How we explain the ideas

Research, experience and GuideState’s ideas.

GuideState draws on published research, personal experience and its own developing framework. Here we explain how those sources inform the ideas you’ll find on the site.

What research can support

Research on metacognition examines how people monitor and evaluate their thinking. Research on stress explores how demanding conditions can affect functions such as working memory and cognitive control. These fields inform questions worth asking; they do not establish that one explanation fits every person or situation.

What GuideState contributes

Notice, Understand and Guide is an educational structure for examining a real situation and choosing a response. Guide-Self is our way of describing a deliberately considered set of values, qualities and principles to practise. Metacogstate is the framework’s term for attending to the state influencing thought. These labels and the particular combination are GuideState interpretations, rather than established clinical diagnoses or independently validated treatments.

What personal experience contributes

Ian Emorsson’s account explains how he came to recognise a useful space between an automatic reaction and a chosen response. A personal account can make an idea accessible. It cannot demonstrate that an approach will produce the same outcome for someone else.

Selected research and its limits

• Fleming and Dolan (2012), The neural basis of metacognitive ability. A review of psychological and neural research on evaluating one’s own performance. It provides background on metacognition, rather than evidence for the GuideState course.
• Arnsten (2009), Stress signalling pathways that impair prefrontal cortex structure and function. A review examining stress and prefrontal function, drawing on animal and human research. Its findings should not be used to diagnose an individual or explain every difficulty through stress.
• Slow breathing for reducing stress: The effect of extending exhale (2023). A trial in healthy adults comparing two slow-breathing ratios. Both groups reported reduced psychological stress, without evidence that the longer-exhale ratio was superior. This does not establish that breathing is suitable for everyone or that this website produces the same effects.

Using the resources thoughtfully

A little space is an option, not a requirement to feel calm before acting. Breathing, movement, external attention and practical adjustments offer different starting points. Material circumstances, health, disability, relationships, information and access to support can all change what is possible.

GuideState offers educational resources. It does not provide assessment, diagnosis or treatment. Persistent or substantial difficulties may need appropriate professional support.

Help us improve the explanation

If something is unclear, overstated or missing, you can tell us. We will review corrections against the relevant sources. Visitor feedback helps improve usability; it is not clinical evidence.

Selected sources checked 5 November 2026. This is a starting reference page, not a complete evidence review of every article.