Thanks for your comment. The Buddhists promote moderation in all things and the Oura ring is no different. When it's useful use it, when it causes distress don't. It's just a bit of technology but doesn't have a mind of its own, but you do.
Good to hear from you, Rick. As you might imagine I exaggerated a bit to make the point. We spend much time walking in Tilden without monitoring our progress but we do monitor our sleep since Deep sleep is very important as we age. I think we may be the last generation that hasn't been captured by the quantification of experience.
Wow! How timely. I have been measuring my HRV daily with a free app and having done some research had decided to buy an oura ring. I wanted a gadget that would tell me what things improve my energy and decrease stress. Really?! Yep! 🤣 I too avoid apps, gadgets, social media and scrolling because I don't want to share any of my information with strangers. Then a few things happened that stopped me in my tracks. My son's girlfriend mentioning she can sometimes feel it working at night. How she judges how good her sleep is by it. And finally, realising that tracking my daily HRV, stress and energy levels was actually making me less connected to myself, more critical of myself and frankly miserable. As someone recovering from, hmm... how can I frame this without creating more of it? No idea! Let's say, an accumulation of symptoms having an app tell me I was failing every day was not conducive to a healthy outlook or being present with my life. Wearing the measurement oura ring made me feel like I was on high alert. Until I can change my attitude to it, I will not be buying any kind of gadget that tells me how I am doing. Instead... Feel, feel and feel some more. Tune in to myself and trust my intuition. My innate essence knows what she needs and wants. I just need to learn how to listen and act from that place. Wonderful article Howard. 😊
I recently had a hip replaced. As part of the post-op rehab program, my surgeon told me that if I wanted to get back to "normal" sooner, given a choice between physical therapy and increasing my step count, I should focus on the latter. She said, "I want you to shoot to increase your average daily steps by 1,000 every week." Now, I've had a Fitbit for several years, so I get the general principle(s). But jeez... if I slide under my targeted # of steps on a given day, no matter how exhausted I am I feel compelled to make up for it the next day.
But I do honestly love tracking sleep-cycles. (And at 75, I do love to sleep, anyhow.)
Hi Howard, thanks for this article. Found you through Susan Cain. I stopped wearing my Oura ring about 2 years ago, for most of the reasons you've beautifully articulated here. It got to a point that I would look at my oura scores as soon as I woke up. And if the numbers didn't match up to what I had in my head, I felt dispirited. I let those numbers dictate my day. A readiness rating of 80, for example, left me a little ho-hum about the potential of my day. I loved gobbling up those data points though. I was mentally high-fiving myself over my low resting heart rate, and improving HRV. I was always paying attention to how my body felt but then second guessing it when I looked at the data. I think my mental state is better without it.
I had to stop wearing my smart watch because it made me terribly anxious. I’m now back to walking for the reasons Kierkegaard set out in his famous letter and feel much better for it.
That's exactly why I never replaced my broken Timex stopwatch many years ago, or put a Stroke Coach on my scull. We become obsessed with performance rather than experience.
It was William Wordsworth, writing around 1798, who said “we murder to dissect.”
He was grouching about the Enlightenment, over-thinking, etc. his romantic take on nature and on living the experience resonates with a Buddhist concept in my view. Akin to Heraclitus saying “you can’t step in the same river twice” we realize the only constant is change. A living thing cannot be caged into a word. A living thing is alive, and aliveness is different than a cadaver that can be sectioned, named, and analyzed. It must be why the most sacred word to describe being cannot be said.
Thanks for your comment. The Buddhists promote moderation in all things and the Oura ring is no different. When it's useful use it, when it causes distress don't. It's just a bit of technology but doesn't have a mind of its own, but you do.
Good to hear from you, Rick. As you might imagine I exaggerated a bit to make the point. We spend much time walking in Tilden without monitoring our progress but we do monitor our sleep since Deep sleep is very important as we age. I think we may be the last generation that hasn't been captured by the quantification of experience.
Wow! How timely. I have been measuring my HRV daily with a free app and having done some research had decided to buy an oura ring. I wanted a gadget that would tell me what things improve my energy and decrease stress. Really?! Yep! 🤣 I too avoid apps, gadgets, social media and scrolling because I don't want to share any of my information with strangers. Then a few things happened that stopped me in my tracks. My son's girlfriend mentioning she can sometimes feel it working at night. How she judges how good her sleep is by it. And finally, realising that tracking my daily HRV, stress and energy levels was actually making me less connected to myself, more critical of myself and frankly miserable. As someone recovering from, hmm... how can I frame this without creating more of it? No idea! Let's say, an accumulation of symptoms having an app tell me I was failing every day was not conducive to a healthy outlook or being present with my life. Wearing the measurement oura ring made me feel like I was on high alert. Until I can change my attitude to it, I will not be buying any kind of gadget that tells me how I am doing. Instead... Feel, feel and feel some more. Tune in to myself and trust my intuition. My innate essence knows what she needs and wants. I just need to learn how to listen and act from that place. Wonderful article Howard. 😊
I recently had a hip replaced. As part of the post-op rehab program, my surgeon told me that if I wanted to get back to "normal" sooner, given a choice between physical therapy and increasing my step count, I should focus on the latter. She said, "I want you to shoot to increase your average daily steps by 1,000 every week." Now, I've had a Fitbit for several years, so I get the general principle(s). But jeez... if I slide under my targeted # of steps on a given day, no matter how exhausted I am I feel compelled to make up for it the next day.
But I do honestly love tracking sleep-cycles. (And at 75, I do love to sleep, anyhow.)
Hi Howard, thanks for this article. Found you through Susan Cain. I stopped wearing my Oura ring about 2 years ago, for most of the reasons you've beautifully articulated here. It got to a point that I would look at my oura scores as soon as I woke up. And if the numbers didn't match up to what I had in my head, I felt dispirited. I let those numbers dictate my day. A readiness rating of 80, for example, left me a little ho-hum about the potential of my day. I loved gobbling up those data points though. I was mentally high-fiving myself over my low resting heart rate, and improving HRV. I was always paying attention to how my body felt but then second guessing it when I looked at the data. I think my mental state is better without it.
that is really insightful - thank you for sharing those thoughts.
I had to stop wearing my smart watch because it made me terribly anxious. I’m now back to walking for the reasons Kierkegaard set out in his famous letter and feel much better for it.
That's exactly why I never replaced my broken Timex stopwatch many years ago, or put a Stroke Coach on my scull. We become obsessed with performance rather than experience.
Onward & upwards.
Hi Howard,
It was William Wordsworth, writing around 1798, who said “we murder to dissect.”
He was grouching about the Enlightenment, over-thinking, etc. his romantic take on nature and on living the experience resonates with a Buddhist concept in my view. Akin to Heraclitus saying “you can’t step in the same river twice” we realize the only constant is change. A living thing cannot be caged into a word. A living thing is alive, and aliveness is different than a cadaver that can be sectioned, named, and analyzed. It must be why the most sacred word to describe being cannot be said.
So can experience be quantified ?