Got your six

• Name: Got your six
• Row: Heart (Feelings)
• Column: Centerline
• Side: Centerline

Purpose: Compassion. You care for others and yourself without losing your footing.

Compassion, for others and for yourself. You can feel what someone is going through without getting swept away. This is the centerline of the heart. Most vets give compassion easily and refuse it for themselves. The center requires both.

The voice on this square

I've got you. And I've got me.

Centerline: Balance. Not open, not locked. You respond instead of react. Every row has a centerline square, and the whole game is learning to find your way back here.

At the centerline your heart holds compassion: you can feel for others and for yourself without getting swept away.

Sources: Clark, A; Beck, A

Limbic system and the vagus nerve: your comms network. Emotion is built in the amygdala, insula and cingulate cortex, and it's wired to your actual heart through the vagus nerve. Heart rate variability tracks how well your thinking brain can steady your emotions. Simply putting a feeling into words measurably quiets the amygdala.

Integration: centerline. The front of your brain and your alarm system are working together instead of fighting. Your heart rhythm is flexible and you can feel the emotion without being run by it. This is the state that training aims for.

Sources: Lieberman, M; Thayer, J; Ochsner, K

How it tends to show up:

• You can listen without fixing
• You forgive yourself for the small stuff
• You feel connected, not drained

In your body

Soft eyes, slow breathing, warmth in the chest.

A thought that lives here

My worth didn't end when my service did. Identity anchored in who you are, not the uniform.

A thought that lives here

I'm wounded, not broken. Honest about the damage, hopeful about healing.

No right answers. These are for noticing, not judging. Skip any that don't fit.

• Who has your six, and whose six do you have? When did you last take care of yourself the way you'd take care of a brother?
• What would you say to your younger self in uniform if he was sitting across from you?
• What do you need to forgive yourself for?

• Full picture · HeadSame column. When your heart is here, your head often lands here too.
• All in · GutSame column. When your heart is here, your gut often lands here too.
• Trust my team · HeartOne step further from center in this row.
• Exposed · HeartOne step further from center in this row.

Write it as a When/Then plan: "When I notice you can listen without fixing, then I will do one thing for yourself that you'd do for a brother."

"When X happens, I will do Y" plans hand the decision to your environment, so you don't need willpower in the moment. Across many studies they make follow-through far more likely than good intentions alone.

Sources: Gollwitzer, P

• Compassion. You care for others and yourself without losing your footing.
• What it sounds like: "I've got you. And I've got me."
• Your move: Do one thing for yourself that you'd do for a brother.

Optional reflection

What do you need to forgive yourself for?