The 72-hour stabilise
Sleep, food, movement, sunlight. The smallest possible base. What to do today, this afternoon, before anything else.
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Sleep, food, movement, sunlight. The smallest possible base. What to do today, this afternoon, before anything else.
The morning after I admitted it to myself, I lay in bed for forty minutes trying to work out the order in which to fix my entire life. By the time I'd got to whether to change jobs, I hadn't brushed my teeth.
That's the depression trap in miniature. The problem feels enormous. The actual next move is a glass of water.
This module is about the next 72 hours. The action floor.
When you're depressed, your operating bandwidth is smaller than normal. The 72-hour stabilise is about identifying the smallest set of inputs that keep you above the line.
The base is four things:
Four inputs. None takes more than ten minutes. They're plumbing, not philosophy.
A worked example. Today is Tuesday. Right now is 10am.
That's it. Tomorrow you do it again.
The goal isn't to feel better. The goal is to not lose more ground.
If on Friday you've eaten three meals a day, drunk water, walked outside daily, slept at consistent hours, you have done the only thing this 72 hours could productively do.
From a held line, you can book the GP appointment in module 2. From a slipping line, you can't.
Eat. Walk. Sleep. Repeat.
A blunt field guide to the first month after the conversation. Sleep, paperwork, the kids, and the part nobody warns you about.
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