Good morning! Keeping it short today to send you off on a two week break.

“Enjoy your vacation!” the chorus of MTI readers’ voices echoes.

“Grazie! Arrivederci!” I shout back in a fantastico Italian accent. 🤌🏼

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Imagine there’s no time

Like, truly if we had no concept. You don’t know how old you are. You don’t have seconds, minutes, days, weeks, months, years. You just exist continually. We would obviously still exist in days and years based on our planet, but the rest is made up.

What would it change about how you live?

How old would you think you were? How old would you feel? Act?

Would it change how you sleep? Maybe we’d go to bed when we’re tired and wake up when we feel refreshed. Maybe we’d nap whenever.

Would it change how you eat? Maybe you wouldn’t feel obligated to eat at regular meal times, but rather just when your body told you to. Maybe you wouldn’t rush meals but would instead savor the tastes and the company.

Would it change how you workout? Maybe you’d never know your running pace—you’d just know how different efforts felt. You wouldn’t know how long to rest between sets; you’d just go again when it felt right. You wouldn’t cycle your splits in weeks or months, but just workout in rhythms and phases that produce results and feel good.

Would it change how you move about the world? Maybe you’d stop being defined by being too young or too old to do something. Maybe you wouldn’t care if you’re “supposed” to play spikeball at 40 or volleyball at 60 or do a dance class at 80. You’d just do it because you like it.

Would it change your perception of age? How would you view the elderly, with their gray hairs and limited mobility and wisdom and smile lines? How would you view the youthful, with their springiness and athleticism?

Would it change the amount of stress in your life? I think a lot of us would be a lot less stressed if we weren’t so constantly focused on time. Rushing from this to that. Scheduling time for them before we have to do those, but only after that so you can “take time” to prepare for this. Even a day without that sounds fantastic to me.

I think we’d be more generous with our time, our lives, our resources if we didn’t have a concept of time. We’d laugh and hang until we’re tired. We wouldn’t be upset if someone was “late;” we’d just be thrilled when they got there.

Unfortunately (and also fortunately, in many ways), we do live inside a world in which time is a major focus. But what can you take from this thought experiment into your life today? Can you find small ways to disconnect from the clock and just exist?

To echo a phrase my mom loved to quote, “We’re human beings, not human doings, after all.”

✅ Take Action

Every newsletter's Take Action section will invite you to take small steps to improve your health. Recognizing that we all have different capabilities, I'll offer three different levels of action you can choose to take.

Level 1: Go awhile (I was gonna say an hour, but that’s focusing on time!) without looking at any clocks.

Level 2: Forget about timing yourself for a workout, in whatever way you’re used to. Just have at it and see how you feel and what changes.

Level 3: Can you plan at least one day in which you have the opportunity to fully disconnect from time and be fully present where and with whom you are?

This newsletter is brought to you by… me!

Interested in becoming a sponsor? Know someone else who might be? I’d love to get to know you and/or your business and see how we can partner together. Reply to this email!

✍️ Drew's Picks:

• Nothing new this week! Hope to have some good recs for you when I’m back!

Ciao for now! Don’t forget about me, and please click on the next Move to Improve that greets you three weeks from now :)

Keep moving,

Drew

The content in Move to Improve is meant to be informative in nature, but it should not be taken as medical advice. It is always a good idea to consult with a trusted health professional before making any major lifestyle changes that could have a significant impact on your health. This is not a medical resource, and any opinions and articles are not intended for use as diagnosis, prevention, and/or treatment of health problems. They are not substitutes for consulting a qualified medical professional. Please think critically and take what I say with a grain of salt (aka don’t sue me).