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    Debugging Your Brain
    Debugging Your Brain
    Debugging Your Brain
    Ebook128 pages5 hours

    Debugging Your Brain

    By Casey S. Watts

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    About this ebook

    The human brain is buggy. Sometimes your mind distorts reality, gets frustrated with shortcomings, and spirals out of control. With practice, you can debug your brain. Catch those distortions of reality, transform those frustrations into insight, and short-circuit those downward spirals.

    Debugging Your Brain (DYB) is a clear

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCasey Watts
    Release dateNov 1, 2020
    ISBN9780578755045

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      Book preview

      Debugging Your Brain - Casey S. Watts

      Debugging Your Brain

      Casey Watts!

      Table of Contents

      Book Overview

      Introduction

      About the Author

      Book Overview

      Applying These Techniques

      Example 1: Work Disagreement

      Example 2: Snapping as a Parent

      Example 3: Attending An Event

      Suggested Activities

      Modeling The Brain

      Inner versus Outer Brain

      Systems Thinking

      Input-Process-Output Model

      Systems Thinking & Conscious Thought

      Automatic and Deliberate Thoughts and Feelings

      Downward Spiral

      Suggested Activities

      Cognitive Behavioral Therapy

      Therapy? Training!

      Positive Outcomes

      Suggested Activities

      Introspection

      Hitting Your Debugger

      After a Situation

      During a Situation

      The Whoop Technique

      Example Opportunity

      Whoop!

      Post-hoc Rationalization

      Breakpoint Metaphor

      When Not to Whoop?

      Suggested Activities

      Identifying Inputs

      Four Inputs

      Automatic Feelings

      Automatic Thoughts

      External Stimuli

      Bodily State

      Suggested Activities

      Experience Processing

      The Three Principles

      Verbalizing Your Experiences

      Avoiding Rumination

      Accepting Automatic Inputs as Data

      Six Techniques

      Talk with a Friend

      Talk With a Rubber Duck

      Write

      Meditate

      Read Fiction

      Expand Your Emotional Vocabulary

      Suggested Activities

      Experience Validation

      Close Relationships

      Communicating Validation

      1 - Be Present

      2 - Accurate Reflection

      3 - Guessing About Unstated Feelings

      4 - Validate Based on the Past

      5 - Validate Based on Today

      6 - Radical Genuineness

      Asking Too Much?

      Suggested Activities

      Cognitive Restructuring

      Common Cognitive Distortions

      Facts or Feelings

      Needs Nuance

      Positives and Negatives

      People

      Outcome Prediction

      Example Scenario

      The Three Column Technique

      Suggested Activity

      Key Takeaways

      More Resources

      Bibliotherapy

      Talk Therapy

      Teletherapy

      Apps

      Meditation

      Regular Practice

      References

      Table of contents

      Book Overview

      The human brain is buggy. Sometimes your mind distorts reality, gets stuck on shortcomings, or spirals out of control. With the right tools, you can patch the software that runs in your mind: catch distortions of reality, transform frustration into insight, and short-circuit downward spirals. Become a better friend, team member, and human.

      The brain is a complex system. Debugging Your Brain is a toolkit to help you understand and optimize yours.

      A straightforward and easily digestible read that decodes several basic, but complex concepts in psychology. With a little practice, the topics and techniques covered in this book will help train your brain how to deal with any situation effectively and productively. The author’s lighthearted and relatable way of writing makes it an enjoyable read.

      ― Dr. Melissa Monsey

      Neuroscience Ph.D.

      Yale University

      Casey has a gift to make very complex information in a manner that everyone can understand and apply.

      ― Joyce Lednum

      Certified Registered Nurse

      University of Texas

      I see this book as something to have in my back-pocket.

      ― Adrian Gillem

      Lead Engineer

      Booz Allen Hamilton

      Copyright © 2020 Casey S. Watts

      All rights reserved.

      First Printing, 2020

      ISBN 978-0-578-75504-5

      https://caseywatts.com

      This book was written, illustrated, typeset, and published by Casey Watts.

      https://caseywatts.com

      Thank you Jiaqi Dai for creating the beautiful cover art.

      http://www.jiaqidai.me

      Thank you everyone who reviewed early copies of the book, and to everyone who provided encouragement along the way.

      Introduction

      Do you want to be a happier and more effective person? Of course you do!

      In this book you will learn how to debug your brain. You will end up with a mental model of your mind and techniques to help adjust how it works. The brain techniques in this book will help you become more aware of yourself and choose the best response for a given situation.

      It is especially difficult to choose a positive response when you are experiencing a downward spiral: a troublesome feedback loop where you feel worse and worse. Downward spirals often happen in high-stakes or emotional situations. This book covers how to notice when a downward spiral is happening, and how to defuse it.

      What is debugging? Debugging means finding problems and fixing them. In the 1940s when there were room-sized computers sometimes this meant literal bugs in the computer causing issues. Once the bugs were physically removed, the computer program would work again. In today’s programming terms, bug refers to any problem that can be fixed by editing code, and debugging is the process of fixing issues in the code. Thankfully, the modern use of the term has nothing to do with insects!

      In the mind, debugging still means identifying and fixing problems. Debugging is the process of identifying and adjusting your mental habits, turning unhelpful thought patterns into helpful ones. This book covers techniques to help you become aware of your mental habits and learn how to adjust any unhelpful ones.

      Debugging is like trying to find your way in a maze. Imagine being lost in a maze and you come across a ladder. From the top of the ladder you can see the layout of the maze much more clearly. You can see where you have been, where you

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