YouSaid · the spoken record

Jonny Miller

lines on the record: 77
first: 2024-01-28
most recent: 2024-01-28
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

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“Yeah, so it's this idea of interestion, which is known as our sixth sense. And basically it's our ability to kind of sense track and feel our internal landscape. And I like to use a metaphor of a chef in the same way that you train your flavor palette for kind of sweet, spicy umami, things like that. You can also train your interoceptive palate and become more aware of the internal sensations, whether that's your breath, whether it's tension, whether it's moods and emotions, whether it's the quality of your awareness, the quality of your thoughts. And the more kind of in tune with that you are, the more likely you are to notice the kind of early warning signs of something like anxiety. Because usually, certainly a panic attack doesn't come out of nowhere. There will be a kind of cascade of subtle things that happen in your body that eventually result in anxiety.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and maybe something that we haven't touched on yet, but I think is important to add in is this idea of interception or somatic awareness. And the reason I bring it in is because if you do this practice, but you're not really aware of your body and how you feel, then it'll be less compelling to you. But if you're kind of tuned into like sensations in your body, what's going on, you're more likely to notice the difference in the shifts.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, I'd say for at least a minute or two, we kind of did a shorter version. I'll also add that the important thing is that the exhale is twice as long as the inhale. So if exhaling for eight is too long, you could do three six or even two four or even five ten, depending on your lung capacity, essentially. And you'll CO2 tolerance.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, great question. So, I like to kind of recommend both a morning practice, particularly to kind of build the muscle of just doing it and getting used to it. So, you know, maybe five minutes in the morning before you start work, before breakfast, something like that. And then you're more likely to remember that you kind of have access to that in the moment because usually the challenge is that when someone is kind of in that like flustered state, remembering to do the practice is often the last thing that comes to mind. by kind of having a deliberate practice for at least kind of seven to ten days and so that you get the hang of it, then it feels much more natural to do it when you're feeling that's kind of like playing the game on hard mode when you're when you're really stressed and anxious. It's like that's when you need it the most, but it's also when you're least likely to remember to do it.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So it kind of depends on how activating you find it, but I usually find 30 breaths per round and then kind of take a breath, have a long pause on the exhale. And then if you want to do another round or two.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, yeah Yeah, yeah. So, yeah, let's do it. So again, kind of sit up straight. And this time you want to be pumping the breath from your lower belly. And you pump the breath on the exhale. So I'll demonstrate it briefly. It's like breathe in. Okay, so yep, take a full breath in And let go Full breath in and sigh on the exhale. I already feel a little bit tingly.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, sure. We can do that as well. I call this expressor breath. So this is the opposite. This is very activating. I would only recommend this if you're feeling lethargic or maybe instead of drinking a coffee in the afternoon, you could do this for a minute or so in the scientific literature. Bellows breath or breath of fire. And it basically looks like a series of rapid exhales through the nose. I like to keep it through the nose only because if you do it through the mouth, it can be very too activating and it can kind of overwhelm people. Obviously there's the Wimhof practice that I'm sure many people are familiar with. So this is like a more gentle version of if Wimhof is like red bull, this is kind of like a small coffee.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's also fantastic. He calls it the physiological psi. It's both very effective, especially if you just have five seconds and you just take a full sigh. It's great. I'd also add that the psi happens naturally as a result of doing these downshifting practices. So if you notice after you do, let's say the 448 breathing, at the end, you might naturally just want to let out a psi. And that's a signal that your body is naturally downshifting. Or if you're with a friend and you feel just like comfortable and relaxed, then your body might sigh. And it's something that we do a lot. And as you say, you can consciously do it and that will help as well. That's another one of the practices.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There is not currently, it's part of the curriculum in the course that I have, but it's, I can make maybe see if I can spin one up as well. But yeah.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Are suitable to different situations? And another way that I like to think about this is I call it if this then breathe. So it's like if I feel overwhelmed, then I do the humming. If I feel anxious, then I do 448 breathing, or we'll turn it nostril breathing. And kind of having my own little like recipe set that I have for different contexts is really helpful. And I work with people to kind of build those toolkits themselves.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I kind of like to share building a toolkit of different practices that are appropriate for different contexts. So something like the 448 breathing, you could do pretty much anywhere without anyone necessarily noticing. Humming is slightly more obvious, but if you're about to jump on a zoom or something, you can totally do it with your eyes closed. Things like expanding your awareness or bringing your awareness down to your feet and your hands, which creates a kind of grounding calming effect that also you can do if you're in a busy room. Maybe you have social anxiety, even orienting and kind of labeling things that you're hearing and feeling kind of bringing the awareness and attention back into the body that also has an effect. And then there's longer practices for say non-sleep deep rests, belly breathing, things that you can do if you have 10, 20 minutes and you're at home and you want to downshift. So I like to kind of give people a big toolkit to see what works for them and then cherry pick which ones.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Note on the humming, it also releases nitric oxide, which is a vasodilator, and that helps to create that kind of calming effect, and it also reduces eye tension as well. So I'll do it if I've been looking at the screen for too long. It's really good for kind of reducing eye fatigue as well.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and close your eyes down if you're listening and driving. Obviously, don't do that, but yeah, closing the eyes down just sure helps. Now we're just going to do a simple breath. I'm going to inhale in through the nose for four. We're going to hold the breath at the top for four, and we're going to exhale for eight. And then we're going to repeat. So let the breath go. Inhaling through the nose. Inhale two, three, four, hold the breath two, three four and exhale eight. Two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. Inhale, two, three, four, hold the breath, two, three, four, and exhale two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight. And now you can let go of the breath completely. And we'll end with one round of humming, which is surprisingly effective at calming as well. So take a full breath in.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We can stack a few of the exercises and I'll try and keep it to like a minute or so. So, yeah, if you want to get comfy in your chair, sit up straight, feel your butt on the seat. And I find it helpful to kind of be aware of the space behind you and above you as well, kind of expanding your awareness so that you're aware of the space behind to the sides and above.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, and there's obviously people say mindfulness, meditation, things like that, that can increase the psychological space between stimulus and response. And that is something that obviously does help over the long term, but it's, in my opinion, nowhere near as kind of rapid and effective and efficient as just changing the way that you're breathing.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The kind of reactive thoughts and feelings that we have when we're in that kind of anxious loop, they can be self reinforcing. And so, you know, if someone has a thought of like, oh no, I'm nervous before this important presentation, then that exacerbates the breathing pattern. And then the whole thing just goes into this spiral, which you can end up in full-blown panic attacks if there's not an intervention of some sorts.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so it's basically a shorthand for what we've just been talking about, which is most people tend to approach the problem or try to solve things on the level of story. So there's multiple ways you can do that through the breath, as we just talked about. You can also defocus your gaze and kind of relax your eyes, and that has a similar effect. You can expand your awareness and kind of bring your awareness to behind you and the sides of you and below you. Or you can breathe in these ways which emphasize the exhale. And so when we breathe in a way with say the exhale twice as long as the inhale, that part of the brain, the interlocortex, then sends signals to the parasympathetic nervous system, which then has the cascading effect on our endocrine system and calms us down. And what I usually find as well is that”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sure. Well, it's one of the few things which happens automatically, but we can also control it consciously. And so what scientists have discovered that when the exhale is twice as long as the inhale, it has a calming effect. And when the inhale is either more intense or twice as long as the exhale, it has an activating effect. So you can kind of think of this as like an up or down lever on the nervous system.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Precisely, and I mean, I've used this myself many times before presentations. I gave a TEDx talk a few years ago, and I was like, my entire body, I was just terrified. And I did 15 minutes of this breathing practice before and walked on stage, kind of almost cool as a cucumber. It's very effective.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You start breathing into your upper chest, shallow, fairly rapid, maybe even through the mouth, that will then, there's a part of your brain called the insular cortex, which is basically constantly spying on the way that we're breathing. And it will register that change. It will then send information to activate the endocrine system, which then creates shift in our blood chemistry. the sympathetic nervous system gets activated and that increase in adrenaline and cortisol starts to flood flood your body everyone's probably very familiar with that feeling and then that will then have a cascading impact on the thoughts that you're having and the way that you feel and so like like you like you just shared we have a tendency to kind of confabulate or make up stories that match the state that we're that we're in and so that's that's kind of what happens when we're breathing in that way and then you can also consciously change your”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I mean, I think it's helpful to understand the process by which by changing the way that we breathe, for example, it shifts our physiological state and changes our nervous system. So if you're listening to this, maybe you, Lenny, you can try this as well.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Just such a rapidly more effective way at shifting your state and to kind of give a little bit of context and maybe some science as well. We have what's known as afferent and efferent neurons kind of going up and down our body. And this four times more afferent neurons going from the body to the brain as from the brain to the body. So you can almost imagine there's like a super highway of traffic of information going up to the brain and much less four times less going from the brain to the body. And so by learning how to kind of pull on the levers of our physiology, we can rapidly change our state. And then from there, by changing our state, that impacts the thoughts and feelings that we have. So instead of kind of trying to change the story or trying to fix something or trying to solve something, which is what most people do by default, myself included in the past, if you change your state first, then...”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, so I find this kind of top-down, bottom-up distinction to be incredibly helpful. Most people, when they try to calm down, they use kind of tactical reframes or maybe mindfulness or maybe reframing the situation in the positive light. There's lots of different practices that people use which do have some effect. But in my experience, working with the physiology.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, that was definitely part of it. Yeah. And also just since realizing how many people are struggling with anxiety, depression, all of this kind of constellation of mental health challenges, both in the workplace and at home as well. And yeah, it's been a very rewarding journey.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I went into breathwork, meditation retreats, did hundreds of breathwork journeys, researched with a breath lab over in Bali. And basically just kind of directed all of my focus and attention onto understanding this inner landscape that I'd been pretty much oblivious to. And since then have been working with founders, executives, running courses and teaching what I'm learning. hopefully still researching at the same time as well.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“My story starts in, I kind of have a background in tech. I had a startup. We went through tech stars back in 2012. About five and a half years into that experience, I went through burnout, which is pretty common in the startup world. But that actually wasn't the trigger for me. I find that usually people that get into this type of work, there's some kind of catalyst or some kind of challenging life event. And for me, that was October 23rd, 2017. And my fianc ⁇ at the time had an anxiety attack and she took her own life. And that kind of completely just destroyed me at the time. And I realized that I'd been so disconnected from my body and my emotions. And it kind of sent me on this five plus year journey to kind of discover all of this inner landscape that I'd been numb from the neck down.”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I have this idea that I call the feather brick dump truck phenomenon. And basically what that means is when we are showing early signs of burnout, our body will give us feedback, usually in subtle ways in the beginning. So the feather might be waking up in the morning and feeling a little bit tired, a little bit maybe a little bit exhausted. The brick, you know, maybe you ignore that or you don't notice it. And then three or four weeks later, you have like a fight with someone or an argument or you just feel frustrated and terrible and you lose your call. And then maybe the dump truck is a month later or even a year later. There's like a full-blown health crisis or you develop type 2 diabetes or there's a whole range of things or maybe you get fired. Like ideally you want to notice when it's the feather and then make adjustments or shift then and not have to wait until you experience the full-blown pain of the dump truck, which unfortunately”
2024-01-28 · Lenny's Podcast · Managing nerves, anxiety, and burnout | Jonny Miller (Nervous System Mastery) · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source