Chapter 2 Exercises: How the Brain Works

Part A: Understanding the Basics

Exercise 2.1 — Your Stress Response Diary (Level 2 | Ongoing, 1 week)

For one week, keep a stress response diary. Each time you notice yourself in a stress response — elevated heart rate, tension, narrowed thinking, emotional reactivity — make a brief note.

For each entry, record: 1. What triggered it? (the situation or event) 2. Physical sensations: What did you notice in your body? 3. Cognitive effects: Did your thinking become narrower, faster, more rigid? 4. Behavior: What did you do? 5. Recovery: How long did it take to return to baseline? What helped?

At the end of the week: Look for patterns. What types of situations reliably trigger your stress response? How does your stress response compare to the chapter's description of sympathetic activation?

Exercise 2.2 — The Amygdala Hijack Log (Level 2 | Ongoing)

The chapter describes "amygdala hijack" — moments when strong emotional activation impairs prefrontal flexibility. This week, notice two or three moments when you acted or spoke in a way you later wished you hadn't — particularly in moments of anger, fear, or social threat.

For each moment: 1. What was the triggering situation? 2. What did you do or say? 3. What would you have done if you had had an extra ten seconds of prefrontal processing? 4. What would have needed to be different — in the situation or in your preparation — for that extra ten seconds to be available?

Reflection: Does the concept of amygdala hijack change how you view these moments? Does it reduce or increase your sense of responsibility for them?

Exercise 2.3 — Neurotransmitter Self-Reflection (Level 1 | 20 minutes)

Review the neurotransmitter table in section 2.2. For each of the following, reflect briefly:

1. Dopamine: When do you notice strong anticipatory pleasure — looking forward to something intensely? When does that anticipation disappoint on arrival? (Wanting vs. liking.)

2. Serotonin: When do you feel most "baseline good" — not excited, just solidly okay? What conditions in your life seem to support that baseline?

3. Oxytocin: When do you most clearly feel the effects of social bonding — warmth, safety, trust? What situations or people reliably produce that?

4. GABA: What activities most reliably produce calm — physiological quieting? (Sleep, meditation, physical exercise, warm bath, social connection?)

Exercise 2.4 — The Recovery Experiment (Level 2 | One week)

The chapter distinguishes between the stress response itself (healthy, adaptive) and failure to recover from it (damaging over time).

This week, run a small experiment on recovery. When you notice a stress response, try one of the following deliberately (varying which you use): - Slow exhalation: Breathe in for 4 counts, out for 8. (Extended exhalation activates the parasympathetic system.) - Physical movement: Brief walk or 10 minutes of moderate exercise. - Social connection: Brief contact with someone you feel safe with. - Physiological sigh: Double inhale through nose, then long exhale through mouth.

Track: Which approach seems to produce the fastest return to baseline? Which do you find easiest to access in the moment?

Part B: Applying the Concepts

Exercise 2.5 — Mapping Your Social Brain (Level 2 | 30 minutes)

The chapter notes that the brain's default mode at rest is social — we think about other people's minds, simulate social futures, replay social interactions.

Notice this in yourself for one day. Every time you catch your mind "wandering," note what it is wandering to: - Past social interactions (replaying conversations) - Future social interactions (anticipating, planning, worrying) - What others think of you - Stories about other people - Other (specify)

Reflection: What proportion of your mental life, at rest, is devoted to social content? What does this tell you about what your brain considers important?

Exercise 2.6 — The Neuroplasticity Audit (Level 2 | 30 minutes)

The chapter argues that every experience changes the brain — including every repeated pattern of thought, behavior, and habit.

Review your current habits, patterns, and tendencies — both desirable and undesirable. For each:

1. A habit you like: What neural pathway is it reinforcing? How long have you been doing it?
2. A habit you don't like: What neural pathway is it reinforcing? What would you need to do differently to begin weakening this pathway and strengthening an alternative?
3. Something you want to be better at: What would deliberate practice toward this goal look like?

Reflection: What does "neurons that fire together, wire together" mean for how you think about your daily patterns?

Exercise 2.7 — High Road vs. Low Road (Level 1 | 15 minutes)

The chapter describes two sensory pathways to the amygdala: the fast "low road" (direct, automatic, pre-conscious) and the slower "high road" (via cortex, more processed).

Think of three situations where you have a strong, automatic emotional reaction — a stimulus that reliably produces a fast, visceral response (a person, a situation, a sound, an image).

For each: 1. What is the stimulus? 2. What is the automatic reaction? 3. What does the "high road" — cortical processing — eventually tell you about the situation? (Is the threat real? Proportionate? Based on accurate information?)

Reflection: In which of these situations does your automatic reaction serve you well? In which does it misfire — treating something as threatening that doesn't warrant the response?

Exercise 2.8 — Stress and Cognition: A Personal Test (Level 2 | Ongoing)

Over the next two weeks, pay attention to the quality of your thinking at different stress levels.

On low-stress days (or in low-stress moments), notice: How wide is your thinking? How creative? How flexible in considering multiple perspectives?

On high-stress days (or in high-stress moments), notice: How narrow is your focus? How rigid are your conclusions? How hard is it to hold complexity?

Compare your notes from the two conditions. Does the chapter's description of cortisol and PFC function match your experience?

Part C: Going Deeper

Exercise 2.9 — The Recovery Architecture (Level 3 | 1 week)

Based on the chapter's discussion of parasympathetic recovery and chronic stress, design a "recovery architecture" for your daily life.

Step 1: Identify your three highest-stress contexts (times, situations, relationships, or activities).

Step 2: For each, identify what you currently do to recover — or whether you recover at all.

Step 3: Design a specific recovery practice for each: what you will do, when, and how you will know it worked.

Step 4: Run the experiment for one week. Note what you learn.

Reflection: What habits or circumstances in your life currently work against recovery? What would you need to change to make recovery a structural feature of your life rather than an occasional response?

Exercise 2.10 — The Social Brain Experiment (Level 2 | One weekend)

The chapter notes that social connection down-regulates the stress response and that chronic isolation activates threat-detection systems.

This weekend, deliberately spend two to three hours in quality social connection — not passive coexistence (being near people while on your phone) but genuine, engaged interaction.

Before: Rate your current stress level (1–10) and overall sense of wellbeing (1–10). After: Rate again.

Reflection: Did social connection affect your physiological state? What does this suggest about how you are currently managing your social brain's needs?

Exercise 2.11 — Jordan and Dev: A Neural Reading (Level 2 | 20 minutes)

Reread the opening vignette of this chapter — Jordan in the difficult conversation with Dev.

Using the chapter's concepts, write a neural account of what happened to Jordan in that conversation: 1. What triggered his stress response? 2. What do you think his amygdala detected? (What was the "threat"?) 3. How did cortisol and sympathetic arousal change the quality of his thinking? 4. What would a "high road" — PFC-mediated — response have looked like? 5. What conditions would have needed to be present for that high-road response to be available to him?

Exercise 2.12 — Neuromyth Checker (Level 1 | 15 minutes)

The chapter addresses three common neuromyths. Before reading this chapter, did you believe any of them? Which ones?

For each myth: 1. What did you believe? 2. What does the evidence actually show? 3. How did the myth get so widespread? (What psychological need does it serve, or what kernel of truth does it distort?)

Exercise 2.13 — The Training Question (Level 3 | Journaling)

The chapter ends with this: "You are always training your brain; the question is what you are training it to do."

Sit with this question and write for twenty minutes.

Consider: What are you currently training your brain to do well? What are you accidentally training it to do that you would rather not? If you could design a deliberate "neural training" program for yourself over the next year, what would it prioritize?

Exercise 2.14 — Body-Brain Connection Journal (Level 1 | Ongoing)

This week, keep a simple daily log of three physical variables and one psychological variable:

Reflection at end of week: Do you see any correlations? What does this suggest about the relationship between physical state and psychological state in your life? (We will explore this much more deeply in Chapters 30 and 31.)