The Forge is where we work on inner mechanics. We start with a tiny piece of Perception Generator work. You will not fix your whole life in one post. You will examine one small moment and move one lever. --- Step 1: Pick a recurring moment Choose a situation that happens often and spikes you. Examples: A conversation pattern that always turns into an argument. A money thought that punches you in the gut. A shame loop that shows up after you try something. Keep it small and specific, not “my whole childhood.” --- Step 2: Describe it in three sentences In a notebook or notes app, write: 1. What happens outside you. 2. What happens inside your head. 3. What you usually do next. No poetry, just description. --- Step 3: Notice the sensory details Close your eyes and recall the moment. Answer these: What do you see in your mind when it happens, if anything (images, scenes, colors, positions in space). What do you hear (inner voice, other people’s words, remembered phrases, tone). What do you feel in your body (tightness, heat, sinking, pressure, where exactly). Write a few words for each. --- Step 4: Change one lever Pick one of those inner details and alter it: If there is a mental image in front of your face, push it farther away, shrink it, or drain the color. If there is an inner voice screaming in one ear, move it behind you, turn the volume down, or change it to a flat monotone. If the feeling sits in your chest, imagine it slowly moving down your arm and out through your fingertips with your exhale. You are not lying to yourself. You are testing whether your nervous system will respond to a different setting. --- Step 5: Test and report Think of the situation again with the new setting in place. Notice what changed, even if it is only ten percent. Then comment under this post with: 1. The type of situation you picked (keep it general). 2. The lever you changed. 3. What shifted, if anything. Keep it brief. One paragraph is enough.