Stimulus, Pause, Response

Every trigger hands you a brief opening before you react — and what you do with that opening shapes the outcome. It can be as short as three seconds.

Why three seconds? An emotional impulse fires almost instantly — in a fraction of a second — but the prefrontal cortex needs a moment or two to catch up and moderate it. Without the pause, the impulse becomes the response. With it, the impulse becomes information you can act on or override.