Book Page CNCBT Academy
Climbing Out
of Anger
How One Million Stairs Rewired My Anger with CNCBT
Real Story · Practical Tools · Life Transformation
A personal case story about movement, memory, emotional regulation,
communication, and the development of Cardio-Neuro-Cognitive-Behavioral Training.
“I didn’t find a shortcut. I found the stairs. Through science, movement, and relentless practice, I rewired my brain and now I help others do the same.”
On This Page Nine sections
Book Page Menu
Use this menu to move through the introduction and eight chapter sections. Each chapter includes
a concise summary, key points, key messages, practice checklist, and AARV(4) mission.
INTRODUCTION
Climbing Out of Anger
This anger-management book tells a personal story of emotional regulation, self-change, and healing through the integration of cardio exercise, neuroscience, cognitive-behavioral learning, and practical relationship skills.
Beginning in Yongsan, South Korea and returning to Yongsan, the book follows one person’s journey to understand anger, memory, identity, and personal transformation.
At the heart of the book is Cardio-Neuro-Cognitive-Behavioral Training, or CNCBT, a self-developed anger-regulation practice that combines aerobic exercise, cognitive psychology, and cognitive-behavioral skills. Through AARV(4) Awareness, Acceptance, Relaxation, and Four-Step Validation the book explores how skills can be encoded, embodied, retrieved, reflected, and internalized.
Important Book Note
This book is not presented as a scientifically validated treatment, formal clinical protocol, or peer-reviewed therapy model. It is a single-case, three-year longitudinal personal practice and self-observation record from 2019 to 2021.
It is offered as a personal case story about climbing 988,176 stairs and using CNCBT and AARV(4) to practice anger regulation, communication, self-validation, and healthier responses to stress and conflict.
Key Points
What the chapter teaches
Key Messages
What the reader remembers
Practice Checklist
What the reader tries today
AARV(4) Mission
One concrete daily action
Chapter Explorer Eight-chapter arc
From Story to Skill
The book moves from personal history to neuroscience, CBT roots, adjacent
possibilities, CNCBT, AARV(4), internalization, and self-validation.
chapter 1
A Life That Comes Full Circle
Memory, identity, anger, and the search for meaning
This opening chapter introduces the larger theme of personal transformation. Through reflection on past relationships, formative experiences, and life lessons, I begin to examine how memory shapes the way we understand ourselves.
The chapter is not only about returning to a physical place; it is also about revisiting emotional patterns and personal history. Coming full circle becomes the starting point for redefining who I am today.
Six Key Points
1. Meeting with the commander of U.S. Special Operations Command-Korea.
2. A life journey that came full circle.
3. AARV(4) as a skill set for managing overactivation.
4. The Toilet-Cleaning Incident as an example of composure under tension.
5. CNCBT as an integration of cardio, neuroscience, and cognitive-behavioral skills.
6. Anger patterns can be studied, trained, and changed through structured practice.
Key Messages
- What once felt like hardship may later reveal itself as preparation.
- Awareness, Acceptance, Relaxation, and Validation work together.
- Repeated practice can help transform insight into behavior.
Practice Checklist
Today’s AARV(4) Mission
Notice one trigger, accept your body’s reaction, take 30 seconds of slow diaphragmatic breathing, and respond with one validating sentence.
chapter 2
The Neuroscience of Learning and Memory
How movement and deliberate learning may work together
This chapter explores how intense physical exercise and deliberate learning may work together. Using stair climbing as the main example, it examines how cardiovascular arousal, blood flow, and metabolic activation may support attention, memory, and plasticity.
It introduces encoding, embodying, and retrieval as the learning sequence behind CNCBT, showing how skills can move from intellectual knowledge into embodied practice and become more available under emotional pressure.
Six Key Points
1. CNCBT pairs cardio and focused practice to strengthen learning and memory.
2. Stair climbing adds productive difficulty to encoding, rehearsal, retrieval, and retention.
3. CNCBT distinguishes knowledge memory from emotion-regulation automaticity.
4. Repetition supports neuroplasticity, efficiency, and stronger pathways.
5. Movement and enriched experience highlight the brain’s capacity for change.
6. AARV(4) turns repeated practice into real-life self-regulation.
Five Key Messages
1. Emotion is a signal.
2. Learning is connection.
3. Memory is design.
4. What you repeat, your brain strengthens.
5. What you practice with body, breath, and words can become available in real life.
Practice Checklist
Today’s AARV(4) Mission
During one period of walking, stair climbing, or brisk movement, practice one short coping script, one breathing rhythm, and one intentional retrieval.
chapter 3
The CSPP CBT Anger-Management Project
From class assignment to life protocol
This chapter begins with a class assignment in Dr. Leslie Rosen’s CBT intervention course at the California School of Professional Psychology. Asked to choose a personal behavior to change, I applied CBT methods to my own anger through self-observation, recording, cognitive analysis, behavioral practice, and reflection.
What began as coursework became my first structured behavior-change project and later helped form the foundation of CNCBT and AARV(4): a life protocol for emotional regulation, communication, and personal responsibility.
Free Chapter Download
Download Chapter 3 in Its Entirety
Read The CSPP CBT Anger-Management Project as a complete 11-page PDF.
Key Points
1. A class project became the first structured behavior-change experiment.
2. Self-observation turned anger from a vague problem into a trackable pattern.
3. CBT methods made thoughts, emotions, behaviors, and consequences visible.
4. The project helped connect personal responsibility with practical change.
Key Messages
- Anger can be studied, not merely regretted.
- Recording creates distance from automatic reaction.
- A structured method can become a personal protocol.
Practice Checklist
Today’s AARV(4) Mission
Track one trigger today. Write down the situation, body cue, emotion, thought, behavior, and one healthier response you can practice next time.
chapter 4
Adjacent Possible
The world of “next-door” possibilities few people enter
This chapter reflects on unexpected turning points that quietly redirect a life. Drawing on “click moments” and the “adjacent possible,” it explores how new paths emerge when separate experiences, ideas, and relationships begin to connect.
For me, education, exercise, neuroscience, CBT, personal struggle, and marriage gradually moved closer together until they opened the next reachable possibility: the beginning of CNCBT.
Five Key Points
1. The adjacent possible is the set of opportunities just beyond current ability.
2. Stair climbing becomes a metaphor: each step widens what the next step can be.
3. Discipline, consistency, and mental toughness make new possibilities reachable.
4. Each challenge develops resilience, adaptability, and self-efficacy.
5. Small steps can compound into major change in health, relationships, work, and purpose.
Key Messages
- The next possibility is usually one small step away.
- Discomfort today can become capability tomorrow.
- What you train repeatedly begins to shape who you are.
- Small actions done consistently can create life-changing effects.
Practice Checklist
Today’s AARV(4) Mission
Choose one small step that stretches you just beyond your comfort zone and repeat it consistently today. Let that step open the door to the next possibility.
chapter 5
Cardio-Neuro-Cognitive-Behavioral Training
Training the body, brain, and behavior together
This chapter introduces Cardio-Neuro-Cognitive-Behavioral Training, or CNCBT, not as a proven treatment model, but as a single-case personal method I developed between 2019 and 2021 to improve emotional regulation, self-validation, and communication with my partner.
The chapter explains what CNCBT is—and what it is not: a practical account of how cardiovascular training, cognitive rehearsal, and behavioral skills came together in one person’s effort to build a healthier life.
Six Key Points
1. CNCBT integrates cardio exercise, neurobiology, and cognitive-behavioral practice.
2. High-intensity cardio supported health, cognition, emotional regulation, and productivity in this personal case.
3. Exercise may support brain function through circulation, metabolic activation, and autonomic balance.
4. The Toilet-Cleaning Incident as an example of composure under tension.
5. HRV can help track stress, recovery, and return to balance.
6. Movement, learning, and adaptation are linked in human performance.
Five Key Messages
1. Movement changes more than fitness.
2. It can shape attention, emotions, and learning.
3. Train the body.
4. Engage the brain.
5. Practice the response you want to live.
Practice Checklist
Today’s AARV(4) Mission
During one brief period of exercise, pair movement with slow breathing and one coping script you want to strengthen.
chapter 6
Learning the AARV(4) Skill Set
Awareness, Acceptance, Relaxation, and Four-Step Validation
This chapter introduces AARV(4), the core anger-regulation skill set practiced through CNCBT: Awareness, Acceptance, Relaxation, and Four-Step Validation—Active Listening, Accurate Reflection, Normalization, and Problem-Solving.
Using 21-story stair climbing as the main example, the chapter shows how AARV(4) can be encoded, embodied, and retrieved through movement, with the same principles adaptable to fast walking, cycling, treadmill exercise, rowing, or other sustained aerobic activities.
Five Key Points
1. Awareness catches triggers and cues in body, behavior, emotion, and thought.
2. Acceptance recognizes fight-or-flight activation as natural and takes ownership of the response.
3. Relaxation reduces arousal through breathing, posture, grounding, and calming strategies.
4. Four-Step Validation includes Active Listening, Accurate Reflection, Normalization, and Problem-Solving.
5. The 5-Level Emotional Regulation Scale can help track skill use in real-life interactions.
Six Key Messages
1. My trigger is real.
2. My reaction is mine to manage.
3. Notice the cue.
4. Accept the body.
5. Calm the system.
6. Validate before problem-solving.
Practice Checklist
Today’s AARV(4) Mission
Practice one AARV(4) skill during a safe movement session. Notice the cue, accept the response, calm the body, and choose one validating sentence.
chapter 7
AARV(4) Anger-Regulation Skills Completed Through CNCBT
From knowing the skill to using the skill
This chapter shows how AARV(4) moved from a technique I understood to a habit I could use under stress. From April to October 2019, I combined high-intensity stair climbing with demanding cognitive learning, listening to world economic history lectures while climbing from the basement to the 21st floor.
During that process, a new question emerged: if I could train economic history while climbing stairs, why not train anger-regulation skills the same way? That question became the turning point where CNCBT and AARV(4) came together—body, brain, emotion, and behavior trained brick by brick.
Six Key Points
1. AARV(4) moved from concept into real-life skill.
2. The Five Phases of Cognitive-Behavioral Integration are Encoding, Embodying, Retrieval, Reflection, and Internalization.
3. Stair climbing became a structured practice platform.
4. Repetition, exertion, retrieval, and stress made learning more durable.
5. Practical scripts were applied to common triggers.
6. Repeated learning trials helped AARV(4) become more automatic and embodied.
Key Messages
- Practice the phrase.
- Train the body.
- Retrieve the response.
- Repeat until it becomes natural.
Practice Checklist
Today’s AARV(4) Mission
Choose one recurring trigger and practice one short script with breathing, movement, and one validating response.
chapter 8
Integrated Practice of Self-Soothing and Self-Validation
Emotional recovery training with AARV(4) and CNCBT
This chapter applies awareness, acceptance, relaxation, and validation inwardly—to my own distress, shame, frustration, and emotional pain. Self-soothing helps calm the body and reduce escalation, while self-validation helps me acknowledge my experience without denial, exaggeration, or self-attack.
Together, they create an internal environment where anger does not have to become destructive. The chapter shows that emotional regulation is not only about responding better to others, but also about relating to myself with steadiness, honesty, and compassion.
Five Key Points
1. Self-soothing calms the body and nervous system.
2. Self-validation acknowledges feelings as real and understandable.
3. Together, they interrupt reactivity and self-criticism.
4. AARV(4) helps identify triggers, regulate responses, and apply self-support in real time.
5. Consistent practice strengthens resilience and changes how I relate to myself and others.
Key Messages
- Small daily practice can create powerful lifelong change.
- Soothe the body to calm the brain.
- Validate the experience to heal the mind.
- Create safety within.
- Practice in the moment, not only after the storm.
Practice Checklist
Today’s AARV(4) Mission
When I feel triggered or overwhelmed, I will use self-soothing and self-validation together to regain calm, clarity, and control.
Next Step From book to practice
Turn the Book Into Interactive Learning
The book introduces the story and principles behind CNCBT. CNCBT Academy helps you take the next step through downloadable exercises, interactive workbook pages, AARV(4) practice tools, training timers, and guided reflection activities.
Move beyond reading about emotional regulation—begin practicing the skills deliberately.
Educational Disclaimer
CNCBT and AARV(4) are presented as an educational, single-case self-study and personal practice model. They are not psychotherapy, medical advice, or a scientifically validated treatment protocol. Readers should consult a qualified healthcare professional before beginning physically demanding training.