Your Brain Is Being Trained Like a Dog — Here's How to Take Back the Leash

The Advisor with Stacey Chillemi · Dec 2, 2025 · 47m

Every time you pick up your phone without deciding to, your brain gets trained a little more. Every time an anxious thought pulls you down a spiral, that pathway gets a little deeper. You are not choosing these patterns — they are being conditioned into you by algorithms designed to keep you scrolling and a nervous system that learned to associate the phone with relief. Phyllis Coletta has spent her career teaching people to retrain that conditioning — and her Leave It protocol applies the same principles used to train a puppy to your own intrusive thoughts and phone urges. What she shares…