I’ve been following River’s substack essays for a few years now and I feel a real kinship with his irreverent and genuinely unique perspectives — as well as his talent for self-experimentation and weaving together esoteric yet incredibly practical concepts which he uses for self-exploration.

In this conversation, you can expect to learn:

💬 How River was able to use somatic-based practices to go from experiencing an incessant inner-critic and suicidal ideation, to almost no inner-dialogue and opening up access to his emotions.

🧠 We explore the dynamic between what he calls Systems Mode that dominates our culture vs. a more Spontaneous Mode of being.

💀 We both riff on how the ideas of Bill Plotkin are essential for these times, and what it means to ‘die well’ in order to become genuine adults and experience a sense of aliveness.

Official Links

👋 Follow River on Twitter/X
📝 Read River's substack essays
👨‍🎓 Check out River'sexcellent course Somatic Resonance

Connect + Follow Jonny:

🐦 Follow on Twitter/X @jonnym1ller
💌 Subscribe to the Curious Humans Newsletter
🫁 Learn more about Nervous System Mastery
🙋‍♂️ Join Five to Thrive — a zero-cost educational email series.
📝 Take the Nervous System Quotient (NSQ) Self-Assessment (totally free)

🫁 Episode Sponsor — Nervous System Mastery

This is my flagship 5-week bootcamp designed to equip you with evidence-backed protocols to cultivate calm and emotional regulation. Our sixth cohort will run in October 2024 ~ and applications are currently open. My sense is that if this conversation resonates with you, then you'd likely be a great fit for our upcoming cohort. This curriculum represents my attempt to distill everything I've learned in recent years about creating the conditions for our nervous system's flourishing. It's run in an intensive cohort-based way since this is, in my experience, the most efficient way to embody and practice the protocols.

Previous students have shared how partaking improved their sleep and quality of relationships and tapped into deeper states of joy, clarity, and confidence in their lives. We've had over 1000 students have completed this training, and many have said that it has been the most impactful thing they've ever done for their personal growth — so if you're intrigued at all, you can find more details and apply to join this year's cohort over at nsmastery.com

Further Ways to Support the Podcast:

🎙️ I use Riverside to record all of my podcast conversations (it's so much better than zoom for podcasting!)
🎧 I also use Transistor to host this podcast, it's fricking awesome, and I would highly recommend.
😎 RaOptics make the world's best Blue Blockers – I wear these anytime I'm out of the house after dark, and it makes a huge difference!
🤖 I use AI wizardry from Castmagic to help with each episode show-notes + timestamps
📹 Want to create a Hollywood-quality home studio? Get in touch with Kevin Shen here & save $500 with code JONNYSENT500OFF

Overcoming the Inner-Critic, Reclaiming Aliveness & Learning Somatic Intuition with River Kenna

Curious Humans with Jonny Miller