From: The Wall Street Journal

When You Need to Face Facts in Your Life

The Wall Street Journal:

I’ve been having pain in my right knee. It hurts to exercise or sit cross-legged. Sometimes the pain wakes me up at night.

I know I should see a doctor. But I worry he’ll tell me to stop doing yoga, which I love. And what if he says I need surgery?

So I try to ignore the pain.

Why do we sometimes resist the facts, even when we know they’re important?
First, spend some time thinking about what you really value in life. Psychologists call this an affirmation invention. In research published online in January 2012 in Psychological Science, half of the 40 participants were asked to take a survey that assessed their values—which traits they felt were central to their sense of self and which they considered most important. They were asked to write a short essay about a time when they demonstrated these traits. The other half wrote about something neutral.
Read the whole story: The Wall Street Journal

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