What is it and why does the body do it? It seems like the mind is telling the person to do something but one cannot get themselves to actually do it.
In: 521
I can only explain what works for me and how I see it (trust me, I think like a 5yo)
Your brain is trying to preserve your energy. It’s telling you it’s hard and not worth doing – so usually you do something easy that makes you happier in the moment. You scroll Reddit for 3 hours and get the dopamine (happy fuel) and your brain wins. It’s a survival instinct to get you to invest your time on easy stuff that makes you happy in the short term.
A caveman version of you would look at a nice fat goat at the top of a mountain and decide it’s too much work so you eat the berrys in the bush beside you. And you spend less energy and still survive. It doesn’t work this way in modern life with all the other sources of quick gratification.
The key is realizing that your brain is tricking you into not doing things that will actually benefit you greatly in the long term. So there’s two things you need to do: 1) stop feeding it easy dopamine (social media, video games, whatever) 2) pick a small step towards climbing the mountain and do it. Don’t overthink, just count to 3 and start.
Ex: you have to write a 1000 page term paper. Sounds like a ton of work and you’ll never finish today. Brain says fuggit – open your phone. You say nope: I don’t open my phone because I’m not feeding you some weak ass dopamine. The only thing I need to do is write the title. You count to three: 1,2,3. Open your laptop and just write the title. Believe it or not: you’ll get a dopamine hit from this and you’ll likely dive in.
When you’re done: don’t binge on your phone. Sit in silence for a few minutes and think of one more small step you need for another task.
Dishes piled up? I’m just going to fill the sink- to hell with washing them. 1,2,3 fill the sink – try it…I bet you finish the dishes too.
Latest Answers