What has Christin been up to? (Part 2 of 2)

State of the Union Address 🫡

State of the Union Address 🫡

My Fellow Americans Dear Friends,

I used to update a /now page like Derek Sivers, listing my routine under 5 categories: Cultivation, Connection, Creativity, Constitution, and Currency.

Such vain attempts at categorizing the messiness of being human must amuse the gods. But if somehow, I am making progress across these 5 categories, then the train is chugging along, and all is right in the world.

This newsletter replaced the /now page, yet it is usually a canary in a coal mine. When it stops chirping, it means something is amiss. As I loaded up my Substack page, I found myself going wait, what? I haven’t published in over 2 months?! Yet, the train is chugging along, and all is right in the world.

So let me share what I’ve been up to by reviving the ol’ format for the State of the Union address.

Cultivation:

This category holds spiritual practice and matters of the heart. I’ve semi-joked that my spiritual “key performance indicators (KPIs)” are loving-kindness and letting go (here’s my video about the topic.) I had a discussion with my teacher Gil Fronsdal that confirmed positive signals on this front. (It’s always good to validate learnings with trusted teachers because it is easy to be led astray by our egos.) This has been the strangest thing—the subsequent categories are a lot messier, yet I am more at peace and settled.

In fact, so at peace that this newsletter fell by the way side! 😅 In disentangling my ego from accomplishments, I’ve taken to only doing 2-3 tasks per day, mostly towards building Human Intellect with Vicky Zhao. Perhaps this was a respite I needed and I do have renewed creative energy (discussed below), but I’m more certain than ever before about the benefits of practice.

Where I am spending my time:

Maggasekha, Clear Mountain Monastery and Buddhist Insights online communities, Wednesday half-day retreats at Insight Meditation Center. All of these places offer helpful videos, and the monastics in the first 3 places often answer questions about practice on livestream.

Connection:

In the past few months I had shifted my online presence to the Farcaster network, as an alternative to X/Twitter. I tried a few other places like Bluesky and Mastodon, but found that Farcaster has been the place that “clicked” the most. There is a particular magic to this place—the people are friendly and innovative (many are in web3), and I see delightful posts every time I check the platform. I’ve had Zooms, Telegram group chats, and IRL meetups with a number of mutuals.

In fact, some friends have helped me establish the world’s first onchain interfaith chaplaincy service! I’ve held a few sessions and it’s been a great way to connect with new folks.

Where I am spending my time:

Farcaster, Telegram, weekly-ish meetups with creator friends like the Sunday Crew and the Sounding Board, Rickshaw (Buster ‘s Discord)

Creativity:

I met Cameron Armstrong through Farcaster. He has been a dear friend and advisor on the creator front.

As many of you fellow creators know, nothing makes you feel more naked than having someone audit your online presence. 🙀

When Cameron and I chatted over setting up my seemore.tv page, it became clear that…while I have created a lot of different types of content, there is an opportunity to make the audience journey more clear. (Seriously, take a look at https://seemore.tv/christin and see for yourself…)

Of course, this is a reflection for my need to integrate all I’ve learned in the past year of providing coaching services on writing, meditation, and early entrepreneurship.

Where I am spending my time: I am building a new self-paced offering similar to River Kenna’s course on Somatic Resonance. I’ve been extremely inspired by the way he structures his course content on Notion, where the student can choose from several ways of navigating through the materials depending on their natural way of learning.

Constitution:

I competed in powerlifting earlier this year and hit new personal records:

Bench Press: 52.5 kg / 115.7 lb

Back Squat: 112.5 kg / 248 lb

Dead Lift: 112.5 kg / 248 lb

Please watch this cool video montage that I totally paid extra for:

Where I am spending my time: Still training with the tactical conditioning program on weekdays at Fullgrip Barbell (except this month for traveling…and if you are coach Mark reading this, yes I miss days for “lame reasons” haha.)

Currency:

If you are wondering, “where’s the messiness Christin promised?” Well this is it—as Vicky and I have been working on Human Intellect, we have been pleased with the progress made so far (actual clients!) However, like all new startups, it’s very much two steps forward! One step back! Two steps forward! One step back!

Where I am spending my time: I’m traveling to Japan this month to work with Vicky in person, which we are very excited about. We currently Zoom once a week and send a lot of WhatsApp messages to each other. Most of my brain juices are spent trying to figure out the correct balance between what we want to offer vs what the corporate market perceives to be huge pain points.

So, what do you think? Isn’t it interesting how I began with such peace, and ended with such chaos? ;)

Warm Wishes,

Christin

P.S. Yuhong’s Life Hack For Stressful Times

My wife Yuhong taught me this trick for when we are feeling stressed out, especially from all the travel prep. (For example, today I realized I messed up on our hotel dates and had to make an emergency fix!)

The solution? A Xena war cry—AY AY AY AY AY! Extremely therapeutic.