Category: Exercise

Migikata Sagari!

April 26, 2026 By arne hendriks Off

Migikata agari is a Japanese phrase that means right shoulder rising. Frequently used at the end of business meetings this rallying call is physically expressed by trusting the right shoulder up. In so doing the shoulderline creates an upward slope that symbolizes a growth chart.…

20% Ma

March 30, 2026 By arne hendriks Off

The Incredible Shrinking Man has long been fascinated by Hara Hachi Bu, the practice of eating until only 80% full. This discipline does more than just limit intake; it creates, and honors, a 20% void. This intentional emptiness relates to the Japanese concept of Ma.…

Bonsai at 14

January 24, 2026 By arne hendriks Off

Bonsai are an ongoing fascination of The Incredible Shrinking Man. They both show the resilience and beauty of smallness and represent some of the paradoxical aspects of human/nature relationships. Bonsai are creatures that teach us ways forward while reminding us of the delicate relationship between…

World in a Gourd

February 2, 2023 By arne hendriks Off

Pumpkins, for one reason or another, are able to ignite our imagination. Just think of Cinderella and how in this fairytale a pumpkin turns into a coach and back into a pumpkin again. Perhaps its relative largeness within the vegetable kingdom enables the telling of…

Shrink Exercise: Growth Chart Resilience

May 6, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

When we say that the human species is obsessed with growth we mean that even without specific context any decline or absence of growth mostly inspires a negative response. At the same time an increase creates a positive feeling. Through a series of simple exercises…

Shrink Exercise: Giant Vegetable Hugging

March 28, 2018 By arne hendriks Off

Hugging a giant vegetable initiates a light-hearted feeling of pleasure and relaxation, as well as the experience of being in the presence of a messenger from the future when the human species has become a lot smaller and the world is again a place of…

Females to Mars

October 28, 2014 By arne hendriks 1

Kate Greene took part in a NASA-funded research project called HI-SEAS (Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation). It required that she and five other crewmembers live as astronauts on the surface of Mars. For four months they were cooped up in a geodesic dome on…