Jonny Miller explains how your nervous system works like a video game resource that shifts between red (energized), blue (recovery), and green (optimal). He teaches techniques like the physiological sigh, cold exposure, and 4-4-8 breathing to move between states and build resilience through your vagus nerve.
Chapters
This is your nervous system capacity. You start your day at full strength, full of aliveness and energy, ready to make progress on the quests that matter to you. Unfortunately, that initial optimism, sometimes it gets tested. Obstacles arise, not everything goes your way. And you use up sometimes some of your capacity. How much capacity? That depends on this little bar. More on that later. Using up your capacity is just part of being alive. Sometimes you use it to complete the quests that matter to you. Other times, it gets used just getting by. Maybe use some running late for an appointment, maybe a bit more facing an unpleasant surprise. More can be lost just anticipating a work meeting. Even more on tough conversations at home. In in fact, it doesn't always feel like you have control over how it gets used. And the worst part is that as these hearts diminish, we lose our capacity to respond intentionally. We enter a reactive mode called dysregulation. Instead, you respond with anxiety, avoidance or shutdown. And to make things worse, we make poor decisions. We succumb to our addictive tendencies. You feel like you're a victim of circumstances, and this creates a vicious cycle. You wake up feeling under rested. And if you stay in this cycle of dysregulation, it quickly compounds. At the end of the week, you feel like shit, and you've made zero progress towards the goals that matter to you. There are many days when life can feel like playing a video game on hard mode. But what most people don't realize is that we have cheat codes built into our biological hardware. They are skills that can be learned. Let's try that day again. But first, what's actually happening at the level of our nervous system. This side of the meter is red, and this represents the energizing or sympathetic branch of our nervous system. If you hang out in the red end of your meter, you get a sizable boost in your stats. You get more focused, your heart rate goes up. You can quickly increase your level and complete quests. But in exchange, you drain that capacity faster. So you need to be intentional. Use this mode wisely. This mode also also activates when life hands us these curveballs. However, if we push this mode too far, your character's nervous system gets super activated into a mode that we call Hyper Aroused Fight or Flight mode, which is great when you need to fend for your life, but if you spend too much time here, you'll drain your energy. You might become easily frustrated or even trigger debilitating anxiety. If red is basically get shit done, then the blue side of the meter is recovery mode, also known as the Parasympathetic branch, which is basically your nerve system applying the brakes, recharging. Move into this blue zone and your heart will remain constant or even restored. You will recover your capacity. Active rest activities like NSDR or spending time in nature, these help you to shift into this healthy blue state. But in moments of overwhelm, if you go deep into this blue territory, this is known as hypo arousal. When your nervous system essentially pulls on the emergency handbrake, meaningful connection with others becomes challenging. You disassociate from your body. You lose the capacity to be creative or actively engage in life. Basically, you freeze, collapse or shut down. That makes this lovely green area the ideal place to be throughout the day. This one is called your nervous system's window of tolerance, which from a biological perspective is correlated with healthy vagus nerve activation. And in this mode we're able to feel a sense of intrinsic safety, connection and presence, both with ourselves and others. And this bar is also highly correlated with what's known as your baseline HRV or heart rate variability. Things like play, flash activities, feeling gratitude, meaningful conversation with friends. These amplify that green state. This recovers your heart and it can be blended with either of those other two states. Combine this with recovery states to achieve deep rejuvenation that goes far beyond the effects of passive rest. Combine this with creative activities and you enter a focused state of flow. The benefits of energy without losing the hearts. Now, your character will always be cycling through these states. It's just part of being human. No state is good or bad, better or worse. But we can be intentional about choosing one that is adaptive for the situation, rather than feeling like we're somehow a victim of these reactive cycles or shitty habits. But here's the secret for exponentially speeding up your progress in the game of life. You can teach your character these meta skills that will activate these modes in the moments when you need them the most. In other words, you can consciously take control over your nervous system triggers rather than waiting for circumstances to trigger you. And when we have agency both over our physiology and over our state, achieving these goals and quest, it feels effortless and fun. So next time, when you wake up and begin the day and the shit hits the fan, you can self regulate and course correct activating the HUN technique. Along with stimulating the parasympathetic neuron receptors, the vibrations create a 15 fold increase in nitric oxide, which amplifies the recovery mode, which returns you from stress to a neutral state. No need to waste a stat boost on a spilled coffee and conversely, if your character is feeling lethargic and needs some of that activation energy, you can intentionally enter the red state through the Breath of Fire technique. Or you can try deliberate heat and cold exposure, which have been shown to increase metabolism and stress resilience as well as create a prolonged spike in dopamine over the following four hours. And for the times when being activated no longer serves you, you can instantly downshift with a practice called 448 breathing or a physiological sigh. Basically a vibrant inhale through the nose with an extra sip and then an effortless exhale. But the real superpower boost comes from setting aside time after lunch for NSDR or non sleep. Depressed, as little as 15 minutes can feel deeply restorative, bringing your heart back to near full capacity by blending those green and blue states. If your neurobiology was like an instrument, this is like bringing yourself back into tune. And since you have this renewed creative capacity later in the day, you can use this spare capacity to make extra progress on your most important quest. You have space to engage in co regulation and double down on those feelings of connection. You can end the day feeling deeply satisfied and ready to wind down for a night of rejuvenating sleep. Once you start to work with your nervous system rather than against it, you can deliberately produce short periods of intense stress known as eustress. And so long as you rest well that night, thanks to the miracle of neuroplasticity, your nervous system will actually increase its capacity overnight. But the real magic comes from compounding returns. The days become weeks, weeks become months, and you will make more progress on the financial, physical, creative and relational goals than you ever thought was possible. Become weeks. Weeks become months, and you will make more progress on the financial, physical, creative and relational goals than you ever thought was possible. Learning how to regulate your nervous system and increase capacity is a lifelong journey. But once you figure out how to shift your nervous system state in each moment, everything in life seems to flow effortlessly.
