Will power

From: Saj Malhi <sajm.domain.name.hidden>
Date: Wed, 27 Jan 1999 23:31:26 -0000

Does anyone have any thoughts on the notion of will power? When I'm sitting watching TV in the evening and decide I want to go for a run but at the same time feel I'd rather stay in, what is actually occurring in those few brief moments (seconds usually) before I inevitably put up my feet and tuck into some snack. I want to go for a run but at the same time I don't. Eventually I prevail. So what has overcome, and what has succumbed? The essential point is that I have been aware of the two 'wants' and have to some degree been pushed around by them. Indeed, it is perhaps the degree to which someone is pushed around by processes of this sort that makes them indecisive or not. Psychiatrists describe this kind of mental struggle as a sort of balancing act, a process whereby the mind weighs up its perceived needs and eventually decides in favour of one option rather than another. There are not two 'me's therefore arguing in my head, only two needs fighting for dominance within the mind.
Received on Wed Jan 27 1999 - 15:34:09 PST