Learnings of Life Beta, in the makingNederlands

Wound up, flat, or stuck in your head? Find what your body needs right now. And learn why.

Breathwork, meditation, yoga, rest. Learnings of Life matches the practice to your state, then teaches you to read that state yourself. Settle first, then go deep.

Tried breathwork, meditation, therapy, and still don’t know what actually works for you?

The wrong practice can make it worse.

The evidence

In a Stanford trial, five minutes of sighing did more for mood than five minutes of mindfulness meditation. And for some anxious people, trying to relax makes the anxiety worse.

The answer

So we built the app on the practices of Peter Levine, Gabor Maté, James Nestor, Kristin Neff and Jon Kabat-Zinn, plus the one thing they couldn’t give you: which one fits the state you’re in today.

One app, three ways in.

Ask what you need right now, pick a practice yourself, or learn how your nervous system works.

Not sure how you feel? Let your body answer.

Four questions about your breath, shoulders, energy and chest. You take a moment to feel before you answer. About a minute, and you see which state your body points to, with a first practice to try right here. No email needed.

Every state has its own way through.

Pick one to see what’s going on in your body and what tends to help.

More than a check-in.

The check-in is the quickest way in. Behind it is a map with two trees. Regulate is the roots: how your nervous system works and how to settle it, wake it up or let something move through. Change is the crown: the patterns, decisions and stories you want to work on. They are one system. A settled body is what makes change possible, and sometimes it is the other way round: a pattern that keeps firing your alarm has to change before your system can rest. Both trees start with the basics. Tap one to see.

Tap a branch to see what’s in it. Every lesson has a practice, the science, and its sources.

And it depends on you.

Two people in the same state can need different things. You might recognise yourself in one of these.

You say how it went after each practice. The app learns what shifts you, and suggests that first.

Built on the work of the greats.

The app draws on more than 130 books and 250 studies, from neuroscience and sleep research to trauma work, pranayama and Zen. Every lesson lists its sources, so you can read further.

  • Somatic work
  • Breathwork
  • Pranayama
  • Yoga
  • Meditation
  • Zen
  • Tapping
  • Self-compassion
  • Cognitive therapy
  • Habit science
  • Expressive writing

  • James Nestor

    Journalist, Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art

    Breath, Voice and sound, Breath: the lever you carry

  • Peter Levine

    Trauma researcher, Waking the Tiger

    Movement and discharge, Senses and orienting

  • Matthew Walker

    Sleep scientist, Why We Sleep

    Food and energy, How do I keep going?, Rest and sleep

  • Andrew Huberman

    Stanford neuroscientist, Huberman Lab

    Breath, Physiological sigh

  • Kristin Neff

    Self-compassion researcher, Self-Compassion

    How do I work with what hurts?, Stillness and awareness, Strength and control, Touch and tapping

  • Emily Nagoski

    Sex educator and author, Burnout

    Rest and sleep, Movement and discharge, Cold and heat

  • James Clear

    Author, Atomic Habits

    How do I make it happen?, Who am I becoming?, Who's with me?

  • Brené Brown

    Researcher, Daring Greatly

    Connection and co-regulation, What’s stopping me?, Who’s with me?

Show more names, and there are many more

  • Jon Kabat-Zinn

    Meditation teacher and researcher, Full Catastrophe Living

    Senses and orienting, Stillness and awareness

  • Thich Nhat Hanh

    Zen teacher, The Long Road Turns to Joy

    Breath, Senses and orienting, Stillness and awareness

  • Kelly McGonigal

    Health psychologist, The Joy of Movement

    Movement and discharge, Strength and control

  • Lisa Feldman Barrett

    Neuroscientist, How Emotions Are Made

    Food and energy, How do I work with what hurts?, What's stopping me?

  • Deb Dana

    Clinician, Anchored

    Connection and co-regulation, Rest and sleep

  • Pat Ogden

    Body-oriented psychotherapist, Trauma and the Body

    Senses and orienting

  • Cal Newport

    Computer scientist and author, Digital Minimalism

    Input and attention, How do I make it happen?

  • T.K.V. Desikachar

    Yoga teacher, The Heart of Yoga

    Yoga

  • Tara Brach

    Meditation teacher, Radical Acceptance

    What is it all for?

  • Viktor Frankl

    Psychiatrist, Man’s Search for Meaning

    How do I keep going?, What is it all for?

  • Gabriele Oettingen

    Psychologist, Rethinking Positive Thinking

    How do I make it happen?, What do I actually want?, What is it all for?

  • Russ Harris

    Physician and therapist, The Happiness Trap

    Stillness and awareness, What do I actually want?

  • Gabor Maté

    Physician and author, When the Body Says No

    Shaped how the app thinks about stress, emotion and the body

  • Stanislav Grof

    Psychiatrist and breathwork pioneer

    Shaped how the app approaches deep breathwork: safe and gentle first

None of them is involved in this app or endorses it. The ideas are theirs, and every lesson says whose. What we add is the map: their combined knowledge in one place, connected, with the sources, so you can see which practice fits which state, and why.

Calm is where it starts, not where it ends.

From a settled nervous system you can think clearly about how you want to live. You’re going to live this life anyway, and you’ll make choices either way. They may as well be ones you chose.

It isn’t easy, or everyone would be living their dream life. So the app has a second door, Work on myself. It first asks how settled you are, because when you’re flooded the thinking part of the brain goes partly offline. Then you pick what you want to work on.

And it runs the other way too. The pattern you keep repeating, the decision you keep circling, the story you tell about yourself: each one keeps your alarm on a little. Change one, and your body gets quieter without a single breathing exercise. It is one system. Settling helps you change, and changing helps you settle.

A pattern that keeps repeating

Same reaction, same result, again.

A decision I keep circling

Can’t choose, can’t let it go.

A feeling that keeps coming back

Shows up often, not sure why.

Something with someone

A conversation, a tension, a hurt.

A story I tell about myself

“I’m not good at…”, “I always…”

What you can do today, and where it stops.

Most tools look at one thing: your breath, your sleep, your habits, your thoughts. Your body does not work in parts. The app looks at the whole and connects the dots: how you slept, what state you are in, what you are working on, and what actually shifted you last time.

A library app

Hundreds of sessions, sorted by popularity.

  • You do the choosing
  • It doesn’t know what state you’re in
  • Nothing says when a practice is the wrong one

Asking a chatbot

It will answer anything you type.

  • You have to know what to ask
  • You get text to read, not a timer to follow
  • Next time it starts from zero

Learnings of Life

Starts from how you feel right now, and sees the whole.

  • It asks first, then hands you a few options that fit
  • Each one opens with its own timer
  • It tells you why, and when not to
  • It learns what works for you
  • Body, state, habits and patterns in one place, so one thing explains another

Want to know what works for you right now? Get early access.

In your first week you’ll know which two or three practices actually shift you, and which ones to skip. You become one of our beta testers: we can’t take too many at once, so you join the line, and when a slot opens, we invite you.

  1. Join the line

    Leave your email. The one-minute body check and a first practice are on this page today, with or without it.

  2. A slot opens

    We let testers in a few at a time, in the order people signed up, so we can listen to each of them.

  3. You’re in

    Early access to the app, and every paid feature free for as long as the beta runs. In return you tell us what’s missing.

Questions

Can I use the app now?

Not yet. It’s still being built. Signing up puts you on the list for a beta invite, and you can do the 1-minute body check and a first practice on this page today.

What do beta testers get?

Early access to the app, and free access to all paid features for as long as the beta runs.

When do I get in?

The app is still being built and we let testers in a few at a time. We don’t have a date we’d put our name to yet. You’ll get an email when your slot opens.

What will it cost after the beta?

That isn’t set yet. During the beta you pay nothing.

Is this therapy or medical advice?

No. These are self-regulation practices you can safely try on your own. They don’t replace care from a professional. If you feel unsafe, contact your local emergency number or a crisis line.

What do you do with my email?

We use it to send your beta invite and the occasional update about the app, nothing else. We keep your body-check answers with it so we know what testers need most. We never share it, every email has a link to stop them, and you can ask us to remove you at any time. The details are in the privacy policy.

Get early access.

Free during the beta, built with the first people who use it. Leave your email and we invite you when a slot opens.

Or do the 1-minute body check first

Get early access