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Hey everyone, welcome back to Data and AI with

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Mukundan. Today's episode is a follow -up from

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the last episode which I talked about cravings

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at midnight and how you can have more control

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over your cravings. Today's episode I just want

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to talk about the inner stuff, what goes on in

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our mind more deeply. You know, the kind of stuff

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that sits with you at Midnight 1 a .m. 2 a .m.

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Whatever basically later at night when most of

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the world is sleeping When your to -do list is

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full and your energy is well empty and You're

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like completely drained out This is the story

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of how I built an AI reflection system One that

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is not just for productivity But it's also for

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emotional clarity. It's called Reflection OS.

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And OS is the origin story of this. And it started

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on a night that I almost gave up. And the energy

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was empty, like I said. So let's understand what

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gave rise to this. So you ever have one of those

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nights where you're staring at a screen. Your

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social media is open. And if you're a content

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writer, your blog draft is half written. Even

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if you're not a content writer, say you're at

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work and you have this, you know, big deadline

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coming up. Maybe that's the next day. Maybe that's

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in the morning or could be the day after. And

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you have to submit it. And it's just half done.

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It's already 1 a .m., 2 a .m., right? you you've

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had a ton of things to do that day but this is

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just one more thing and it's kind of the main

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thing to do because maybe you are focusing on

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doing the core piece the rest of the night and

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when you got to actually filling up the document

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it was just half done um i mean you barely got

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to it but your energy is like drained out you

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wish you can do this in the morning but you have

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like an 8 a .m meeting so it has to be done before

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then and it's already 2 a .m at night so you

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just have six hours between now and then to a

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finish the work and b get some sleep and also

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c wake up and do some regular um regular things

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you need to do before uh before you start work

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the next day right and that's when your brain

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feels heavy And the thought comes, I should have

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been further ahead by now. And I've had plenty

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of those moments. I mean, it's just too much

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to count. I'm afraid to admit I've not been really

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good at time management. Well, I guess 99 % of

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my life. In the last... I guess last several

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weeks or so, I'd say I have better control over

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them than I did before. But most of the time,

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it's just been that I've not been that good at

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managing time. And I apologize for being a little

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vulnerable here, but this is how I feel like,

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I mean, I may not be the only one who is like

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this. and in this particular instance it was

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it was kind of similar that i was so much behind

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and you know that day was pretty hard um just

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like others as well but i just wanted to and

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uh that day i was just thinking well there has

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to be some some way out of this yes i've been

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you know trying to find ways but i think This

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is something that I need to solve. Working on

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multiple projects, blog writing, applying for

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jobs, launching content, burnout wasn't just

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mental fatigue. It wasn't emotional disconnection.

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I didn't really want to... track my habits yes

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everybody says to track your habits i just i

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was just tired of doing that and and it's it's

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it is exhaustive like one thing after the other

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right i didn't want even a to -do list i just

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wanted someone or maybe something to say like

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i hear you let's talk about it and it's pretty

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pretty late at night like you don't want to be

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disturbing people um you know if it's that late

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like everybody has their own life and that's

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what i used to think well there's certain ways

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around this this is the way i chose for that

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night it did click for me that well i'm using

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ai to write um to help me with my content creation

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right um come up with topics promote my content,

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optimize resumes when I've done as well. But

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what if I could use it to reflect my thoughts

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back to me with some compassion and some clarity?

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What if AI just became my mirror? One that doesn't

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judge. doesn't interrupt and doesn't rush so

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yeah just recently i also worked on you know

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a cravings app right like it is kind of a mirror

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as well but it's just more on the food aspect

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like oh it will just give it back to me that

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so you're craving taco bell or say you're craving

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fries maybe you can just wait until the morning

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Or what if it can be a bit deeper not just related

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to fortune be just related to all thoughts. I

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Mean it was this I Wanted to build it for me.

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So this is not a scientific answer to things

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This is just me trying to build Something that

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solves my problem at the time right and He's

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just building like a friend here You're not building

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a therapist, just a friend. It's kind of sad

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when you say it like that, but it is something

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that will just not judge you, right? And so that

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was why I built this. But just to pivot to the

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actual Reflection OS app. so this like most others

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that i built was again a streamlit app streamlit

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is this python based app as well i mean it's

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a python based app and it uses streamlit as a

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python based library which gives amazing front

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-end capabilities in python right and so it's

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like a very simple app too what i built it's

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just like one text box which will ask you what's

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on your mind today kind of like what social media

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platforms ask you as well right when you're trying

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to post something um again this is something

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that i built for myself and i'm hoping you know

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it helps others as well to think through like

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what people can do using ai and for this particular

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instance it was just a simple intentional app

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no structure just type whatever right um so the

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input that i fed into this text box which was

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using gpt4 in the back end was uh i mean basically

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the the prompt that i gave to gpt4 was reflect

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on this journal entry, give me the emotions involved

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and a compassionate reflection and a reframe

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that makes it more constructive. And that was

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the prompt I gave. I ran the rest of my Python

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-based streamlit code. And when I hit run, it

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worked. Like, one of the journal entries I had

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given was I feel like I'm always behind. Everyone

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around me is building faster, shipping more and

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growing quicker. Something that I was feeling

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that day. And yeah, allow me to be a little vulnerable

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here, but that was something that I'm sure not

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the only one feeling that. And, you know, it's

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a feeling of self -doubt. Sometimes it does creep

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in. So AI as well just helped reflect that. Like

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the emotions, you have self -doubt, frustration,

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and comparison, which is obviously not great

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emotions to have, but it was emotions to have.

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And AI was helping me reflect that. So it also

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gave me a reflection. Sounds like you're measuring

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yourself against a standard that was never yours

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to begin with. Yeah, there you go. You don't

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want to be comparing yourself to others and that

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is what he I was telling me They just needed

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me to see in the mirror Like what my thoughts

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were And It's telling me also to reframe what

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I'm saying and saying that your pace is valid

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Speed doesn't equal substance growth is happening

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even when it's quiet so you can even grow when

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you're being quiet um so that's when even i built

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like a substack mini course just quietly right

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it wasn't even um so basically the whole cravings

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app is now a substack mini course it wasn't something

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that i made a loud fuss about it i was just like

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pretty quietly doing that in the back end and

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So all of these reflections from the AI, when

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I read that back, it just hit differently. Because

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I wasn't just hearing advice. I was hearing myself,

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but just clearer. And I just thought that was

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very... very interesting very exciting use of

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ai so to just help you understand the tech behind

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this ai reflection the ai mirror let's talk about

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that build for a second right for the for the

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developers out there the ones who like using

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ai to develop cool stuff i used streamlit for

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the front end which is super quick to prototype

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then openai is gpt4 with the new python sdk and

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a simple text box like a text area in streamlet

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which had like a reflect button and some markdown

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formatting that's it it was it was very simple

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no databases yet just not even a fancy ui just

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a fast feedback loop between my thoughts and

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the AI's reflection right and guess what it's

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it's just enough sometimes you don't have to

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build super you know complicated amazing dashboards

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with a login you don't have to build all of that

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it just starts with an input which is truthful

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and An output that is useful. So I later added

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some mood tags and sentiment tracking and export

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options, which I haven't shared in this, but

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that's something that was just for me. But that

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can be added. You know, honestly, for me, like

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having the mirror was the most important thing.

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The core feeling had to be right. So why does

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this matter? So this isn't just about journaling.

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This is not just journaling. It's about building

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like an emotional habit. So when you reflect

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daily, you see patterns. You stop gaslighting

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yourself. You stop thinking every bad moment

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is your identity. And the best part, you can

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build this for yourself. You don't need to wait

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for an app like Calm or Headspace or Mindfulness,

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which I think Apple offers. to basically ship

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this you don't you you are building your own

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here you know calm red space mindfulness they're

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all amazing and this is this is just something

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you're building for yourself and that's it pretty

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much it's just like it's very simple but if you'd

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like to get you know more complex with it here's

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what's coming so I'm trying to roll out a public

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beta version for this it will be available in

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my substack mini course and I'll link my substack

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in the show notes so do watch out over there

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please subscribe over there so you get an update

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when the mini course is rolled out so you'll

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get like a public beta version so it'll be like

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a free tool for journaling reflection and emotion

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tagging and also like a creator edition which

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will be a paid version so we'll be adding reflections

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to notion tracker like weekly ai summaries for

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creators founders and builders and like i said

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it'll be like a substack mini course for emotional

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clarity and i am looking to also build a little

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community journal challenge like a seven day

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reflection challenge i'll be sharing mine and

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i looking for people to share theirs all of this

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power by like a lit powered by this little ai

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mirror so If this resonated with you and I apologize

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again for being a little vulnerable here, here's

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what you can do. You can subscribe to my Substack

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platform and you'll be able to know when the

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beta version is out for the app and you can DM

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me your reflections. on my Twitter account which

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I will link in the show notes as well or just

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sit with the question what would I change if

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I reflected before I reacted thanks for listening

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to Dita and EI with Mukundan see you in the next

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one