Stress shrinks your vision down to the next bad thing. Step outside. Look at something far away for a minute.

Under strain, attention narrows to the nearest threat and the world shrinks to about arm’s length. That is useful for running away from things and useless for nearly everything else, thinking included. Looking at distance changes what your eyes and body are doing, and the mind tends to follow. It is a small reset that works faster than reasoning with yourself.

When the walls come in, go outside and find the furthest thing you can see, then hold your eyes there for a minute. The end of a street, a rooftop, a tree line. Then come back to the task, which will usually have shrunk to its real size.