Tactical Reset

A surprising number of technical issues can be solved by resetting the glitchy device.

Sometimes you have to unplug it or hold down several buttons to make it work, but this can be a fairly simple solution for what are sometimes shockingly complex issues resulting from an operational state that’s somehow gotten muddled.

I find that my brain and body often work the same way, and can be similarly unmuddled.

If I’m experiencing some kind of body-glitch—a weird ache, tightness, or congestion—I can engage in a tactical reset (changing locations, moving to a new task, going for a run, taking a break for a meal) and more often than not that’ll ease or fix the problem.

The same is often true of the psychological stuff.

If I’m feeling down or agitated or anxious, if I do a reset—rearranging my context so my nervous system is paying attention to something else for a while—that frequently returns my psychology to a more desirable equilibrium.

Keep in mind, you have to really commit to the reset: you can’t go for a run and then keep doing exactly what you were doing before, spending the whole journey fixating on what was bothering you back home. Immersing yourself in the meal or process or new environment is vital to triggering the reboot (and thus, the potential for different circumstances).

Give your brain and body and chance to put things back where they belong and clear away the not-good patterns that were causing whatever negative thing you were experiencing.

Even if you do everything perfectly, this isn’t a 100% effective solution to all of life’s problems any more than unplugging your router and then plugging it back in after twenty seconds will solve all of your WiFi issues.

It’s shockingly effective for a lot of life’s low-tier vexations, though (and as I get older I find myself with a lot more of those that need addressing).

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