When You Know Better but Do It Anyway

"We live in an era saturated with information. In a matter of minutes, we can find answers to both simple questions ("What's a good birthday gift for a 9-year-old boy?") and complex ones ("What's the optimal diet for a 40-year-old woman trying to build muscle?"). While some decisions are in fact deeply nuanced, most of the struggles that undermine our well-being are not caused by a lack of knowledge."

"More often, the problem is this: We know what to do, but we don't do it. This is one reason I often reassure colleagues and curious friends that tools like ChatGPT will never entirely replace therapy. Information, insight, and even emotional validation are rarely the missing pieces. The harder part of change is translating insight into action. Especially when doing so requires tolerating discomfort, delaying gratification, or resisting well-worn habits."

"As most of us have experienced, knowing what would help does not mean we feel able or willing to do it. Our inaction, even with the right information, is nothing to be ashamed of! And it is not a modern failure of discipline. It is a deeply human pattern that has been recognized for centuries. An "Offense Against Wisdom" In Ayurvedic philosophy, this phenomenon is described by the concept prajñāparādha, often translated as "an offense against wisdom " or"

People often know what would help but fail to act because insight alone rarely produces change. Translating insight into action requires tolerating discomfort, delaying gratification, and resisting entrenched habits. Inaction with correct information is a common human pattern rather than a modern moral failing. Ancient traditions and modern psychology both document the tendency to override inner signals toward balance. Ayurvedic prajñāparāda describes acting against one's better judgment. Emotional validation and information are rarely sufficient to produce behavior change. Learning to regulate the nervous system supports clearer decision-making and allows innate wisdom to guide more skillful choices toward health and balance.

Read at Psychology Today