Cheat Sheet: get your brain back

Your mind is a powerful tool. But under stress, it forgot that it was supposed to help you live, not just survive. It built stronger alarms. It fortified the walls. It ran more simulations. All because it thought the wolves were still circling. The systems were doing exactly what they were built to do: keep you alive when it mattered. They just didn’t get the memo that sometimes life is just rewarming food in the microwave, not escaping a forest fire.

You just need to teach the brain that it doesn’t have to run a full security drill every time the grocery store runs out of oat milk. Real-world evidence that today is today, not an echo from three years ago. You still need your alarm systems but you just need them working the day shift, not patrolling your mind at 3AM with a flashlight and a clipboard.

Piece by piece, you're helping your brain remember the difference between real fire and a late email.

Between espresso shots and just... breakfast. And that is enough.

Cheat Sheet

	Job Title	Normal Role	Boosted (Short Stress)	Hijacked (Chronic Stress)	Body Repair	Cognitive Repair
Amygdala	Security Guard	Scans for threat, sounds the alarm if needed	Alerts you to real danger briefly	Fires at everything like a car alarm on a windy night	Slow breathing, cold water, calming movement, meditation to cool system	Name the emotion, pause before reacting, simple body actions (walk, stretch)
Hippocampus	Memory Librarian	Files memories, tags time and place	Quickly checks if this is familiar or new	Confuses past with present, plays old pain on loop	Grounding exercises, repeating routines (tea at 4PM, walks)	Label "today vs yesterday," notice small differences, factual journaling
Prefrontal Cortex (PFC)	CEO and Strategist	Plans, organizes, chooses best action	Prioritizes smart decisions fast	Shuts down, rigid thinking, black-or-white panic	Close tiny loops (finish tiny tasks), make quick no-negotiation choices	Practice micro-decisions, allow imperfection, schedule rest
Default Mode Network (DMN)	Storyteller	Reflects, imagines, integrates life experiences	Quietly powers down so you can act	Spits out endless doom scenarios, traps you in mental loops	Physical grounding (notice senses), limit free thinking time daily	Scheduled worry windows, simple physical completions, creative microtasks