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The Battle Between Knowing and Feeling
2 Reasons why knowing better doesn’t always mean feeling better
I knew it wasn’t right, but I did it anyway.
That’s the tug of war between what our brain understands and what our heart wants to believe.
Knowing something doesn’t always mean we’ll act on it. You can know someone is bad for you, but still miss the way they say your name. You can know a job is killing you slowly, but still be afraid to quit. You know smoking is bad for your health, yet you can’t give up the comfort it provides you.
Our brain processes facts. Our body reacts to patterns.
But our feelings is a mix of memory, hormones, fear, and hope all stirred up. They don’t follow rules. That’s why you can feel homesick for someone who made you cry. That’s why you can feel guilty for walking away even when you had to.
The reasons:
1. Cognitive dissonance
It’s what happens when your beliefs and actions don’t match. Your body feels uncomfortable, and your mind scrambles to make it make sense. But we don’t always solve it by doing what’s right . We often solve it by lying to ourselves.
