Pressure shrinks your view to a keyhole. Slow down one beat and the door comes back.

Under stress your attention narrows to whatever seems most threatening, which is useful in genuine danger and costly everywhere else. The options are still there, you simply cannot see them from inside the narrow view, and the certainty that there are no options is part of the state rather than a fact about the situation.

When you feel the narrowing, take one beat before acting. A breath, a step back from the desk, a minute outside. Then ask what a third option might be, since there is almost always a third option and it is the one the keyhole hides.