🧠 Meet the shutdown ritual your brain’s been begging for

The surprisingly effective ways to trick your brain into chilling out.

During the pandemic, I noticed halfway through an episode of Tiger King that I had this little knot of anxiety at the base of my skull. Without a commute or a change of scenery, my body wasn’t getting the memo that the day was over. Like many, I defaulted to a cocktail* to mark the mode change. It was surprisingly effective, and unsurprisingly unsustainable.

Years later, even as memories of Carole Baskin fade, the work-life blur remains. Some still work from home with their desk in view from the couch. Others get late-night emails from bosses expecting instant replies. That shift has fueled a very real burnout epidemic. But as Erik Barnes reports, there’s a surprisingly simple fix: a shutdown ritual.

Popular go-tos? Fake commute walks. Quittin’-time playlists. Desk resets. It’s not about the steps, it’s about the signal.

And once your brain gets the message? Everything after 6 PM hits different.

* - My Mai Tai recipe is amazing. Spirit forward, light on the orgeat, just the right amount of lime…

And what did we learn?

Friday, we shared the story of how Prince was making his Broadway debut. We asked our GOOD readers to share their favorite era of Prince’s career, and over 50% of you were here for the Purple Rain.

GOOD reader Karen2Ross summed it up beautifully. “The purple yoda from Minnesota had a soul like no one else. Anonymously donating millions, lifting up women, making a legendary guest appearance on the muppets, out-rocking a stage full of rock stars while he slayed the guitar solo in ‘While My Guitar Gently Weeps’, all while wearing heels. Legend. Icon.”

Image of the day

🎸 Bruce Springsteen’s nightly prayer for a divided America

Why The Boss still believes in the “land of hope and dreams.”

Bruce Springsteen hasn’t been the slightest bit shy about his feelings for the current administration, calling it “corrupt, incompetent, and treasonous.” So has that soured him on the country he so famously sings of being born in?

Not a bit. On Jimmy Kimmel Live, Springsteen opened up about why, despite political despair, he still closes every show with "Land of Hope and Dreams." He calls it “a prayer to the country”, a reminder that the America he believes in is still out there. “That’s an America worth fighting for,” he said.

In this report by Ryan Reed, we learn how Springsteen views his role as a “musical ambassador” and why James Baldwin’s words still give him hope: “In this world, there isn’t as much humanity as one would like, but there’s enough.”

🤫 The quietest way to win any argument

As the song says, “You say it best when you say nothing at all.”

During an argument, we often spend the time that the other person is speaking, conjuring up the right things to say next. But as Erik Barnes learned while interviewing psychologists and mediators, focusing on what to say next takes your most powerful choice off the table… saying nothing at all.

Experts say silence isn’t avoidance. It’s engagement. It slows the emotional tempo, keeps us from saying things we’ll regret, and projects confidence without a word. As psychiatrist Dr. Pamela Walters puts it, “Silence changes the emotional temperature in the room.”

In other words, the key to leveling up might be shutting up.

The talk of the world on this day in 1957 was all about how the “Ruskies” had put the first artificial satellite in orbit. There wasn’t much to Sputnik 1, but anyone huffing “what’s the big deal?” would be blown away by the GPS-infused, weather-monitored, space-stationed world we live in, thanks to the ground broken by this shiny little doo-dad.

A GOOD Throwback is a new segment we’re trying, in which we explore things we might have covered if we’d been around at the time.

Do you have something GOOD to share?

We’re always on the lookout for uplifting, enlightening, and engaging content to share with readers like you. If you have something you think should be featured in the Daily GOOD, let me know!

💬 From the group text…

Okay, I say ‘absolutely yes,’ but my wife got about four seconds in before dropping a rather definitive ‘nope.’ What do you think?

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