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The battle between reason and emotions
To understand the conflict between our good intentions and our contrary impulses, we can look at the dual process model. Our behavior are divided into two categories:
- The rational mechanisms, managed by the reflective system.
- The emotional mechanisms, managed by the impulsive system.
The impulsive system can facilitate or prevent the reflective system from putting our intentions into place.
MORE IDEAS FROM THE ARTICLE
The attraction toward sedentary can be viewed in light of evolution. When it was challenging to gain access to food, minimizing effort allowed for the saving of energy that was crucial for survival.
This tendency could explain the current pandemic of physical inactivity since genes allowing individuals to survive are likely to be present in the next generation.
- The first step toward an active lifestyle is to become aware of this force that is driving us to inactivity.
- We likely engage in physical activity only when it is fun or necessary. To promote physical activity, make it pleasant by restructuring your environment to favour it, especially during your daily trips.
- The architecture of new buildings should also encourage physical activity by prioritizing access to stairs, or standing desks, etc.
RELATED IDEAS
- People with lower cholesterol levels are more likely to die violent deaths.
- If you put primates on a low-cholesterol diet, they become more aggressive. Lowering animals’ cholesterol seems to affect their levels of serotonin. Even fruit flies start fighting if you interfere with their serotonin levels.
- Studies have linked serotonin levels in people to violence, impulsivity, suicide, and murder.
- In a randomized controlled trial, statins were found to increase aggression in post-menopausal women though, oddly, not in men. Giving statins to Nile tilapia made them more confrontational and altered the levels of serotonin in their brains.
Exercise is a movement of the body to enhance physical fitness.
Most people know that exercise is important for the physical development of the self, yet a majority of them are skipping exercise often.
- Pick a regular (sedentary) part of your routine and switch it out for an active choice: Instead of the elevator, take the stairs;
- Commit to movement after the most frustrating, stressful part of your week: after a weekly meeting or work task;
- Work out while you watch TV: you get to indulge the part of your brain that's telling you to lie down on the couch while actually circumnavigating laziness.