Scientist, truthist, systems thinker, impact player. PhD: Immunology at @thedohertyinst Work: Health Systems Innovation President: Ultimate Victoria
Naarm, Wurundjeri Land
Joined April 2010
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jesseka retweeted
I've been meaning to share these thoughts for a while and touched on them briefly in a recent conference talk. They are relevant to a lot of the discussions today.
jesseka retweeted
Did you know attention help regulates your immune response?
"Our findings therefore establish a causal
link between attention and immune regulation in vivo, suggesting that processes often considered autonomously regulated, such as inflammatory responses, are influenced by the voluntary allocation
of attentional resources."
nature.com/articles/s41562-0…
If effective therapy requires trust and psychological safety does that mean we think its a good thing for people to develop that kind of a relationship with a LLM? I’m not convinced we do…
1. As a society we have really not processed the fact that LLMs are already human-level therapists in most ways that matter, and much better than almost all human therapists in some ways (more patient, more knowledgeable, less judgmental). Therapy is now approximately free! Update your consumption of it accordingly!
I say Claude specifically because a bunch of friends have had really good experiences talking through emotional issues with it.
Probably some of my followers have particularly good prompts for making Claude a better therapist (@nearcyan maybe?) If you do please share them here!
It seems possible that physics will accept space-time as not fundamental before western medicine will accept the mind and body are not separate things…
jesseka retweeted
Most people vastly under-exercise their dogs & it harms their mental and physical health. 30min, twice a day brisk walks (every day) is the bare minimum … & some need far more. @cesarmillan points out: If you truly love your dog, you’ll get it the exercise it needs.
If consciousness is fundamental to reality and we want to solve for human thriving then we really need to get better at understanding the qualia of human experience.
Haven’t come across the fertility crisis considered this way before. Useful insights!
Learnings from the fertility crisis that extend to how we use money, time, and productivity.
Luca-dellanna.com/posts/weal…
jesseka retweeted
There's a very good chance that the key to discovering the next miracle drug is out there somewhere sitting in a freezer like this and I think about that a lot
Melbournians don’t make eye contact with people on the street since COVID. After a spending a month in Europe where strangers actually acknowledge each other i’ve realised how destabilising it is to walk along the street and have no-one willing to look you in the eye. It’s awful.
jesseka retweeted
One of my strongest beliefs is that honesty is a skill you have to practice. It’s surprisingly easy to start once you make an agreement with yourself but it takes a long time to get really good at it.
But the better you get at it the more your world opens up and transforms in beautiful ways.
Because your old world falls away and a new world starts to form that is more aligned with your actual wants and desires.
And there is an interesting additional property - as you practice it and start pulling at this thread, you quickly realise there are dependencies in the skill tree you need to work on to get better.
The most obvious ones that quickly emerge are:
- Can you access what is true for you? (Introspection)
- Can you express what is true but difficult to someone while staying grounded in your body? (Candor)
- Can you take actions in alignment with your truth even if they mean upending your life/relationships? (Integrity)
It has a self reinforcing quality to it that is utterly elegant. Afaict once you start it’s a one way road that leads you deeper and deeper into Truth.
jesseka retweeted
life seems to do this fun thing where when you say "I want to be this type of person" it says "okay, prove it" over & over again
i.e. if you admire strength, you'll be given difficult situations that require strength; if you aspire to radical honesty, same thing
the most difficult & empowering stance to take is appreciation for those opportunities: it's not a test, it's just a chance to step into the person you want to be. there will be others. "thank you for the opportunity. let's see what I can do with it"
jesseka retweeted
as a former avoidant who has recently achieved full consciousness, i need to say the mean holy thing: avoidance is self-abandonment, anti-devotion, and fake taste, because taste requires being alive enough to want. coming back into your body makes you hotter
jesseka retweeted
This is it.
Everything learned spending millions on longevity.
From: Your Immortal Unc and Auntie.
To: Our Immortal nieces and nephews.
0. Sleep is the world's most powerful drug.
1. Be in your bed for 8 hours
2. Same bedtime every night, any time before midnight
3. Don’t eat right before bed
4. Calm foods for dinner
5. No screens 1 hour before bed
6. Avoid added sugar (be aware it’s in everything)
7. Avoid all things in an American convenience store
8. Avoid fried foods
9. Shoes off at the door
10. Eat whole foods, particularly veggies fruits nuts legumes berries
11. Walk a little after meals or air squats
12. Get your heart rate high routinely
13. Lift heavy things
14. Stretch daily
15. Water pik, floss, brush, tongue scrape, morning and night
16. Make an effort to drink water
17. Get sunlight when you wake up (UV is low)
18. Protect skin in midday sun
19. Stand up straight
20. See at least one friend once a week
21. Avoid plastic where you can (in all things)
22. Circulate air in rooms
23. When stressed, breathe, learn to calm your body
24. Go to the dentist
25. Avoid sitting for long times
26. Protect your hearing, the world is too loud
27. Alcohol is bad for you
28. Finish coffee before noon
29. Avoid bright lights after sunset
30. If obese, look into a GLP
31. Sleep in a cold room
32. Texting while driving is dangerous
33. Turn off all notifications
34. Limit social media use
35. Don’t smoke anything
36. If you struggle to sleep, read a physical book before bed
37. 1 hour before bed have a calm wind down routine: bath, read, light walk, listen to music
38. The body is a clock and loves routine. Have a daily morning and evening schedule.
39. Avoid long distance travel where you can
40. Baby steps first: incorporate new things slowly
41. Do less… most things don’t work.
Bonus points if you get your blood checked.
Start here, it will change your life.
jesseka retweeted
It's wild that this two-hour conversation between @hubermanlab + @drmarkbrackett about emotions did not once mention interoception, somatic work or how to feel them in your body.
~~
Why is this an issue?
Yes emotional management tools are effective (and at times essential) in the short-term... but months or years of regulating without feeling will accumulate emotional debt.
This is the 'self-regulation paradox' and I wish it was better understood by podcasters, authors + researchers with large platforms.
In the beginning, self-regulation protocols (cognitive-appraisal, breathwork, physiological sigh, humming etc.) are game-changers for those who otherwise would be totally overwhelmed by their emotions.
The moments of intense anxiousness, fear, and overwhelm can be effectively managed, and in the short term, life improves (you're able to function).
However, frameworks like RULER are not the end-game. If every time that you notice anxiety or irritability, you just self-regulate it away without feeling it, you are adding to the backlog.
The skill of self-regulation is very different from emotional completion/metabolisation. And this is where the paradox comes in.
It’s crucial that you feel safe and grounded enough in the moment (which often requires co-regulation with another) – but then, at some point, you inevitably need to feel and welcome the feeling.
Not just the cognitive idea of the feeling but the uncomfortable interoceptive sensations that arise.
Different emotions have different completion reflexes and arcs, and it takes practice to learn how to unclench our protective strategies, to allow the emotions to run fluidly.
I see this with our five-week-old daughter right now, she is unable to self-regulate, and instead of soothing, we are holding her and allowing the emotional arcs to complete (which they typically do in a few minutes).
So sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but no amount of reframing, labelling or mindful breathing alone is a substitute for genuinely welcoming and allowing the emotions to move.
^^ feedback, critique + discussions welcome. This is an important topic and I really care about it entering the mainstream dialogue
The new Huberman Lab episode is out: How to Better Regulate Your Emotions | Dr. Marc Brackett (@drmarcbrackett)
0:00 Marc Brackett
2:55 Emotion Regulation
5:53 Emotion Mindset, Anxiety; Good or Bad Emotions?
11:25 Sponsors: Joovv & Lingo
13:54 Permission for Happiness; Gender, Emotion Suppression
22:13 Young Men, Vulnerability, Incapable; Gay Men
31:00 Boys & Men, Crying; Emotion Socialization
37:34 Sponsor: AG1
38:58 Physical Interaction; Rough/Tumble Play, Teaching Emotion Regulation
46:47 Emotion Calibration, Tools: Leaders & Being a Role Model; Meta-Moment
56:15 Meditation & Stress Tolerance, Tool: Label Emotions; Childhood
1:03:12 Sponsor: LMNT
1:04:32 Understand Your Assumptions, Tool: Intentional Co-Regulation
1:12:09 Vocabulary & Rethinking Emotion, Tool: Reframing
1:15:49 Emotional Intelligence Training, Self-Evaluation
1:22:15 Living with Discomfort & Emotional Intelligence
1:27:01 Marc's Work & Criticism; Emotion "Leakage" & Switching Mindset
1:34:19 Sponsor: Rorra
1:35:32 Excitement, Positive Emotion; Modern Concerns, AI & Disconnection
1:45:11 Major Societal Challenges & Everyday Progress
1:54:38 Physical/Emotional Identity & Envision Best Self, Tool: Meta-Moment
2:05:33 Emotional Intelligence
2:12:46 Curiosity & Compassion; Reflection, Identity
2:19:32 Point of Connection Game
2:25:02 Zero-Cost Support, YouTube, Spotify & Apple Follow, Reviews & Feedback, Sponsors, Protocols Book, Social Media, Neural Network Newsletter
Includes paid partnerships.
jesseka retweeted
how willing are you to sacrifice safety for aliveness?
this seems to be an important question to answer. aliveness looks different for everyone: for some the most alive path is quitting their job to travel the world, but for others it's about committing to the grind of building a company
nor does a willingness to seek aliveness map neatly onto "success" vs "failure". aliveness-seeking tends towards the riskier path, so either outsized success or outsized failure, while safety-seeking leads to more predictable-but-constrained success
but the deeper, more important question is: does your capacity to seek aliveness match your desire?
some people are drawn to the riskier path but don't yet have the capacity to sustain it: fear hems them in to the safe path. but other people are totally happy on the safe path; that's where they're meant to be
the world needs both. but someone who wants to seek aliveness but doesn't have the capacity yet to fully do so is an unhappy person. that's the realm of neurosis, which Jung defined as being an unwillingness to endure genuine suffering. aliveness requires genuine suffering; to refuse the call, when we feel it within ourselves, leads to neurosis
there's nothing "good" or "bad" about prioritizing aliveness or safety. this isn't a moral choice. rather, it's a choice based in self-knowledge: what does your soul yearn for? if you yearn for stability and you don't yet have it, you'll be unhappy; if you yearn for aliveness and you can't get yourself to seek it out, you'll be unhappy
know thyself, and choose accordingly. that's the best we can do. but if you don't yet have the capacity to choose what feels true for you, then it's time to turn inward, and start the work required to transcend your fear