“Finally, in the last moon phase, we are dominated by norepinephrine, an arousal chemical that regulates processes like the flight-or-flight response, anxiety, and other instinctual behaviors. 'We tend to be better off doing more structural tasks that don't involve a lot of reflection. Its binary nature lets us make decisions, act on them, and then recalibrate like a GPS with a hunting rifle. The key with norepinephrine is that if it's governed well, we experience a fluid coordination of thought and action so much that we almost fail to feel. Everything becomes second nature.' So instead of letting the natural rise of fight-or-flight impulses turn us into anxious paranoids, we can exploit the state of nonemotional, almost reptilian arousal it encourages. ”

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