🧠 WHEN YOUR MIND HIJACKS YOU

And how to choose a different path

What unconscious habits, trauma, and neural pathways have to do with self-sabotage—and how to start taking the wheel again

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A viewer left this in the comments:

“How do you deal with your mind hijacking your life?

Losing time, forgetting, falling into an addiction…

Then coping with the fallout and trying not to blame yourself for everything your mind did when taking over.”

That’s a big one.

I don’t pretend to have every answer, but I’ve been there before, and I think we can at least name what’s happening, look at why it happens, and map out some ways forward.

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💡 CORE INSIGHT

What feels like your mind hijacking you… is still you.

It might be a version of you that’s less conscious. It might be a version of you shaped by pain, stress, trauma, or habits you picked up just to survive. But it’s still you.

That doesn’t mean you should feel shame. It means you can take responsibility—not blame. There’s a difference. You’re not at fault for the things that shaped you. But you are the only one who can choose to respond differently.

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🧭 TOP 3 TAKEAWAYS

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1️⃣ “YOUR MIND” ISN’T AN ENEMY—IT’S A PART OF YOU

We often talk like we’re battling our mind. Like it’s some little devil sitting on our shoulder, steering us into addiction or avoidance while the “real us” watches helplessly from the backseat.

But that framing keeps us fragmented. And if you’re always at war with yourself, you’ll always be exhausted.

Try seeing it differently:

You’re one system, made up of many parts. Some parts are conscious and wise. Some are scared and reactive. But they’re all still you. And that means they deserve understanding, not just judgment.

When you fall into an old habit or lose time or black out and wake up with regret… that’s not your “evil mind” taking over. That’s an unconscious version of you, trying to cope, trying to soothe, trying to protect, even if it’s doing it in a destructive way.

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2️⃣ YOUR REACTIONS AREN’T RANDOM

Imagine teaching a kid to play catch.

My 3-year-old and I are working on it now. For me, catching a ball is effortless. For him, it takes every ounce of energy—coordinating his eyes, arms, focus. But with repetition, it becomes easier. Eventually, his brain will know what to do before he even thinks about it. That’s muscle memory. That’s how neural pathways form.

Now apply that to your emotional habits.

Every time you cope with stress by drinking, or anxiety by scrolling, or loneliness by texting someone you shouldn’t—you’re reinforcing a pathway. It gets easier. Your brain learns, “Oh, this is what we do when we feel this way.”

And the more you walk that path, the more worn-in it gets. Eventually, it becomes automatic.

This is why it can feel like your mind hijacks you. But really, you just built a pattern over time. The good news is that you can build a new one.

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3️⃣ NEUROPLASTICITY IS REAL, BUT SO IS THE WORK