The Psychological Immune System

The psychological immune system, also known as resistance, also known as the reason you can’t seem to do the thing you said you would.

Most of us have this experience. We say we are going to do something and we fully commit. We have full intention of doing what we said we would but when it comes down to it we just don’t.

We are confounded by our behavior. We were so committed, what happened? Why are we not doing the thing we know would be good to do?

For you this may be exercise, eating healthier, studying, getting that project out. Usually, it’s something we know that if we do it we will be closer to the person we want to be.

So why would we block ourselves from completing this goal?

Why do we self-sabotage with cookies and procrastination?

The reason we do this is called resistance in psychology, but I think it’s better conceptualized as the psychological immune system.

Just like our body has a natural defense, so does our mind.

And just like our body’s immune system doesn’t always work in an optimal way, our mind's immune system can work against us as well.

At the end of the day, both our mind and body are just trying to protect us. The mind and body want to keep us alive, and they do so based on the best predictions they have.

Most of the information our bodies and minds have our based on our past. There is substantial data in our past. Various viruses we have been exposed to, situations that have hurt us, ways we have alleviated painful emotions.

Some of these data points are helpful, while some of them are outdated and no longer relevant to the people we want to be.

Yet, without much else to go off of our minds use past experience to predict what will happen in the future.

If we have failed or been hurt in the past our minds will predict this same occurrence in the future.

This is sometimes the reason we feel like we can’t muster up the motivation to take a risk we know we would benefit from. Maybe a previous similar incident did not have a positive result and our mind is trying to protect us from what it thinks is possible failure.

One of the best ways to figure out why you are resisting the change you crave is to ask yourself:

If I had a really good reason for not doing this, what would it be?

Oftentimes we are so busy trying to avoid this reason because we think it will hold us back. But in actuality confronting our resistance and coming to terms with it is what will allow us to move forward.

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