Your Anxiety is a Dashboard, Not a Disease

December 22, 2025

A pounding heart before a meeting isn’t betrayal—it’s telemetry. Don’t smash the dashboard. Read it.

The Hook

Your heart spikes before you present. A knot clenches in your stomach when your boss says, “Can we chat?” You try to mindset your way out or medicate the feeling away immediately. The Dragon invites a different move: listen.

The Diagnosis

You’re committing the Fundamental Attribution Error against your own body—treating a biological signal as a personal flaw. Your amygdala (the Serpent—what The Dragon’s Circuitry calls the Serpent’s Coil) has tagged a potential threat to status or safety. This is Sympathetic Mobilization—what Chapter 23: The Dragon’s Circuitry maps as energy rising to help you act.

The Dragon’s Pivot

Don’t silence the dashboard. Read it.

1. Somatic Triad:
   • Exhale: Long, slow out-breath.
   • Orient: Let your eyes and head turn; name three objects.
   • Sensation: Notice contact points—feet, seat, jaw, hands.
2. Name the Signal: “My system is mobilizing.”
   
3. Sort Reality: “Tiger or ghost?” Is there actual danger, or is this a memory/anticipation?
   • Ghost: Regulate (long exhales, softer gaze, widen peripheral vision, feel support).
   • Tiger: Aim the charge—prepare, set a boundary, move your body, or act with the energy.

Mini-Protocol: 90 Seconds to Data

• Breathe: 4-count inhale, 6-count exhale, 5 rounds.
• Map: Where is the heat? Chest? Gut? Jaw?
• Decide: Ghost → downshift with breath + orientation (the sensation is real even if the threat is old). Tiger → channel into one concrete step (script your ask, rehearse boundary, stand and pace once).

Integration Notes

• No Shame Needed: Anxiety is telemetry, not a defect.
• Body First, Story Second: Regulate physiology, then think.
• Use the Charge: If it’s a real “tiger,” the activation is fuel for action.

Book Anchors

• Chapter 23: The Dragon’s Circuitry — Sympathetic activation explained.
• Chapter 31: The Embodied Anchor — How to stabilize and reuse the charge.

Your body is not the enemy. It is the early-warning system and power plant. Read the lights, then steer.