Optional features
REBOOT is not a resignation.
It’s a refusal to keep running someone else’s script.
If you’re overwhelmed — stop. But don’t stay there. Ask for help.
“I wake up and want to cancel the day.”
The alarm goes off.
And your first thought isn’t “new day, let’s go” —
it’s more like:
“Initiating anxious beta-test. Please remain emotionally unprepared.”
You open your eyes —
and it already feels like you did something wrong.
Like you forgot something important.
Even though you’ve been awake for 4 seconds.
Some mornings feel like you accidentally signed the Squid Game contract in your sleep.
And now you’re back in round one —
same outfit, same dread, same stakes.
It’s not that you didn’t sleep.
It’s that you woke up into a system that’s already running anxiety in the background.
And this system expects you to be alert, grateful, productive, hydrated, and full of purpose
before your brain has finished booting.
Spoiler: it’s not.
I tried “doing mornings right.”
Opened the window.
Put on ambient music.
Tried smiling at the mirror (huge mistake).
Wrote down three things I’m grateful for.
Collapsed face-first back into bed.
One day, by accident, I did nothing.
No breathwork. No plans. No journal.
I just sat on the edge of the bed and stared at the wall
like a confused game character waiting for new dialogue options.
And weirdly — that helped.
Not because I “centered myself.”
But because I stopped trying to win the morning.
If you wake up anxious, you don’t have to fix it.
You can zoom out instead.
Climb up on a table.
Literally, if needed.
Look down on your life like a tired giraffe
who’s just been promoted to “existential consultant.”
You’ll look ridiculous.
So does your calendar.
Now you’re even.
Just check the table’s stable.
We’re not rebooting via injury.
Here’s the trick no one teaches you:
Humor is a valid coping mechanism.
Sometimes the only one left standing.
You don’t have to change the feeling.
Just tilt your head a little — and the whole thing looks different.
You woke up.
That’s the win.
Everything after that is just optional features.
If it made things even a little lighter —
just pass it on.
Not as a duty. But as warmth you don’t want to keep for yourself.