Welcome explorer

You’re in the Slipstream. The wake of the worlds greatest ideas. If you’re looking for the knowledge to upgrade your life, look no further.

After 6 years of deep immersion in self-improvement, entrepreneurship and health - one lesson stands out as the clearest one among them all:

The quality of your ideas determine the quality of your life!

ENTREPRENEURSHIP/ WRITING/ CONTENT CREATION

I’m a Tweeter now

This week I’ve been making inroads into Twitter (now called X). I prefer Twitter though - as it kind of implies the activity that goes on there.

Lot’s of chirping that is.

Twitter is a copywriters testing ground. You need to gain people’s attention quickly, often in a single sentence or two.

Your only tool is words.

It is spell-casting in the modern age.

Now with mega-billionaire Elon turning it into an all-in-one media platform, one can leverage more than just text. We have images and now video is popping up as the latest medium.

It’s fast becoming a hub for the most real-time, up-to-date news.

Their Community Notes feature is an excellent example of crowdsourcing fact-checking to the general public, which seems to create a fairer playground for free speech.

Now, while free speech is under attack on every platform, I’m also sure that Twitter is not exempt from censorship either. However, we got to play the hand we are dealt, and as we get better we can leverage other platforms who might offer better features in terms of less censorship but might not have the consumer reach yet.

Anyways, it seems once people are around 5-10k followers, it’s possible to start earning revenue from your writing.

How much revenue?

That will depend on the frequency of posting and types of posts too, amongst other things. Thought I do expect a couple hundred to a thousand dollars.

I’ll be reporting how this goes as I try to master this social platform or “real-world game” if you will.

Wish me luck and give me a follow here if you can!

HUMAN NATURE / PRODUCTIVITY

🧠Do you know how your brain works?

Too often I come across people who are pushing themselves towards achievement, yet they do not know anything about the vehicle they are in or how it works.

How are they supposed to be good drivers and get to their destination if they haven’t even looked at the map?

You might see why most people fail to achieve their goals, why they fail to break free from the circumstances they are in. They have not learned about their own brain and minds, and how best to operate them.

Dr. Huberman gives a masterclass on this subject in the linked video, and is well worth watching multiple times if needed.

Here's the most interesting takeaways for me:

The nervous system (which includes brain, spinal cord and all connections between) is responsible for 5 essential features:

1. Sensation

2. Perception

3. Feeling/ Emotions

4. Thoughts

5. Actions

1 - Our nervous system is neuro-plastic

Neuroplasticity is the ability for the neuron connections to change based on experience. This means forming new connections as well as pruning old ones.

When you are suppressing circuits (thoughts, actions, emotions), it is an actual physical struggle. It takes energy to suppress energy from flowing. It feels uncomfortable.

Plasticity is gated/ controlled by neuromodulators (a name for hormones/ chemicals that perform this function). These are generated more easily when undergoing challenging / traumatic experiences. This explains why people tend to bond well over traumatic / intense experiences.

These intense/ emotional experiences trigger alertness through the neuro-modulator epinephrine.

Another key neuro-modulator is Acetyl-choline. This has the effect of creating an intense focus spotlight in the brain.

It highlights what neurons were active during the period of alertness. This marks the synapses that need to be reinforced, hence creating a stronger connection in the brain around that experience.

(Btw, Eggs are a natural source of choline. Best to stock up! )

Neural plasticity does NOT occur during an event. This is only where the recording takes place, and then some highlighting to emphasize which information is more important than usual.

It is during Sleep and NSDR (Non-Sleep Deep Rest) that the nerve cells are reinforced and strengthened.

Key insights:

• You do not learn during the time you read/ study.

  • You become smarter when sleeping. That's when your brain grows by building new connections and strengthening existing ones.

• You can trigger the chemicals that modulate neuroplasticity

  • Continually bring attention and focus onto a new subject

• Use rest periods to increase the neuroplasticity of your brain!

  • Doing an intense activity then doing 20 mins deep rest immediately afterwards, increases overall neuroplasticity

  • This is why its essential to have rest periods in between sessions of concentration/ studying

    • Going back to back is sub-optimal.

  • You learn better by having breaks!

• You can use sound to enhance learning

  • If you are learning with a frequent sound in the background, then play that sound during sleep, learning is increased

2 - We are not steady state, we operate in cycles

Our nervous system also operates in cycles. It's not a computer where its on 24 hours a day and outputs consistent performance. We have various cycles that we go through. Knowing these will help you better synchronize your activities for maximum output.

Circadian Rhythms. This is the most commonly known one and repesents the cycles in our body that run over a 24 hour period. At the highest level, we are in 1 of 2 states during those 24 hours:

• Awake: We have alertness and energy

• Sleep: We are in deep rest and immobile

We also have factors such as body temperature, hormone levels, etc. that fluctuate throughout the 24 hours.

Ultradian rhythms. This is another set of cycles, and lesser known.

These are shorter cycles that run throughout the day for about 90 min at a time.

This is quite important when looking at working / studying periods. During the 90 min cycle our attention and focus start from a low go to a peak and then decline to the bottom again.

Ultimately, it means we might get about an hour of good, solid deep work before our attention and focus starts to wane.

However, remember taking a 10-20 min break afterwards is what’s beneficial to maximize learning.

Once you figure out your own cycles, make sure to start your cycle at a low so you have those 10-15 mins to warm up before getting into your real focused work.

A final aspect where this ultradian rhythm applies - sleep cycles.

It turns out that when we sleep we move between various levels of sleep (from 1 to 4 and back again to 1) and it happens many times.

Many times I'd get up after 6 hours of sleep. If I decided to have a quick nap, I'd often wake up again 1h30 later, which lines up with what we know about ultradian rhythms.

So now I know when it comes to my own sleep that I'm either going to get 6 hours or 7.5 hours. That is, if I want to wake up naturally without any alarm.

Watch time: 62 mins

HEALTH/ PRODUCTIVITY

💥Destroy low motivation using these 4 levers

Alex Becker is a legendary entrepreneur among the crypto crowd. What I’ve long respected is that even though he was throwing out crypto advice (and making money investing in crypto) it was not his main focus or claim to fame. He was actually making money building a legit marketing analytics business that sold for over $100 Mil. He also built this in under 8 years after leaving the army at ~25.

A good example of what can be achieved with less than 10 years of hard focused work.

Well done, sir!

This just shows to me that the things he has been doing has worked. Not a lot of people can say they've created that level of value in that short space of a time. To do so requires energy, focus, wisdom and perseverance.

Hence why when he explains how he got rid of low motivation as a limit to his success, I listen, take notes and put it into practice!

Here's how he sums up the four major blocks that's holding everyone (and held him) back:

1 - Dopamine

Most people are overstimulated, especially with the apps on their phone and all the added sugar in their diet. Cut it out completely, go cold turkey even.

(I personally deleted Facebook and Instagram a few years ago and my phone is default on silent mode.)

2 - Diet aka Nutrition + Training

Diet is absolutely critical in determining your energy levels and swings throughout the day. This includes exercise in here as well. You get optimal energy by eating cleanly, minimally, and keep the body fit and pumping blood.

Your body is continually making new cells - it is building these from the food you feed it. Your body could be made from Twinkies or it could be made from whole fruit and veg and grass-fed beef. You will feel the difference, and others will know it too.

3 - Purpose

Most people lack drive because they don't have anything to aim to. Having a strong and focused purpose helps to bring out your maximum potential. Humans are goal-seeking creatures. Without a goal we are lost and function far from our highest level. It's not enough to have a random goal though, it needs to be something that emotionally charges you up. If your goal doesn't give you energy its not a good goal.

4 - Garbage/ Waste

There are too many garbage events in your life. The activities that take up time and energy. They might even have lingering negative effects long after the event has actually occurred. Those are definitely the ones you want to spot quickly and do everything to engineer them out of your life. Continually reflect on your life and actions and how you can cut the waste and be more productive. Its all a game of leverage.

Watch time: 16 mins

Let’s talk about the application of powerful quotes like these on Twitter ☝🏻. What kind of mindset shift is the author suggesting?

Here’s what I’ve been looking into this past week:

1. Using Light (Sunlight, Blue Light & Red Light) to Optimize Health | Huberman Lab Podcast #68 - YouTube

2. My Powerful Manifestation Method: exactly how to script, visualise and align to your desire - YouTube

3. How To Make Money on YouTube WITHOUT Showing Your Face (FREE COURSE) - YouTube

4. These 50 minutes reveal how to control reality with your mind.

5. Dr. Jay Wortman - 'Global Anti-Meat Conspiracy'

6. There are NO Justified Resentments - Wayne Dyer

7. Stalking The Wild Pendulum: Introduction (Itzhak Bentov) - YouTube

8. How Instagram creators are bringing their followers to Substack

9. MIT’s New Desalination System Produces Freshwater That Is “Cheaper Than Tap Water”

10. How to Double Your Money - YouTube

11. Dr. Wendy Suzuki: Boost Attention &

12. The Goblet Squat is the Squat Exercise You NEED - YouTube

13. The Internet of Beefs

What did you think of this weeks edition? Do you feel the changes are heading in a better direction?

Enjoyed reading this but not a subscriber? Subscribing gets you priority access to the best ideas, tools and offers I can find. No spam, only value.

Btw, do you dream about leaving corporate and starting your own business? I’ve been there, and know the mental limitations holding you back. If you’d like to talk drop me an email!

And lastly, if you’ve got anything interesting to share and think I’d enjoy it, just reply to this email or DM me on Twitter, or any other platform for that matter. My DMs are open.

Till the next time,

Be more neuroplastic

- Karmsheel