Daily Dose of Dawn at dawn

Being regulated doesn’t mean dimming yourself. Sometimes it means keeping your happy private. Dawn shares how to stay calm around other people’s moods without letting them drain you.

In Daily Dose 69, Dawn talks about how to be around people who aren’t happy, like in business meetings, at funerals, or during an argument, without losing your own peace. It isn’t masking. It’s controlling the environment in your cockpit. Keep a neutral face while your mind sits on a sunny porch, then use that inner strength to comfort a friend. Her top tool is quiet chanting in one ear, or a super-positive playlist for tougher situations. Happy matters, especially when things are hard.

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When you’re struggling, overdose on joy. Dawn explains why waiting for life to improve keeps you stuck, and how joy carries you through storms you can’t change.

In Daily Dose 68, Dawn shares that she didn’t feel truly happy until 41, because her happiness always depended on something: feeling better, having more money, fewer problems, a partner. Feeling bad about it fixed none of it. Her alternative was building a “yellow room of healing” in her mind, with sunflowers, happy bees, and soft places to land. When your mind is a nice place to be, you can retreat there and refill when life gets chaotic. Joy isn’t avoidance. It’s fuel.

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When everything hits at once, support yourself first. Dawn shares how to face an avalanche of challenges with grit and grace.

In Daily Dose 67, Dawn talks about the pileup: one thing goes wrong, then another, then an unexpected bill. With nine disabling disorders and a heavy past, she’s been buried before. She revisits the four stages of learning: notice, identify strategies, practice, and keep practicing until you become it. She also explains why she created her mindset magic phrases. For years she’d get triggered and forget every tool she had. Now a trigger is a call to the bat phone: grab the mental health toolkit. Take breaks, clear the mental clutter, and be on your own side.

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The biggest energy drain isn’t always other people. Sometimes it’s how you treat yourself. Dawn shares how self-criticism wears you out, especially when your energy is already limited.

In Daily Dose 66, Dawn explains how many of the non-narcolepsy things in her life made living with narcolepsy even harder. When you feel bad about yourself, it shows up in your body. Call yourself stupid for forgetting something and you’re mad, flooded with adrenaline, and now you need a nap. Worry over something you haven’t said can upset your stomach and set off your allergies. Accountability matters, but every time you don’t feel good about yourself, you’re hurting yourself. Feel your feels, keep your feet out of the fire, and give yourself grace.

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You can communicate clearly and still not feel understood. Dawn shares how to advocate for yourself and stay okay inside when other people just don’t get it.

In Daily Dose 65, Dawn talks about being the poster child for “have you tried?” People mean well when they offer advice, and you can acknowledge that while holding firm on what you know works for you. She shares a simple script: thank them, say what helps you best, and tell them how they can support you. The people who really care will ask what they need to know in case something happens. It’s your job to advocate for you, and your job not to be bothered by people who can’t understand because they’re not you.

Getting triggered is an invitation to practice, not proof you’re failing. Dawn shares how she cooled down from decades of hair-trigger anger and how you can too.

In Daily Dose 64, Dawn talks about being raised by an angry person, becoming one herself, and how decades of sleep deprivation made it harder to regulate. She reframes triggers as chances to practice, and walks through the four stages of learning she used to change: notice what sets you off, identify strategies, practice, and keep practicing. She also explains why clearing mental clutter makes it easier to catch a trigger and ask what it reminds you of, and how she did it without meditation because of narcolepsy. Life will give you plenty of chances to practice.

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Pain happens. Suffering doesn’t have to stay. Dawn explores what changes when you turn toward comfort and care instead of staring at what hurts.

In Daily Dose 63, Dawn revisits her self-experiment: what happens if you stop focusing on your suffering, past and present? Her short answer is that she feels better. The longer answer is that it leads you to look out for yourself more. You exist to enjoy what there is to enjoy, even when life is hard. When she feels like roadkill, she can wallow in a pity party or wrap herself in a blanket and tell herself she’s doing a great job. The second way gives you a lot more go juice.

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Putting yourself first doesn’t mean abandoning everyone else. It means sustaining yourself. Dawn shares real, practical ways to protect your energy when everybody needs you.

In Daily Dose 62, Dawn takes on “we all have the same eight hours,” which doesn’t hold up when narcolepsy has you asleep for half of them. She explains how to hear comments like that without letting them take your emotions for a ride, and why putting your emotional state first is part of putting yourself first. Her own strategies: getting up 30 minutes before the house, giving kids age-appropriate responsibility, telling teachers upfront that her kids do their own projects, and taking “Mommy Time” with headphones on. Treat yourself like there isn’t a replacement, because there isn’t.

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Work-life balance can feel like a joke when you’re exhausted and out of time. Dawn shares how to invite small moments of comfort into the days when you need them most.

In Daily Dose 61, Dawn talks about living in survival mode with narcolepsy, third shift, and stress, when waiting to “feel better” isn’t an option. You often can’t change your health, your job, or your relationships, but you can change the imbalance in your thinking. Her tools are simple: canned beans for a growling stomach, a funny movie for dopamine, a hot shower, rubbing your own feet, a playlist that gets you moving, and corners of the internet that make you laugh. If you only have 15 minutes, spend them on something that lifts you up.

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When emotional regulation becomes who you are, it guides you even when you’re triggered. Dawn celebrates 60 Doses with a simple question: what would I do here?

In Daily Dose 60, Dawn says emotional regulation isn’t just for the sleepy or the neurospicy. It’s a learnable skill for everyone. Reminding yourself how you want to live reprograms you to live that way, and she shares how listeners ask “What would Dawn do here?” and act from self-worth instead of habit. Whether this is your first Dose or your sixtieth, take what’s useful, put it through the YOU filter, and keep practicing.

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