2024-2025
BEING
A Nervous System Awareness & Emotional Regulation Companion
The Problem
Most people have no idea how to regulate their nervous system, let alone what it even means. They lack the vocabulary for emotions, somatics, yoga, breathwork, and dietary influence on mood and behavior. When people experience anxiety, fatigue, or numbness, they often reach for surface-level solutions—without understanding the deeper physiological and emotional patterns underneath.
This results in:
Chronic stress and burnout
Emotional confusion or suppression
Misaligned lifestyle habits
Ineffective attempts at self-help
There is no simple, practical system that gently educates people on how to build true self-regulation capacity over time.
Because before you can commit to an exercise routine, start a yoga practice, or even shift your diet, you first need the language and tools to recognize your nervous system state—and know how to respond. Without that foundation, most changes are unsustainable. Trying to force change through self-criticism or shame only activates stress responses like sympathetic fight or dorsal vagal shutdown, which ultimately leads to burnout and failure.
While studies can provide insight, they often only capture a small fraction of a much larger picture. For instance, the Statista survey on burnout references a sample size of just 2,000 individuals, gathered through online responses. While useful, such studies can’t fully reflect the lived reality of millions navigating complex internal experiences.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), burnout is classified in the ICD-11 as an occupational phenomenon—not a medical condition. It’s described as resulting from chronic, unmanaged workplace stress, with symptoms such as exhaustion, mental distance from one's job, and reduced professional efficacy. It's a helpful definition, but still quite surface-level.
And here’s where I both agree and disagree.
Yes, someone working an extremely demanding job can burn out. But so can someone working a job that appears easy from the outside. In both cases, the person feels exhausted, depleted, disconnected. What’s often missing is the deeper question: what’s actually happening beneath the surface?
The common thread is this: neither individual has been taught nervous system literacy. They don’t know how to track their internal state, recognize patterns like chronic sympathetic overdrive or dorsal vagal collapse, or apply tools to restore regulation.
So they push harder, collapse, recover just enough to keep going—and repeat. Not because they’re weak. But because no one ever gave them the language, the education, or the support system to sustain the lives they’re trying to live.
It’s not just burnout—it’s a systemic blind spot. And nervous system awareness is the missing piece.
Research & Insight
Research only captures a fraction of the reality people are living. In truth, you can find a study to support almost any argument. What shaped this insight wasn’t just data—it was nearly a decade of- personal experience, logical observation, and countless conversations with individuals across wellness, coaching, healthcare, business, and engineering communities. A consistent pattern emerged:
Most people couldn’t accurately name what they were feeling. And even if they could, they didn’t know how to recognize the nervous system state behind it—whether they were in fight, freeze, or shutdown. And even if they could name their state, they had no idea how to support it through practical methods like movement, breathwork, diet, or environmental changes.
This insight was echoed across survey data from wellness groups, interviews with practitioners and everyday people, and through the visible effects of widespread dysregulation in our culture—addiction, chronic fatigue, emotional shutdown, overstimulation, and burnout.
A Nation on Edge: Why Nervous System Literacy May Be the Most Underrated Public Health Crisis
America is facing urgent health challenges—and the public knows it.
According to a recent Statista report, U.S. adults identified healthcare costs, cancer, mental health, opioid addiction, and gun violence as the most pressing issues facing the country in 2025. These aren’t abstract fears—they are lived realities, rippling through homes, communities, and institutions.
But beneath each of these issues, something deeper is at play.
Something we don’t often name, but feel every day.
A nervous system in crisis.
We are a society stuck in survival.
People are trapped in chronic fight-or-flight, or locked in shutdown and numbness. We see the symptoms all around us:
Rising mental health struggles
Widespread emotional suppression
Opioid dependency
Disconnection and isolation
Chronic illness and fatigue
Escalating gun violence
These aren’t just isolated problems.
They are symptoms of longstanding dysregulation—shaped by years of emotional overload, ignored trauma, poor nutrition, environmental stress, and a complete lack of nervous system education.
And here’s the truth: you cannot treat what you do not understand or have the words for.
You can’t fix burnout with more caffeine or pills. You can’t solve gun violence with more debate. You can’t heal a dysregulated nation by asking people to “just calm down” when they’ve never been taught how to even identify their state.
This isn’t just a health crisis.
It’s a literacy crisis of the body—and it’s time we start addressing it at the root.
The Illusion of Awareness: When Naming Isn’t Enough
Even when people can name what they’re feeling—“anxious,” “burnt out,” “exhausted”—most still don’t know what to do with it. And many don’t realize it is trauma.
In cultures built on performance, basic needs like rest, space, or breathing are mislabeled as weakness or laziness. I saw this clearly in healthcare and engineering:
People skipped meals, worked through breaks, or stayed in constant motion—stuck in high-functioning stress. At home, they either pushed themselves to “keep going” or collapsed into functional freeze—present, but totally disconnected.
This state has become normalized. But more people are starting to question it. The caffeine isn’t working. The motivation hacks are failing. And they’re finally asking: What now?
That’s where real support comes in. Not to fix people—but to guide them back to their own nervous system, to safety, awareness, and choice.
The Solution: BEING – A Self-Regulation Companion App
BEING is a holistic nervous system companion that introduces foundational regulation scientific information and practical tools in a gentle, gamified, and educational way—not as a “fix,” but as a guide.
The app features:
A beginner's path to nervous system literacy (sympathetic, dorsal vagal, ventral vagal)
A library of 60 core emotional states, mapped across the day
Emotional tracking 3x/day for a month, forming a unique nervous system map for each user
Based on tracked emotional rhythms, the app provides guided somatic suggestions: yoga, tremor release, breath, or movement patterns
Over time, the app gently introduces nutrition principles, emphasizing slow integration over quick fixes
Users can be matched with coaches (breathwork, somatics, nutrition, emotional release, strength training) based on their patterns
Intro Education Module (Yellow Body):
Nervous system states, trauma-informed language, ventral/sympathetic/dorsal mappingBody (Green Arm):
Nutrition, hydration, sunlight, movement, exercise pacingEmotion (Blue Arm):
Emotional naming, journaling, somatic release, Tai Chi, Emotion Code insightsMovement (Red Arm):
Active movement practices: walking, stretching, jumping, dance, shakingBreath (Grey Arm):
Breath types by state: grounding breath, energizing breath, release breathIntegration Phase:
Once the user completes each pillar, their avatar (a yellow meditating figure) transforms into a scarab, symbolizing nervous system harmony and resilience.
Core Features Breakdown
Product Vision & Long-Term Roadmap
Pattern Awareness to Nervous System Regulation
Through the progression of emotion mapping → nervous system mapping → dietary behavior mapping, users begin to build the most essential foundation for change: awareness. By tracking and identifying their emotional and physiological patterns, they are given the tools to understand what state they’re in—and what that state tends to reach for, whether it’s food, behavior, or avoidance.
This awareness empowers users to begin regulating themselves, not through willpower, but through recognition and practical tools. Over time, this pattern recognition can begin to uncover deeper belief systems—the unconscious narratives that may be fueling dysregulation, such as “I can’t slow down,” or “Rest means I’m falling behind.”
Because here’s the truth:
You cannot change if your nervous system is stuck in survival.
And when people try to change without this awareness, they often fail—then blame themselves, spiral into sadness, or erupt in frustration.
This app is not here to replace a coach.
And it never should—no matter how advanced AI becomes.
Instead, it creates the conditions for coaching and co-regulation to work. By helping users name what they feel and observe their patterns, it opens the door for real human connection, healing, and trust—which is where true change begins to take root and become embodied.
Dorsal vagal days (shutdown, numbness) commonly align with high-carb meals, sweets, or emotional eating like "comfort food" or eating nothing at all.
Sympathetic days (fight-or-flight) trend toward caffeine, energy drinks, skipped meals, and fast food—patterns that often spike energy but crash the system later.
Ventral vagal days (calm, regulated) correspond with balanced, nutrient-rich meals—protein, healthy fats, and whole grains.
This visual reinforces a critical truth:
Our eating habits are often responses to our emotional and nervous system state—not just conscious choices.
BEING’s Goal:
To give people a clear, practical system for identifying and shifting their nervous system patterns, emotional cycles, and daily habits—so they can finally understand what’s happening in their body and know what to do about it.
Core Features Breakdown
DAU/WAU Retention — how often users return to track
Tracking Completion Rate — % of users who complete 1 month of check-ins
Nervous System Literacy Lift — measured via periodic knowledge check-ins or quizzes
Engagement with Suggested Practices — click-throughs on yoga, breath, emotion practices
Coach Matching Conversion Rate — % of users matched to and contacting a coach
Before Hope was introduced, the app delivered information without any scaffolding—just raw data, no guidance. Users were left to interpret complex emotional and nervous system patterns on their own, resulting in steep drop-off and emotional fatigue.
After Hope was introduced—with her gentle pacing, emotional vocabulary guidance, and personalized nudges—user retention more than doubled by Day 30.
This shift demonstrates the power of empathetic scaffolding in emotionally sensitive apps: people don’t just need knowledge—they need a guide who helps them feel safe enough to change.
User Engagement Impact – DAU & WAU Improvement
Before Hope was introduced:
DAU (Daily Active Users): ~12%
WAU (Weekly Active Users): ~26%
Most users dropped off after day 4. Without structured guidance, users reported confusion or emotional overwhelm. The experience felt like information overload without integration.
After Hope was introduced with gentle scaffolding:
DAU: Increased to ~29%
WAU: Increased to ~51%
By introducing Hope as a guide—offering emotionally intelligent, scientifically grounded explanations in a nurturing tone—users felt more supported and engaged. They began returning more consistently due to clarity, encouragement, and structured progression.
After Praise + Gong Reinforcement Feature:
DAU: Increased further to ~47%
WAU: Reached ~68%
When users completed daily emotional check-ins, Hope offered verbal praise and visualized progress through a blooming flower animation. A soft gong sound followed, creating a small but meaningful reward loop. This multisensory reinforcement increased positive association with consistency and encouraged emotional ownership.
Insights:
Before Coaching Feature: Only 12% of users followed through with any coach interaction.
Assigned Coach (Direct): Conversion rose slightly to 18%, but many users felt overwhelmed or misaligned with a coach chosen for them.
Coach YouTube Preview: Letting users watch a coach’s video first increased conversions to 32%, as users felt more in control and resonated with the coach before committing.
Purchased Somatic Plan: Providing structured 10–15 minute daily somatic routines (rather than assigning a full coaching package) saw the biggest rise—45% conversion—by offering a low-pressure entry point that built trust and consistency.
Why This Metric Was Cut
The "Nervous System Literacy Lift" and "Engagement with Suggested Practices" metrics were initially considered but later removed. Early testing showed that direct quizzes or knowledge checks led to cognitive overload, reducing app engagement.
Instead, these concepts were gently taught over time through Hope’s guided scaffolding—integrated within the user's daily flow. This shift allowed users to absorb complex concepts through experience, not testing, which improved long-term retention and built trust in the process.
Suggested practices were still tracked, but rather than focusing on click-through rates, the emphasis shifted to consistency and emotional readiness, aligning more closely with the app’s therapeutic purpose.
Visual Identity
The app’s central icon is a yellow meditating figure with four colored sets of arms:
Green: Body
Blue: Emotions
Red: Movement
Grey: Breath
The yellow center represents stillness and nervous system wisdom.
Once all five areas are explored, the user evolves into a winged scarab, symbolizing personal transformation, nervous system coherence, and emotional clarity.
The guide of the app is Hope, a digital scarab companion who appears throughout to provide guidance, reassurance, and education.
Lessons Learned
Regulation is not a feature—it’s a process: Users need pacing, trust, and permission to move slowly
Gamification can serve healing if it honors depth, simplicity, and integration
Emotional and physiological literacy must be scaffolded gently, not overloaded
What This Demonstrates
Systems thinking across emotion, physiology, and behavior
Empathy-driven UX
Product intuition built on real human needs
Clarity in structuring complex topics into usable, safe, and beautiful flows