Chechen Mountains, Russia
PROJECT DESTINY
THAILAND: Insight Meditation
The Zen Protocol is a practical and field-tested program to harmonize Mind, Body, and Spirit in order to unleash rapid transformation.
Practice #2 (“Chart Your Destiny”) asks us to select a life goal. Mine is two-fold: help others transform and travel (coming from a broken home and troubled background, this was always my dream).
By design, these goals feed each other. Not only do I teach around the world, by trekking into far-flung jungles and locales, I've been blessed to study ancient techniques at the source, and funnel the most effective back into the program.
Personal transformation is no different. We set a destination, hack through the inner brush, overcome obstacles, learn the terrain, and soon discover treasure... then excitedly share what we’ve found with others.
I'm grateful to help in any way I can.
Nick
JAPAN: Zazen Meditation
VIETNAM: Anapanasati Breathing
TEACHING LOG
Ecuador
Costa Rica
Vietnam
Moscow
Chechnya
Japan
Thailand
USA
Sicily
Poland
Portugal
Spain
England
THE JOURNEY
In 2014, in order to further my health and wellness knowledge, I started a podcast that allowed me to sit with nutritionists, genetic researchers, best-selling authors, successful entrepreneurs, sports psychologists, and yogis. I also penned a weekly column for Vice Media on these same topics.
A decade spent learning from my Sensei 6x World Champion Rafa Mendes, at the famed Art of Jiu Jitsu Academy in Newport Beach, California..
Teaching a seminar to a young competitor in Florida.
THE ANCIENT SCROLLS
Around this time, I learned the Samurai concept of Mushin Mind from my Sensei. Digging deeper, I noted the numerous connections between the Samurai, Jiu Jitsu, Zen-like practices, and Wellness. So gearing up like I was back in school, I gathered all the original Eastern texts that I could find. The Old Masters inscribed much of their knowledge in secret scrolls that were later compiled into books: Heihō Kadensho, Fudōchi Shinmyōroku, The Book of Five Rings, The Tao Te Ching, The Art of War, Hagakure, etc.
These amazing tomes taught everything from the virtue of selflessness to combat techniques to nutrition. But what grabbed me most were the esoteric mental practices.
Why?
The message was clear: Master the Mind… Transform Your Life
PATIENT ZERO
I first tested these practices on myself. The results were not only staggering—they were lasting.
Learning to watch cravings rise in my psyche deprived them of their power.
I soon grasped that it was the same with every emotion: anxiety, anger, grief.
This concept clearly transcended weight loss.
That’s when I developed the x3-Rs and began teaching the Practice, first to friends, then clients.
Recognize. Release. Return.
So simple.
So powerful.
Master the Mind…
WHITE LOTUS - A YEAR IN SICILY
Inspired by the ‘Healthspan’ research of author Dan Buettner, and later, Dr. Valter Longo, Director of the Longevity Institute at USC, I started visiting Blue Zones around the world, searching for the secret to staying young and fit as long as possible. On these journeys I met the most inspiring people. Old people. Young people. Entire villages of content happy people. No obesity in sight, yet their main exercise consisted of walking, something I rarely did.
Understanding that I could only learn so much as a tourist, I dismantled my life in the United States and moved to Sicily, where I immersed myself in a primitive Mediterranean lifestyle. It was a mind-blowing adventure. Living in the village where my grandfather was born, and where my family lived for nearly a millennia (according to family lore they were artisans who helped construct the famous Il Duomo Di Monreale in the 1100s), I rented chambers in a hunting palace built in the Middle Ages. No one in the village spoke a word of English, so I learned Italian, and more important, I walked miles every day. Each morning, after visiting a cafe with the richest espresso, I would stroll through the town square. The old men in their wooden chairs would wave and shake their heads in confusion as they couldn’t imagine someone from California, whose grandfather escaped the village a century earlier, would move back!
Through the winding stone streets I walked to the local market, and there I gathered fresh vegetables, herbs and delicious red wines. Every night I rode my motorcycle into neighboring Palermo and taught Jiu Jitsu to young students eager for the advanced techniques from my home academy. I sparred with them every day, correcting their mistakes and teaching them competition strategy, alongside il mio fratello Ruben Stabile, the owner of the gym. (One of my proudest accomplishments came later that year when our small team won the Sicilia Open.) On weekends, I explored the island on my motorcycle, visiting castles and crumbling ruins while connecting with my heritage.
THE LOST TREASURE
In Sicily, I discovered unexpected treasure: despite eating as much of the most incredible foods as I could stomach every day, my body began burning through its remaining fat stores, until I found myself more lean at 54 than 18, when I wrestled varsity and trained intensely 3-4 hours per day while starving myself to make weight.
I also had more energy, my joints stopped aching, and visiting friends even remarked that I looked younger.
Was it something in the water?
Did the island sands contain geriatric spice from Dune?
After serious analysis, blood tests and discussions with one of my Jiu Jitsu students, Dr. Federico, a young cardiologist from Rome, we pegged the metamorphosis not to a few dietary alterations—more olives, capers packed in salt, fresher tomatoes—but the result of a completely different lifestyle, or rather, a new Path that inadvertently combined both Samurai and Blue Zone practices.
For three years, I helped clients implement this new protocol, monitoring their progress, tweaking the criteria, writing and providing illustrative explanations and anecdotes.
After realizing I could only work with a limited number of clients at a time, I distilled the program into 25 Practices and wrote my next book: The Zen Protocol.
December 2021 I underwent a 3-Level Cervical Artificial Disc Replacement Surgery… for months I could barely turn my head… Doctors said I would never train Jiu Jitsu again
MIND OVER MATTER: Almost one year to the Day of the Surgery in 2022 I won a Second Black Belt World Championship
In the tournament, I represented my ancestral homeland of Sicily via my (dual) Italian passport.
NOTE: To prove the effectiveness of this program, I have Never used TRT, HGH, PEDS, or pharmaceuticals of any kind. However, I do coach many people on TRT, and they all benefit tremendously from The Zen Protocol.