It’s like I’m glued to the couch, endlessly scrolling my TikTok For You page. My brain is screaming, “STOP! I KNOW THIS IS BAD FOR ME. GET UP, GET UP!” Yet my body seems to have a mind of its own and falls back into the doom-scrolling trap every time. Why do I do this? I know mindless scrolling is a waste of time and generally rots my brain. Yet I continue to make choices that hurt me.
Short answer: because I’m human.
It’s incredibly frustrating to be trapped in a cycle you know is negative or harmful, but can’t break. You may blame yourself, feel weak for not stopping, or, like me, just feel frustrated. Or maybe you’re numb to the whole thing, just going through the motions, feeling helpless. No matter how you feel, the main reason for making choices that hurt you is this: they feel comfortable.
I am sure I am not the first person to tell you that our brains are programmed to seek familiarity and comfort. It may sound counterintuitive, but a bad routine is still a routine. Even if the familiar choice is harmful, our brains instinctively cling to what they know. That’s why we keep making choices that hurt us, even when we know better; it’s our brain’s way of trying to survive.
Our brains hate unpredictability, and that is growth’s middle name. So even if we truly want to grow and better ourselves, the brain instinctually says “no thanks” and goes right back to what it knows. Your brain has learned that making this choice has kept you safe, which is its number one objective. The behavior might be bad, but the intention is always to protect you.
But that doesn’t mean change is impossible. Thanks to neuroplasticity, our brains can rewire themselves. It just takes time and patience. Introduce new habits slowly. You have to introduce new things to your brain slowly and teach it that it’s safe to try new things, make positive choices, grow, and evolve. Over time, your brain will build a new bubble of safety around your good habits, and those will become its new defaults.
It is not your fault that you continue to make choices that hurt, even though you know better. We live in a world where we are competing with robots. But unlike robots, which we make for self-optimization, we have the goal to survive. Two very different objectives that garner two very different sets of results. You are not flawed, you are human. The fact that you are aware of this cycle is your first step to changing it!
Until Next Week, My Friends!
P.S. I’m proud of you 😉