Last week, we shared a beautiful experience with a group of friends and the help of the EthernautDAO. We invited 10 builders from different teams, mostly OGs, to a 7-day cross-team men’s retreat in the heart of a lush jungle, next to one of the best surf spots in the world. We took surf lessons and engaged in numerous reconnection activities. Near the end of the experience, we shared our feelings and experiences of being in the crypto industry.

Why Am I Doing This?

I’ve been in crypto for almost a decade, and a programmer for twice that long. Recently, I experienced severe burnout and began a journey of self-exploration that is not only healing me but also teaching me how to live a much more plentiful life. It’s making me feel more powerful—not in a supernatural sense of course, but in a deeply human one. There is power in accepting and embracing the simple-slash-complex duality of what we are. I can now do what I did before with less effort and glimpse possibilities I never thought achievable.

I admit that I’m an absolute noob in all of this, but my experience of being a coder for so long, with all of its successes and failures, plus my familiarity with the crypto space, all give me a very unique perspective which I believe could benefit others.

In essence, I realized that I can add more value by helping others create than by creating myself.

A Retreat but Not a Retreat

I’ve worked in three different teams throughout my career in crypto so far, and in all of them, team retreats are done very similarly. They involve traveling to a cool location, doing some product work, playing team building games, and chilling, so that everyone can get to know each other. We got a chance to take things a little further in this retreat.

We’ve been crafting the experience since the beginning of the year with a very specific focus on the individuals. We wanted to provide a space for everyone to reconnect with each other's creative forces, their true value, and address the damaging self-imposed productivity expectations, burnout, and alienation in our industry.

Here are a few elements that made this retreat special:

• Super Healthy Food: The base layer of the experience was seven days of super healthy food with zero toxicity. There was no alcohol, no gluten or dairy, and minimal sugar. All organic ingredients. Our chef demonstrated that healthy eating can also be absolutely delicious.

• Vibrant Jungle Location: The lush jungle, with its vibrant life, welcomed us with magical, sometimes scary, sometimes itchy, but mostly fun experiences.

• World-Class Surf Lessons: Most of the team members (more below) are top-level surfers and mountaineers which are deeply connected with the wellness side of the project.

• Bioflow Meditation: We brought in two experts in Bioflow meditation, a technique that allows us to slow down, pay attention to our bodies, and unlock deep tensions. More on Bioflow below.

• No Work: Our agenda didn’t include work-related tasks, but there were gaps that allowed us to handle small work operations if needed. We had a good internet connection.

• Optional Participation: All activities were optional, allowing participants to opt out if they didn’t feel comfortable. This was a core value of the experience.

• Personal Work: We did work, but on ourselves, engaging in activities that pushed us out of our comfort zones. Through guided forms of expression, these activities not only engaged our minds, but also our bodies, even our entire being.

The retreat was a handcrafted integral context where every element contributed to the health of individuals and the group. It aimed to achieve an ultimate state where the group would be connected and willing to share common experiences of productivity, creativity, and burnout.

Men’s Circles

I’ve been lucky to have come into contact with men's circles recently. For those who don’t know, these circles are based on a very simple concept: men are usually very bad at sharing emotions. When we do this, it’s usually with a bottle of whisky involved. This is because men are both biologically and culturally programmed to put up a guard and not be emotionally vulnerable.

So, a circle is a small ritual that helps us lower our “false” masculine guard, allowing men to share their feelings in a lucid state. The mere act of sharing feelings is so powerful, specially when you see that others have similar emotions. Someone shares what they feel, and the others just listen actively, without judging or telling them what to do. There are no problems to solve. Just active listening and holding space.

When I had the opportunity to share what I was feeling in one of these circles, back when I was at the peak of my burnout, I was completely overtaken by how life changing this simple act of sharing and being listened to could be.

I’ve been trying to form circles in different contexts since then, with limited success. What I observed is that, when the idea is presented to a group of men, they’re pretty open to it, but end up only opening superficially, sharing anecdotes and abstract wellness ideas rather than their actual feelings. They become vulnerable in a measured, controlled way, only within their comfort zone.

So, I began searching for ways to produce a more profound opening.

Reconnecting with Our Body

My thesis is that true opening in a group of men comes after the group has shared an experience that reconnects them with their bodies, the natural forces around them, their instincts, sensations, and emotions. Men have this tendency to form a sort of hunting pack bond when exposed to all of the above for a while. I wanted to exploit this, so that’s why the first phase in the reconnection process was surfing. Yey!

Surfing is an incredible sport with many analogies in life. If you stay in your comfort zone, nothing happens. If you venture too deep into the danger zone, you can get seriously hurt. It’s all about navigating the edge of the challenge zone. That’s where you catch waves. A group of friends surfing will try to push each other into their challenge zones.

Plus the sport requires an incredible amount of coordination, not only with the body but with the elements around us: the water, the ocean, the wind. Is the tide going up or down? Where is the wind coming from? How is it changing?

“The intense focus surfing requires is so similar to the intense focus of deep meditation or ecstatic prayer or ritual dance or any number of so called spiritual experiences that it’s a pretty good bet that very similar things are going on in the brain.” Andrew Newberg, Neuroscientist

I actually see nature as an extension of the body. The body is an apparatus that evolved to navigate and survive in its natural context. So, in a way, the body is part of that metaverse, that medium. Reconnecting with our bodies and with nature are both the same thing.

And boy, did we connect. By the end of the trip, people who had never surfed before were running the unbroken face of the waves. We were surprised at how quickly the group advanced. They are all exceptionally capable people, with a lot of discipline and the capacity to absorb and process information rapidly.

Reconnecting with Our Emotions

After surfing for a few days, we were ready to start reconnecting with our emotions. This is where creativity starts to reappear. Builders in this industry tend to be extremely talented and masters of the mind. They speak the language of rationality very well, and understand its subtleties. It’s not only about intelligence; it's about having exercised this part of themselves extensively. They can dive into deep levels of abstraction. This is something most people have in common in the industry, which helps us build this revolutionary technology so effectively.

The problem with this talent is that we tend to close the circuit in the mind. A mind that can create such rich universes, can entertain itself in those universes without needing much else really. There is no need for external input. But, despite its power, the circuit will slowly dry out of new elements, and creativity will fade away little by little. Reality is actually much wilder than fiction. So, if we want to stay creative, we need to systematically get out of the mind and return with new goodies for it.

We get out of the mind by reconnecting with our bodies and emotions, the other two main aspects of our being, by embracing and recognizing all that we are. We are not perfectly rational machines running perfectly logical simulations in our minds. Far from it. We are extremely irrational. We are flesh and bones. We are animals. Try meditating for two whole minutes without a single distraction, and you’ll see just how irrational we are! This powerful organ that we have at our service, the brain, is actually completely out of control.

We are not our minds. We just have a mind. We are much more than our mind. I now realize that perceiving ourselves as just a mind, with the body as a vehicle for lower level functions, is a mistake. The mind is a system equally important to our other systems. Only embracing and caring for all of our systems can the totality of our human condition begin to shine.

So, how did we connect with our emotions? By de-identifying. We constantly tell ourselves which character we’re supposed to be. We sustain this throughout our lives. We tell ourselves, “I am very good at math,” “I am bad at dancing,” “I don’t know how to paint.” Dancing, painting, and singing are all forms of expression that we’ve somehow come to measure with the bar of good and bad. This is nonsense. They are our rights! Expression is beyond good and bad. It just is. We knew this when we were children, but we forgot it when we formed our identity and started pretending to be this character, because we needed to get something in return. Something we deeply craved and were willing to sacrifice our genuine being for.

When we were children, we were truly genuine. But something happened to us that made us trigger this default survival mechanism we all have access to—our identity mechanism. It is effective, but it is also a degree of separation from reality. A simulation we keep continuously running, one that is particularly effective at survival, but also one that requires a tremendous amount of energy to run. It is an obstacle for the opportunity to be present, to be alive. Identity is a shortcut. A macro that just works. It doesn’t need to be sensitive to the details. It only needs to run bluntly. In that sense, it stops us from perceiving what is really going on around us. And in that sense, it is a creativity killer.

Our identity was built by a child in a context that no longer exists. We don’t need it anymore. Reconnecting with the inner child we were before the formation of our identity is an important step towards becoming true, free adults.

Sitting down with a piece of canvas and some watercolors and having the guts to paint whatever comes to your mind without a filter may sound easy, but unless you are an artist, it’s definitely not. It is a direct challenge to your identity. But once you start, the child reappears, and it becomes pure enjoyment soon enough. Why wouldn’t it be?

We carried out this activity with a lot of emphasis on the concept that there can be no mistakes in expression. There is no bad painting. No bad singing. No bad dancing. Just expression. This is one of our core values.

And the paintings that emerged were amazing. There is an incredible amount of talent locked within us, behind the requirements of our demanding character, and it flourishes with tremendous force once we allow ourselves to express whatever comes out with no rational filters whatsoever.

Bioflow Meditation

This time around, we invited two experts in the technique of Bioflow. As I briefly touched on above, this is a very subtle breathing meditation technique, nothing extreme like breathing exercises that induce hallucinations. It basically consists of breathing just a tad above the unconscious in-comfort-zone rhythm, with a very sensitive human presence watching you closely and carefully guiding you into identifying what’s going on in your body.

This is incredibly practical and powerful. Like meditation, it allows for profound self-awareness. After a few minutes of observing yourself in this way, it’s amazing how you can identify patterns that you sustain constantly in your life. Often, once a pattern is observed in this way, its expiry date is set.

As we invited Felix and Javi to this particular retreat, we plan to invite other experts to future retreats. Our idea is that each retreat brings in a different expert to delve into some particular technique.

Felix Leguizamon

Javier Lusso

The Circle

After reconnecting with our bodies and our emotions, and after doing a few Bioflow sessions, we were ready to try out the men’s circle. We wanted it to occur spontaneously, and fortunately, by day four, it did.

Of course, I can’t share what others said, but I can assure you that a lot of dead weight was dropped. People shared things they usually kept to themselves, and everyone else just listened and resonated with what they heard. It was emotional, intense, and beautiful.

To give you a taste of what went on, let me tell you about something that I shared myself. It’s something I’ve been noticing lately—a big flaw or bug in my identity. Whenever I’m surrounded by a cool group of people, having a great time (like in a retreat!), something within me triggers and starts telling me that I am an impostor within that group. That I’m not good enough to be there. That something is wrong with me, and that I don’t belong there. It's messed up, I know, but it’s true.

When I’m in tune, I tend to be a provider of context for others. But when I’m out of tune, like in these episodes, I just want to fold back and hide. Since I usually can’t hide, I tend to play a card that my character has, which consists of become servile.

In one of our surf sessions, the tide was going down and I started becoming paranoid about people getting hurt by the rocks. I started yelling and telling people what to do. Ultra rational dictator mode Ale. I felt terrible afterward. I have no idea how it is related, but this triggered one of these episodes.

But I’m pretty proud of how I handled it. I was able to observe the pattern trigger and play out, and that is a LOT. I took my time and space to handle it (with the help of a friend <3), and I was able to share it with others in the circle that night.

After sharing, I felt extremely exposed and vulnerable, like I had done something wrong by sharing something I shouldn’t have. Something too personal. But as the dust settled, I actually felt more lightweight.

From that point onward, I felt a sort of velvet sensation in the air when I interacted with someone else. Like the air was thicker, softer, and sweeter. I wasn’t hesitating about being a fool anymore, about showing my flaws, since I had already exposed one of my biggest flaws anyway! I wasn’t afraid anymore. I was able to let go and be myself, and appreciate how people actually do enjoy being around me.

The best part of it is that I saw this kind of behavior in everyone else after the circle. We were all laying down our arms in a way. The bond that had been forming in the past few days had consolidated and matured. A threshold had been overcome.

Becoming Whole

Once we embrace all that we are—mind, body, and emotions—things start lighting up. Creativity returns. Clarity returns. This is why I’ve become less interested in therapies that only address wellness from a mental or rational perspective lately. They’d be fine if we were purely rational beings, but we’re not.

Stimulating these three areas of our being, even in the slightest form, for just a few days, can have a much more profound effect than any therapy. It’s like we’re equipped with a self healing mechanism. We just need to activate it.

By the end of the trip, everyone looked happier, more genuine, more energetic, more fun, and more spontaneous. I believe that the other half of the experience is yet to come. The impact of the retreat will become truly felt a few weeks after, and my bet is that everyone who participated will experience a heightened, healthier, and smoother degree of productivity as well as creativity.

The Paradigm Shift

This is where we want to introduce a paradigm shift that begins in the way our industry views retreats. Most likely, teams will cringe at the idea of spending time and resources on a retreat that does absolutely no product work whatsoever.

But what is the most important thing about a retreat? Yes, some work needs to be pushed through, and having everyone in the same room tends to facilitate that. However I believe that, in our highly decentralized industry, the most important aspect of a retreat is human contact. After getting to know your coworkers in person, the way we interact is tremendously optimized. Getting things done requires less effort.

But we don’t need to pick one or the other! Teams can benefit from two types of retreats: one that focuses on the product and one that focuses on the team. Teams dedicating one or two of their yearly retreats to the human aspect exclusively could dramatically boost their performance and increase their enjoyment of work.

We could even design hybrid retreats that combine both types on the same trip; Dedicate a few days to the team and a few days to the product. It is very important that the team part is more than just games, though. It needs to challenge the individuals to get out of their comfort zones, and not just lightly. It needs to address more than just the mind, and reach that bonding threshold where interactions truly begin to loosen up.

It’s important to note, though, that these retreats are merely a context where certain tools can be put to work—tools that heal us and nourish us. The actual work needs to be taken back home, to our lives, to our workspace, to our relationships. That’s where the real transformation happens.

Almas Viajeras

I believe that this beautiful experience was an incredible success, and I am still very curious about how it will affect everyone in the upcoming days.

We’re so excited that we’d like to formalize this experience and offer it to others. Our project is called Almas Viajeras, which means “Traveling Souls” in Spanish, alluding to how we’re all just traversing this human experience just to ultimately learn to accept, embrace, and love who we are.

We’d like to extend this invitation to more diverse groups—men, women, and every gender expression—as well as for all creators in general, not just programmers and builders in crypto. We’re already collaborating with +Mujeres to see how we could do mixed circles in an upcoming retreat.

The Team

Silvestre Jacobi

Tomas Materi

Juan Campion

Alejandro Santander

Thank You

A huge thanks to all my friends who came to this crazy experiment. I really hope that this experience has a positive impact on you. Thank you for trusting me <3

I’m super stoked to work on future iterations of it, and share with you where Almas Viajeras is going next.

Acknowledgements

Thanks to those who helped me review this article: Anni Schuff, Silvestre Jacobi, Tomas Materi, Juan Campion, Leo Arias, and Kevin Ho.