I don’t love how yesterday’s writing ended. I started with behavior change (habit loops) and ended up writing about Rupert Spira and nonduality. Probably a good insight into my mind. It happens.

I’d like to continue the piece with a more concrete focus—not some meta-analysis of the self, but a concrete protocol to deal with impulses.

Consider social anxiety, which I think is a natural, intermediate outcome of growing in self-awareness. You are with people and suddenly become overly-conscious about yourself. You fixate on yourself. When you become aware of this thought-pattern, become intensely curious.

Where do you feel the anxiety? Does it feel hot or cold? Does it tingle? How about your thoughts—what is their object? Are they divergent or convergent?

This open, non-judgmental curiosity should clearly be more rewarding than the experience of anxiety itself. (Curiosity about subjective experience is an expansive feeling.) You are building a new habit loop in this very exercise.

Maintain this curiosity through the routine, and through the reward. Ultimately, reappraising the reward of some routine is how you kill the loop. Curiosity about the reward is when you start to gain write access.

This curiosity must be open. Do not use it as a means to escape negative affect. Do not use it as a way to force some pre-existing narrative about the habit. Simply maintain curiosity over a long time horizon—let the re-writing of rewards happen naturally. Real understanding (and sustainable behavior change) is not found through repression of emotion. It is found through an honest re-analysis of the state of affairs.

So the two main takeaways from Judson’s work?

1. Curiosity is more enjoyable than the craving.
2. Genuine curiosity about the reward function is sufficient to rewrite the reward.

Still thinking of ways to build an mobile-first interface around this strategy. I do think guidance is probably necessary and part of the reasons Judson’s results are so strong.