Shake Up Your Life
From Shake Up Your Life
Welcome! We're glad you're here.
If this is your first time visiting Shake Up Your Life, you can read a little about the project here.
Shake Up Your Life will help you shed your illusions about the world through little life experiments. You can pick a categorized experiment below, or try a Random one.
If you have tried one of the experiments, please share your experiences in the "Results" section of each page. A New Chapter and Say Love have sample responses. If you would like to propose a new experiment, please do! Add it to the list below, and create your page in the image of the others.
As you can see, this is an emerging project. Many of the entries have yet to be commented on, so please don't be shy about being the first one. As you grow the project with us, others will sense momentum and feel more excited to participate. The categories are evolving, too, and are not meant to be a definitive set. Many experiments have elements from multiple realms. We hope they will change to suit the needs of users like yourself.
If you have comments on this wiki, we welcome them. You can reach us at input {at} shakeupyourlife.org.
Note: Due to rampant vandalism, the site has been locked down until new editing policies can be implemented.
Contents |
Little Things
Connection
- Say Love: Tell one person each day that you love them.
- Meet the Future: Volunteer with children to learn about the future.
- Meet the Past: Volunteer with elders to learn about the past.
- Meet Your Maker: Spend twenty four hours in open nature.
- Say Yes: For a day, say yes to every request made of you.
- Salute the Sun: Watch both the sunrise and sunset on any given day.
- 365 Faces: Meet and get to know a new person every day for a year.
- Eye Contact: Look into someone's eyes for three minutes without speaking.
- Eye Connect: Look into strangers' eyes as you pass them in the street and smile.
- Explore Your Town: Take a street you've never been on, look for footpaths and bike paths, try a new store.
Physical Wellness
- Sugar Cleanse: Focus on healthier foods, and avoid refined sugar for a week or even a month.
- Go Veg: If you are omnivorous, eat no meat for a week. If you are a vegetarian, eat no animal products for a week.
- Go Raw: Eat only raw food for a week. This one's great for the colon.
- Fast: Fast for 24 hours, making sure to drink plenty of water and get good rest.
- Active Practice: Be physically active for twenty minutes each day for a month.
- Drink Tea: Cut out Soda, Energy Drinks, and coffee for a week and only drink Tea if you need an extra boost.
Mental Wellness
- Stillness Practice: Meditate for twenty minutes each day on a regular schedule for yourself - daily, 3 times a week, whatever works for you.
- Brush Your Teeth: Try brushing your teeth with your non-dominant hand. It's a tangible way to feel how habituated we become.
- Mind Practice: Read, think, and write for twenty minutes each day for a month.
A Different Perspective
- Ride the Wheels: Use a wheelchair for a day. Get a feel for life from a different vantage point, both physically and culturally.
- Other Hand: Focus on using your non-dominant hand for a day.
- Different Field: Attend a lecture on something about which you know little but are curious to learn more.
- Different Beliefs: Attend the service of a belief system other than your own.
- A New Chapter: Read a book on a subject you know nothing about.
- Wiki Surf: go to wikipedia, click on the random page. Read it. Then click a random link which sounds good from there - continue until your boredom is gone.
- New Music: Try using a site like Musicovery or Pandora to find songs you've never heard and actively listen to them.
- A Matter of Taste: Go to to your favorite restaurant and try something you've never had. If that's hard, tell the waiter any dietary restrictions and ask them to pick for you.
Wordplay
- Positivity: Aim to say only positive things for three days. If you are at a loss for words in certain moments, it is a great opportunity to reflect on yourself.
- Concrete Poems: Create an original poem based on a concrete rule.
- Silence Is Golden: Be silent for twenty four hours.
- Active Voice: Focus on and reduce your use of the passive voice from your speech.
- Take Your Time: For a day, try pausing and reflecting for three seconds before speaking in conversation.
- Questions Only: Speak only in questions for a day.
- Statements Only: Speak only in statements for a day.
- Two Truths - and a Truth: Refrain from any lies or falsehoods (including "little white lies") for a day.
Modern Culture
- Simple T-Shirts: Wear t-shirts inside out so they are solid colors without symbols. This is a practice to step away from our culture's emphasis on promoting image and messages all the time.
- Toll Free: Pay for the car behind you at a toll booth.
- TV Fast: Refrain from watching television for a week. You can take the opportunity to rediscover conversation with friends, reading, or any other activities that you want to make time for in your life.
- Electronic Fast: Use no modern conveniences for a weekend. Feel what it is like to be "unplugged" from computers, cell phones, etc.
- Listen Live: Listen to only live music for a week. Nothing recorded, even "live recordings."
- Live Free: Spend no money for a week (some stocking up ahead is fine). This is about feeling less like our lives need to be centered around commercial interactions.
- City Streets: Spend a day exploring the streets of a major city.
- Earth Time: Spend a week without lights. Live according to Nature's schedule.
Miscellaneous
Feel free to create your own new categories!
