I want you to stop reading for a second, close your eyes, and listen to the story going on in your head. It’s the story you tell others when you first meet them; it’s the story you tell yourself every day. It’s the story of who you are, where you came from, where you’re going. It’s the story of your life. What scientists have learned from a generation of brain research is: That story isn’t just part of you; it is you in a fundamental way. But there are questions that research hasn’t really answered. What happens when we misplace the plot of that story, when we get sidetracked by a pitfall, a pothole, a pandemic? What happens when we feel burned out and want a fresh start? What happens when our fairy tales go awry and we get lost? That’s what happened to my dad that year, to me around that same time, and to every one of us at one time or another: We get stuck in the woods and can’t get out. This time, though, I wanted to learn how to get unstuck.