One thing that was rather news to me is how the body falls back into default behaviors of questionable merit. When I was younger, I thought that, afflicted with

One thing that was rather news to me is how the body falls back into default behaviors of questionable merit. When I was younger, I thought that, afflicted with some pain, I would learn to ignore it and soldier on. Hoo boy. Turns out, chronic pain, when the prospects seem bad, drains your motivation away (even more so with functional neural problems, which simply make you feel like crap 100% of the time). Now, if you happen to be of procrastinating type before that, you're left with zero motivation. Your mind is kinda hazy in the mornings, so you have to rely on your habits to carry you through. Every movement requires effort now. For a lot of illnesses, physical therapy is the right answer—and meanwhile, the instinct says to stay in the chair with a big breakfast and marathon BoJack Horseman.* Maybe later the mind will clear up a bit or the pain will ease up, and you'll swing dumbbells around or go outside. Oh what do you know, it's evening already. This regime made my physique problematic in the first place! Why don't I have an instinct that would tell me to move around and exercise? And this is cumulative, of course—I should be making some better habits for tomorrow, but instead I'm dropping everything that seems of no immediate importance, which is like all that makes life healthy and interesting. So, I once believed that conscious effort would carry me through life—but if you look into pretty basic psychology, the ape brain is way more firm at making day-to-day decisions. It's better to have habits that will work for you in hard times. The sentimental books about how you need to ‘overcome yourself’ were right, only they were distant and nonspecific. * Note that marathoning BoJack Horseman is definitely recommended in different circumstances.