The Story Isn't Finished Yet | The Reticular Activating System and a Blown Engine

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The truck saga is back, and this time we're not calling it bad news.

If you've been with us since the engine seized up back in episode 12, you know exactly which flashback opens this one. We're back in that moment... the pops, the shudder, the quote that made both our stomachs drop. This time we used it as the jumping-off point for part three of our Mindset Shift series.

We tell you about a farmer whose horse ran away, then came home with a dozen wild horses, then broke his son's leg, then kept that same son out of a war draft. Every time something happened, the farmer said the same thing. Maybe.

We get into the actual science behind why your body responds to stress differently depending on what you believe about it (there's a 30,000-person study behind this one), and a part of your brain called the reticular activating system that's been deciding what you notice, and what you don't, since before you could talk.

We're still holding the pen on how the truck situation turns out. So far, it's not finished. Neither is yours.

Series links:

Note for clarity: Cara referred to the brain's content filtration system as the "reticulating activating system" throughout this episode. Its correct name is the reticular activating system. Same incredible mechanism, same science, just wanted to name it right.

If any of this is something you want real, ongoing support putting into practice (not just something to nod along to), that's what The Reinvention Project is for. A free class every third Thursday, a weekly Circle if you want company in it regularly, or book a call if you'd rather just talk it through with us directly.

This episode drew from a body of real research on stress mindset and cognitive reappraisal. If you want to go deeper:

Keller et al. (2012) — the landmark 30,000-person study on whether believing stress harms you actually affects mortality: Health Psychology, 31(5), 677–684
Jamieson, Mendes, Blackstock & Schmader (2010) — reappraising pre-exam arousal improved GRE performance: Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 46(1), 208–212
Jamieson, Nock & Mendes (2012) — reappraising stress improved cardiovascular and cognitive responses: JEP: General, 141(3), 417–422
Brooks (2014) — reappraising pre-performance anxiety as excitement: JEP: General, 143, 1144–1158
Crum, Salovey & Achor (2013) — stress mindsets and how they shape the stress response: JPSP, 104, 716
2024 meta-analysis (Scientific Reports) — 44 effect sizes, overall d = 0.23 for reappraisal and mindset interventions on task performance
Tedeschi & Calhoun (1996 onward) — the post-traumatic growth framework and PTG Inventory