This week’s reading:

The Perfected Self – David H. Freedman, The Atlantic, June 2012

My reaction:

As we become more digitally social, the opportunities for receiving rewards of encouragement from the environment are everywhere. The caveat here is that you must share your experience with others. We are notoriously terrible at self reporting. This is where technology like embedded sensors are helpful. But it takes courage to involve your community in your goals and your process. I’m sure the author’s brother had to get over that at some point to publicly post his weight every morning. At the same time, it makes you take responsibility for your behavior, the good and the bad. In return, the encouraging tweets from his group was a pretty big factor in helping him reach his goals. It’s one thing to get the data from our bodies and behavior and expose it to ourselves, and it’s another thing to share that data with your environment.

Skinner’s theory says that “all organisms tend to do what the world around them rewards them for doing.” It could be interesting to explore other forms of rewards. What about rewards from the system itself? Apps like Foursquare use badges and titles as rewards from checking in. My CardioTrainer app gives me medals. But I’m pretty sure these aren’t as effective as rewards and encouragement from a system of people. It made me wonder if I shared my personal workout data, which I am somewhat motivated by on its own, but not really, how it might or might not change my behavior.

This week’s reading:

The Personal Analytics of My Life – Stephen Wolfram, Stephen Wolfram Blog, March 2012

My reaction:

This was an incredible story. I think the thing that stuck out for me for was having the personal anecdotes to accompany the data. There is a lot that we can infer from the data itself, especially if we include referential data (like the history of his projects and how they correlate to his work habits). But towards the end, he answered something really important that other readers had asked him: “With everything you have going on, do you find time for your family?” If we only looked at the data provided, it would seem that he was pretty consistent with spending a couple hours each day not doing anything work related during dinner time, but was probably unavailable any other time. His direct comment to the question fills in parts of the story that are not in the data.

This made me wonder if we can quantify all personal data. My gut tells me no, that things like happiness, comfort, pain, joy, strength in relationships, etc. can’t be measured or quantified. But maybe I’m wrong. He had systems in place for him to collect quantifiable data about himself over time. I wonder what systems we can use to store and share none quantifiable data about ourselves.

This week’s reading:

“Reframing Health to Embrace Design of Our Own Well-being”, with Hugh Dubberly, Shelley Evenson, and Paul Pangaro, Interactions, ACM, New York, May-June 2010

My Reaction:

The emerging trends in self-management and the recent changes in design practice illustrate how people are now expecting to interact with the services they encounter. It is more and more likely that we are not looking to buy ready-made solutions to our problems and might even have reservations about it, questioning the intentions and motivations behind the provider. The health care providers are no different, especially when clients can collect their own data, begin to understand their own behaviors and come to the HCP with knowledge that is unique to them. I think empowering people with this kind of knowledge helps shift the levels of power as mentioned in the article.

One phrase that was really powerful for me was: “We won’t be able to ignore how we’re doing; we’ll always know.” Video games are a good example of always knowing how we’re doing. We have a score, we have goals, maps, and other tools (depending on the game) that give us constant feedback on how we’re doing and therefore give us the tools to make informed decisions and risks. If we always knew how we were doing in terms of our health, we would have the data to make informed decisions towards our health goals. I don’t think that simply knowing means that we can’t ignore it, but combining knowledge with a goal, can be very powerful.

Part 1: Have you ever tracked anything about your health? What? Why? What did you learn?

Part 2: Share a memorable experience you’ve had with your health or with someone else’s health.

In October 2010, I attended a workshop on transformational breath. It was wild.

What is Transformational Breath
Uses a full relaxed breath through an open mouth that originates in the lower abdomen and repeats inhalation and exhalation without pause.

It activates a high frequency of electromagnetic vibration throughout the body and mind. According to scientific principle of entrainment, low frequency energy patterns are raised and transformed in the presence of higher frequency energy state. This clears blockages within the energy systems.

Benefits includes improved physical health, cleared emotional wounds and enhanced mental capabilities. Many have also found a stronger connection to spirit while cultivating a greater awareness of the breath and self.

It is known to touch deep emotional spots in the body, where you’ve buried feelings. Baggage you’ve hidden from yourself or decided to hold on to. You are told to hold all judgements on yourself, and simply let it be. Some of the emotions felt could be obvious, but mostly they won’t especially after only one session.

My Experience
In a large room with maybe 100 people, I laid on my back and breathed through my mouth from the lower abdomen.

This is all that you consciously do for the hour-long session (it might have been shorter, maybe 40mins but I’m not sure)

Almost immediately I felt completely vulnerable.
My fingers begin to tingle and started forming an ugly claw shape.
Not long after, they are in a full fist and beginning to numb.
Other people in the room are crying or screaming or both or neither.
I want to cry or scream or both, but for some reason I don’t or can’t. I’m not sure.
The people running the workshop, the assistants, attended to some and guided their experience. Eventually they would reach everyone. I really wanted them to come to me.
By this time, my jaw is extremely tight, my hands are completely numb, my arms are tingling painfully, and legs from my feet to my knees are numb and tingling too. My limbs were paralyzed and it was terrifying.
I remember at one point deciding to be ok, and that in that moment, that decision felt very familiar.
At the same time, I felt incredible energy flowing through my core.
Three assistants visited me during my experience.
The first helped me with my breathing.
The second gave me an affirmation: that I belonged there, that I love myself.
Some time after he left, my left eye began to tear. I didn’t know why but it felt very deep.
They began playing a song. The room was screaming and wailing and fists hitting the floor. It was crazy.
Towards the end of the song, the third assistant came towards me and touched me on my chest and head. Her affirmation to me was: to let myself be loved, to let love in, to let go and open up.
By then both my eyes are tearing.
She presses down on my chest and breathing calms down.
It feels more full. It felt really crazy.
And for the rest of the session I felt really cold and numb and paralyzed.
At the end, it took probably a good 15 minutes for the session to come back to limbs.
The whole experience felt like a strange dream.