-doing to a place where I feel I want to re-engage with activities again but want to do so in a way which feels different to how I did it before. I had a sense that I wanted to bring more lightness to my life and my work. I have had a tendency to take things very seriously and so what I am discovering now is the joy in play!

Part of me finds that difficult to share because it feels you’ll judge me for being superficial, childish or not worthy of listening to or not having enough gravitas to offer value. But the more important part of me knows that there is enough seriousness in the world and that human beings are inherently curious and childlike and so this is the more attractive way to be in the world.

Experimenting is fundamentally about trying things out and not being attached to a particular outcome. It is about giving things a go and learning from whatever happens. There is a real freedom in approaching things with an experimental mindset and I believe it can be brought to all aspects of our lives. 

We can get stuck in familiar habits and patterns very easily and when that happens we lose touch with our creativity and curiosity but it is helpful to know that they are always there and just need to be reignited every so often. We can also fall into the trap of thinking we need to know how things are going to work out and that we can only take action when we have considered all the variables. In my experience, that limits us and keeps us in the “if only….” or “what if….” frame of mind.   

It keeps us in the ideas and out of the experience.

My advice on experimenting is to start small, do something manageable and keep checking in with yourself about if and how to expand it. For example, I started sunrise and sunset meditation gatherings earlier this month. I committed to just twice a week for 2 weeks.  That gave people who chose to join me clarity on what they could expect, it gave me a timeframe which felt do-able and also was enough to give me some information which would help me decide whether to continue. As it turns out, it has been fun and there is a feeling of wanting it to continue so I have extended the experiment for at least another week and possibly longer.

And that’s the beauty of an experiment – you learn and adjust as you go.

All you need to start your own experiment is:

• an idea
• a feeling of curiosity
• the willingness to take an action
• an openness to whatever the outcome is or what emerges from it
• an attitude of allowing and non-attachment

The key thing is to keep checking in with yourself, asking "to continue or to stop?".  As long as it feels light and your curiosity is still leading the way, keep doing it!  And when it feels heavy and it becomes another task on your to-do list, stop doing it.  Often the stopping is the more difficult choice to make, particularly if we feel we've invested ourselves in it and are attached to a particular outcome or if we feel responsibility for others.  But the real freedom comes from the willingness to continue but also the willingness to stop and make space for the next experiment.   (Note: some experiments last for a minute and some for a lifetime!).

I am currently experimenting with writing, creating resources for my coaching clients, developing workshop ideas and also with what I eat, how I exercise and my relationship with alcohol.  It seems there is opportunity to experiment everywhere in our lives! 

So, I wonder where you’ll be drawn to creating your own experiments?