Your Bonus Materials
Three tools to use alongside the book, plus a guided audio. Tap any script to copy it to your clipboard.
Loop Interrupt Scripts
These scripts are for the moments when the spiral is running and no language comes to mind. They are starting points: honest, direct, and designed to be adapted to your own voice.
Which Spiral Is This?
Use this when the loop is running and you're not sure which chapter is most useful right now. Find the description that matches, go to the tool, use it.
- Woke up already running. The worst case is vivid and feels confirmed.
- The hand is reaching for the phone before fully conscious.
- Everything feels worse and more certain than it did at 11pm.
- Go to: Chapter 5 and the 3am Protocol. Body-first. Phone down. Goal is sleep, not resolution.
- Has been researching or asking people for longer than the decision warrants.
- More information keeps generating new questions rather than closing the loop.
- Feels like one more source will finally make the decision clear.
- Go to: Chapters 6 and 10. Use the criteria-first framework. Say: "I have enough information. I need to choose."
- The decision has already been made. The review is still running.
- Mentally constructing what the alternative would have looked like.
- Relief after the decision did not arrive or did not last.
- Go to: Chapter 11. Name the file. Close it. Say: "The decision is made. I am not reopening it."
- Things are actually fine. The scanning is running anyway.
- Cannot fully be present in a good moment because part of the mind is already calculating the next problem.
- Relaxing feels irresponsible. Staying ready feels safer.
- Go to: Chapter 4. Say: "I notice I am scanning. There is no emergency right now." Come back to the room.
- Told yourself it would be five minutes. It has been much longer.
- Feels more anxious after the research than before it.
- Looking at the same sources again because the first pass did not produce certainty.
- Go to: Chapter 8. Close the tab. Say: "I have already looked at this. Looking again is not preparation."
- The spiral is about whether past choices have already foreclosed the future.
- Triggered by a milestone, a transition, or a contrast with someone else's situation.
- Feels like honest reckoning. Produces no steps, only a verdict.
- Go to: Chapter 7. Separate what is actually closed from what feels closed. Say: "The loop is not a verdict on my past."
7-Day Forward Focus Reset
One practice per day. Designed to move the tools from concepts understood to skills practiced. Each day is light. All seven together build the foundation for what comes after.
Every time a future-focused spiral starts, name it: "This is the loop. This is the certainty-seeking pattern." No pressure to stop it. Count how many times you named it before the end of the day. That number is your baseline.
The question for tonight: How many loops did I catch, and how early did I catch them?
When the loop starts, use the body-first protocol from Chapter 9 before attempting any cognitive tool. Extended exhale, feet on floor, naming the thought as a thought. Do it once, fully, in sequence. You are not looking for a cure. You are looking for a window.
The question for tonight: Was there a moment where the spiral became slightly more workable after the body-first step?
Designate a specific 15–20 minute window at a specific time, not in bed, not at night. When a worry arrives outside that window, write it in one line and say: "I will think about you at [time]." At the window, worry on purpose. When the timer ends, close the list and do something clearly different.
The question for tonight: Did any worries feel less urgent by the time the window arrived?
Identify one decision that has been sitting unresolved longer than it should. Name three specific criteria the chosen option must meet — actual ones, not ideal. Evaluate current options against only those three. If one meets them, make a provisional commitment before the day ends.
The question for tonight: Did naming the criteria change how the decision felt?
Identify one decision that has already been made and is still being reviewed. Name the file. Decide to close it. Say: "This file is closed." When the review starts again, name it: "The loop is reopening the file. I am not going with it."
The question for tonight: How many times did the loop try to reopen the file? Did naming it help?
Pay attention to any moment that should feel fine and notice whether the scan is running in the background. A peaceful hour. A positive interaction. Something that went well. Notice whether you were fully in it or partly somewhere else, calculating, monitoring, preparing.
The question for tonight: Was there a moment where the scanning was running despite there being nothing to scan for?
- Which loop ran most this week?
- Which tool felt most available when you needed it?
- What is one thing you did differently this week that you want to keep doing?
- Name one upcoming situation and the tool you'll use for it.
- Write one sentence: "When the spiral starts, I will _____."