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NOTE FROM JONNY —

Hello Curious Human 👋

Welcome to Issue #90!

It's been a bit of a rough week on my side. A combination of picking up covid, recurring back pain and accidentally flooding our kitchen — I found myself at the edge of my capacity, and needing to remember some nervous system regulation 101 — mostly giving myself space to process and recharge even amidst all the chaos.

It's funny how something along these lines tends to happen in the lead-up to a cohort. I like to think that perhaps it's the universe's way of offering loving smackdowns to keep me on my toes and offer reminders that I still have much to learn.

Anyhow, after some support and a good night's sleep, I'm feeling more like myself again, which is fortunate as we're heading to Burning Man this week! (It's my first time; I have no idea what to expect besides that it will probably be nothing like I expect...)

So that's all for today. I hope you enjoy the podcast episode with Ali and the Jhourney Retreat Write up — in the meantime, I wish you (and myself) a nourishing and joyful week.

Stay Curious Out There

Jonny

p.s. stay tuned for an exciting announcement this time tomorrow, there's a project I've been working on for many months going live...

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NEW PODCAST EPISODE —

[Podcast] Optimizing Your Life for Enjoyment with Ali Abdaal

"What would life and business look like if you optimized for enjoyment at every step?" ​ ​— Ali Abdaal

A few years back, Ali decided to quit his job as a junior doctor in the UK to become a full-time YouTuber. Since then, his career and life have skyrocketed — he’s built a channel with over 5.5 million YouTube subscribers and recently published a New York Times Bestselling book called ‘Feel Good Productivity’

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​In this conversation, you can expect to learn:

• Recent insights around 'leaving mental health on the table'
• His experience with imposter syndrome while writing his book
• How he’s been intentionally de-optimising his life
• The radical question of: what would life and business be like if you optimized for enjoyment?
• What advice would he give to me as someone in the very early stages of starting a new Youtube channel

It’s a phenomenal conversation, also thanks to our friend Marc Koenig, recorded in beautiful 4K video, which you can watch here on youtube if you wish.

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CURIOUS HUMANS IS PROUDLY SPONSORED BY — ​
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FREE LIGHTNING SESSION —

[Free Workshop] Cultivating Calm at Work

Free workshop hosted by Maven. Running 10am PST, Sept 9th.

I've been invited to host this Lightning session to share strategies for cultivating calm in stressful moments. We’ll be practicing two specific breathwork protocols for down-regulating the nervous system and a group inquiry to explore what gets in the way of feeling calm and grounded.

1. Explore the 8 Barriers to Calm — Exploring the eight barriers to calm and how to skillfully work with them.

2. Learn the 3 Buckets of Self-Regulation — Understanding our two modes of reactivity and how to rewire maladaptive stress responses.

3. Practice If [This] Then [Breathe] — Two evidence-backed protocols for cultivating calm from anywhere.

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HOW TO PRESS THE BLISS BUTTON —

Imagine a Panic Attack... But for Joy

I was recently on the cover photo in this TIME magazine essay (not for anything that I had done I will hasten to add) but rather that I happened to be in the line of fire as the TIME photographer was taking photos of meditators in the recent Jhourney Jhana retreat.

What the heck is a 'Jhana' you may rightly ask? Well, imagine if I told you that you were born with a bliss button, a specific part of your brain, that when you place your awareness on it in just the right way, you will feel deep, abiding joy, contentment, and bliss... on demand. Sounds ludicrous, right!?

Furthermore, in less than a week of training, you too can access this button and take it home with you. So what is this bliss button? The best way I've heard it described by the founders of is as a feedback loop between attention and emotion. This is where the idea of it being a panic attack for joy comes from.

The technique is relatively simple: you begin by conjuring up some metta (loving-kindness); as you do, you notice this feeling and sensation — and then begin to run experiments in ways that decrease any tension and amplify the good sensations.

Here are five of my favorite experimental prompts that I used:

1. Can I fall into the center of the sensation?
2. Did some subtle tension creep in » Say 'come here my friend'
3. Explore the 'how am I doing it' — not the ‘what’ — is there perhaps a subtle change agenda?
4. Is everything in my experience something that I would give away to a loved one? Can I give this state away? (this was one of my favorite prompts)
5. Can I do this at 1/100th of the effort (a useful prompt for life in general)

I intend to write up more of my experience at some point, but in the meantime, here's an excerpt from one of my journal entries:

Today (the final day), it was instigated by a mosquito. I was floating in a delicious fourth Jhana space, and I decided to try shifting to lie down.

As I did, a mosquito started buzzing around my head. I felt myself being pulled out of the previously strong equanimity, and almost as if conjuring a Patronos against a rogue dementor, I fired as much Metta as I could conjure directly at this mosquito.

We were locked in. After some time (minutes?), the buzzing disappeared, and almost out of exhaustion, I fell into somewhere new.

I dropped in the mantras ‘show me’ and ‘I am willing’ which, felt like they somehow permissioned the experience to open up further.

Then all of a sudden, it was almost as if I were riding a comet entering the atmosphere of a planet — and the rapturous intensity felt like it was burning me up as I plummeted through this gravitational field.

Softening my exhale gradually stabilized the current altitude. As I did this, it became increasingly overwhelming. Tears streamed from my face, and it was almost too much to bear (I’m very glad I was lying down for this bit).

It felt completely psychedelic and somewhat resonant of prior journeys, I would guess either a J5 or out of this world J1, hard to say. After some time, I fell into a space, basking in the afterglow of what had transpired.

So, as you might sense, it was a powerful experience for me, another lady in our retreat Nadia, apparently had a cessation experience during one of the breathwork journeys that I led (which was certainly a first!)

But particularly as someone who has meditated on and off for 15+ years, exploring dozens of approaches — I found it invaluable to see the high-fidelity map of the conscious states, which very much helped to contextualize past experiences I've had.

Although Jhourney has had some pushback from more traditional Jhana teachers, and I certainly do understand the need for tradition in some contexts, especially as students navigate the formless jhanas — but I personally appreciated their team's deep sincerity, genuinely novel and effective pedagogy, and agency-amplifying approach of prioritizing relentless self-experimentation.

I also have a sense that from a nervous system capacity perspective, learning how to hold increasing amounts of pleasure, to source deep joy internally (on demand) and feel an increasing sense of embodied safety as one learns to let go of tension patterns — is what many of us in the modern world desperately need, perhaps far more so than cultivating the typical McMindfulness that is popular in the mainstream.

There's much more that I could say, but for now, I'll mention that Stephen (a Jhourney co-founder) will also be one of our guest speakers in the upcoming Nervous System Mastery cohort, and I'm excited to probe him with more questions!

If you're curious to learn more about their approach, you can click here or use the button below, and if you sign up for one of their online or in-person retreats, the code NSM will give you a $150 discount.

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FUN STUFF TO CLICK ON —

Et. Cetera ​

​Read: Why you are not living in the Present. A dance between two primary intelligences that live in each of us. Read​

Work Smarter: The ultimate guide to the emerging science of prompt engineering. Read​

Self-Reflect: Let's talk about how often we pick up our phones. Read.

Contemplate. The Mantra of This AI Age: Don’t Repeat Yourself — a refreshing perspective on the role of AI in the coming years. Read.

Facepalm: Nonsense AI-generated images found in scientific publications See.

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FREE THINGS I'VE MADE —

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PARTING WORDS —

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