Think Yourself Younger
Plus news of the Off on a Tangent 'Season'.
Firstly, an update…
You may have been wondering what on earth’s been going on, or rather not going on, with ‘Off on a Tangent’ over the last couple of months.
Needless to say, I have spent that time wrestling with the notion of sending you all an email to say that I won’t be sending you all some emails for a while, but that in itself seemed like an insane thing to do, so I didn’t.
I’m assuming, like me, you have too many emails on a daily basis and would quite possibly implode with anger at the sight of ‘one more’ email, the sole purpose of which, was to convey the lack of forthcoming emails in the future!
I can feel my blood pressure rising just thinking about the time sapping pointlessness of it all!
Why don’t you also tell us what you won’t be watching on telly, or where you won’t be going on holiday!? My inner monologue piped up, sounding overtly pleased with herself and welcoming the chance to chip in once again.
This newsletter (or column if you will) was last seen going into a Christmas break… accompanied by a vague mention of a second week in January return, and yet, here we are in bloody February!
What the actual has been going on!?!?
A bit of background…
So, for the second half of last year, I found myself in a bit of a jam, not enjoying writing both Substacks alongside each other in the same week (as the head space required for each is so different), so this year, I’ve decided to try out the concept of Seasons.
Substack Type Club will run for an 8-week Term (then an 8 week holiday)
Weekly posts and monthly Geek Out Zooms
Off on a Tangent will run for a 12-week Season (then a 4 week recess)
Posting every five days.
Rinse and repeat until Christmas.
Please be assured, my beloved Paid community, I will be pausing payments on both for any time that I’m not publishing, so no one will lose out… and your annual subscriptions will seem like the bargain of the century, as more time will be added to the end, to make up for any fallow time.
I must admit I am loving the thought of the new Term/Season concept.
This isn’t just idle whimsy, I’ve obviously overthought the posting plan, with no less than three highlighter pens, two post-it note sizes and a fine purple ‘uniball-eye’ pen, which I think you’ll agree will have stress-tested it to the max… and I think it’s going to work!
Time will tell.
Variety is the spice of life, and moving from one chunky project to another after a few solid weeks into it, is such a lovely way to ensure there is always something to look forward to (i.e. the start of a new Term or Season), and I will hopefully never feel like I’m on a treadmill.
Not least because we know my AI image generator struggles with that concept:
Perhaps it will result in more in-depth, well thought out posts, or double the amount of drivel. Who knows! You will be the judge.
So without further ado, to open this Season [drumroll please] 🥁… I give you a double header, in that what I’m about to tell you may well blow your mind… as it did mine!
AND the entrepreneurial amongst you may well take advantage of this knowledge and launch a similar concept, which I sincerely hope they do!
Off we go…
Mind blown!
I recently stumbled upon the details of a psychological experiment conducted in 1979, and quite frankly it’s blown my mind. 🤯
Some of you may be familiar with it already, but for those of you who aren’t, you’re in for a treat…
The CounterClockwise Study
Ellen Langer PhD (the mother of positive psychology) conducted an experiment which placed 16 men in their 70’s and 80’s in an old monastery which had been converted into a 1959-themed retreat.
They only had access to music, films and magazines from that era, and were asked to talk about 1959 as if it were the present day.
I’m hoping they were encouraged to dress and snarl at each other like either James Dean or Elvis Presley for the entire one week experiment too, but my research has drawn a blank on that front, so we will just have to leave this detail to our over-fertile imaginations.
The science bit…
Quoting from Counterclockwise by Ellen Langer
“The 16 men were split into two groups, the control group was asked to spend a week simply reminiscing about their lives in 1959, while the experimental group was asked to act as if it were 1959 — speaking and behaving as if they were 20 years younger.
Testing the men before and after, Langer and her team discovered marked physical improvements in both groups. “On many of the measures, the participants got ‘younger.’ The experimental group showed greater improvement in joint flexibility, finger length (their arthritis diminished and they were able to straighten their fingers more), and manual dexterity,” she writes.
“On intelligence tests, 63 percent of the experimental group improved their scores, compared with only 44 percent of the control group. There were also improvements in height, weight, gait, and posture. Finally, we asked people unaware of the study’s purpose to compare photos taken of the participants at the end of the week with those submitted at the beginning of the study. These objective observers judged that all of the experimental participants looked noticeably younger at the end of the study.”
All those results were achieved after just one week. Makes you wonder: If the mind has that much power over the body in such a short period of time, what else is possible?”
In summary…
So just by immersing yourself in all things 20 years ago, and pretending like you’re living in the past, you will actually turn the clock back physiologically.
Not just ‘think’ you’re feeling younger, but you will actually have physical test results to back it up!
I must admit, this does seem feasible, as whenever Mr.D returns home from a week’s mountain biking in Morzine he visibly looks younger, the resident furrow in his brow almost disappearing completely, which I remark on every time by affectionately shrieking:
“Your shelf has disappeared!!!!”
Who knew it was probably a result of racing your bikes downhill with your mates, like when you were kids, for a week that had caused this physiological wonder!
CounterClockwise Retreats
Soooooo….. what if there were actual Retreats that you could holiday at for a week or two which emulated 20ish years ago, to help you physically turn back the clock… and have a bloody fun time while you’re doing it!?
The thing is, most ‘rejuvenating’ retreats usually involve a great deal of sacrifice, abstinence and quinoa, rather than a bout of hedonistic time travel.
Helping you to not feel so shit about being old, rather than actually turning back the clock physically.
This could be the proof we’ve all been waiting for, that dancing like a loon to Livin’ Joy’s ‘Dreamer’ while sloshing back a Bacardi Breezer is better for our physical (and mental!) health than an ice bath followed by a warm mug of Lemon Matcha.
It’s a post-Christmas miracle!
Proposed Itinerary
Lie in, followed by 30 minutes trying to squeeze yourself into the Juicy Couture tracksuit you hastily packed, whilst forgetting exactly how much more ‘juice’ there was these days.
Brunch: a bowl of Cheerios (no one had worked out how to smash an Avocado back then).
Flick through a selection of Vintage magazines to fuel some great conversational subject matter for a timeless coastal walk.
(If you don’t have time for this, just stick to Jay-Lo and Ben Affleck’s surprise split, which covers several eras.)
Nintendo Wii session: bowling or tennis, utilising the full floor space available.
Note: the games must be played as per first release and not in later years, by which time you worked out that just by flicking your wrist from the sofa the same result could be achieved.
Dinner: a collection of Asian Fusion small plates, followed by cupcakes faux-delivered by a local Cupcakery… which closed down in 2009 owing to it being a ridiculous idea.
Film night: Enjoy Legally Blonde, as if for the first time, followed by a half hour session, trying to perfect the ‘bend and snap’.
Kitchen disco: Dancing to classic club anthems teamed with Cosmopolitans.
Rinse and repeat.
Who’s with me?
and what do you reckon?Wouldn’t you love to use this strapline for one of your retreats:
Scientifically proven to reduce your physiological age in just one week!
As ever, you can have this idea for free, but I would like an invite to the ‘tester weekend’. 😉
You’re welcome.
K8x
Join in the comments below:
Would you like to go on one of these retreats?
What activites have I forgotten to include in the itinerary?
Thank you for being here, please ❤️ (below) if you enjoyed this piece, it really helps others find it.
Great idea but I fear I may need to go back more than 20 years. No, on second thoughts, a week living how I lived in the nineties would undoubtedly kill me; 2005 here we come.
Welcome back. Turning back time works but then I get my blood test results. 😉