Illustration by Blaze Syka NOTE FROM JONNY — Hello Curious Human 👋 Welcome to Issue #93! Plenty of updates from the Curious Humans HQ — I've been making progress on an exciting iOS app that we'll be launching soon, Kelly and I may have found a new rental house in Santa Cruz to move into in November (walking distance from a world-class surf break!), and we'll also be hosting our first breathwork retreat later this year in California. Exciting times! This week, I'm sharing a fantastic video...
3 months ago • 4 min read
Illustration by Blaze Syka NOTE FROM JONNY — Hello Curious Human 👋 Welcome to Issue #92! I just wrapped up a mind-bending podcast with the theoretical neuroscientist Michael Edward Johnson, which I'm very excited to release in the coming weeks... But in the meantime, I'm thrilled to be publishing both video #3 in the new Youtube series — a deep dive on interoception (see below), as well as one hell of a podcast conversation with fellow somatic explorer River Kenna. Have a wonderful week and...
4 months ago • 2 min read
Illustration by Blaze Syka NOTE FROM JONNY — Hello Curious Human 👋 Welcome to Issue #91! I've just returned from my first time at Burning Man, feeling both suitably sleep-deprived (not to mention covered in playa dust) but also deeply nourished by the almost unfathomable creative expression that exists in Black Rock City. I was especially moved by the 'Temple Space', an exquisitely designed temporary structure with every inch of space covered with photos and messages to loved ones who have...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Illustration by Blaze Syka 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....
4 months ago • 6 min read
Illustration by Blaze Syka NOTE FROM JONNY Hello Curious Human 👋 Welcome to Issue 89! Today is an exciting day at the Curious Humans HQ — months of work and creative juju have been lovingly poured into redesigning the Nervous System Mastery website (v2.0) I'll keep the intro brief, but suffice it to say that I feel proud of how it's turned out, and hope that others resonate with the new designs as much as I do (check it out here) For the past couple of years, this course has been my full-time...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Illustration by Blaze Syka NOTE FROM JONNY — Hello Curious Human 👋 After an extended hiatus... Curious Humans is back. Welcome to Issue 87! The last few months have been filled with travel (I finally got my US green card), catching up with friends, and spending nourishing time in nature. It felt darn good to unplug for a while. This month also marks the 8-year anniversary of this newsletter's inception (here's the first issue published back in 2017). Sheesh. A lot happens in 8 years. It felt...
4 months ago • 3 min read
Hello Curious Humans — greetings from a snowy Boulder! ☃️ Today, I'm excited to visit a neurofeedback lab in town to run some experiments with vagus nerve stimulation devices and explore how practicing non-sleep-deep-rest might shift my brainwaves... I'll report back what I discover in a few weeks time! 🧠 ~~ 1/ ✔️ A Self-Assessment to Track Your Nervous System Regulation For the past few months, I've been working on creating a robust and practical self-assessment that strives to give insight...
10 months ago • 2 min read
When experiencing nervous system dysregulation, most people try to solve the problem 'from within.' But there’s something a lot of us forget: The stimuli in our surroundings also have a tremendous influence in our nervous system. In fact, it is accurate to say that we are constantly ‘co-regulating’ with our environment, taking external cues from all the sounds, the visuals, even the smells — and then tuning our internal state accordingly. The issue? Most of us don’t put enough thought into...
10 months ago • 2 min read
There’s a pervasive myth—particularly in the tech industry—that listening to our rational, logic-oriented left brain is superior to acting in response to fluctuating emotions. Life might be simpler if this were the case. Emotions are messy, and in some circumstances they can cloud our judgment. Even the neuroscientists studying them have struggled to understand how they work. Which is why, to this day, there is still no scientific consensus on a precise definition of what an emotion actually...
10 months ago • 4 min read
