Psychological Inertia

Inertia is the word used to describe how an object continues to move through its momentum even though the force acting on it has already stopped. As an example, you stop pedaling the bicycle and inertia is what allows it to continue rolling forward.

The scars of people run deep.

People who were bullied in their childhood hold this sense of pain as they grow up. They might become the most interesting guy in the workplace, but inside they still hold this inner trauma within them. Because of that, they hold people away - They are afraid of their self-worth being stepped upon again. No matter how loved they are, they are afraid to let people get close again.

We again see people who were forced to meet standards while young, and then continuously hold that sense of wanting to prove themselves to others repeatedly. They literally live for the validation of other people.

People who suffer heartbreak clinch onto themselves, unwilling to become vulnerable and open their heart again to someone else. They become 'incomplete', grasping for more - wanting more, but yet unwilling to release their own fears.

There are all kinds of people in the world and so the scars come in many forms.

But that's what it means to be human.

To me, our minds have collections of habits. Some that repeatedly surface, again and again. Physical habits, emotional habits, mental habits.... They are structures with a stuck pattern, with a form of inertia, a form of memory.

Some forms of habits are useful - like for brushing your teeth or walking. For checking the road for cars before crossing.

But of course - the troublesome habits are those that you have accumulated within yourself - as emotional or mental habits.

You can't just stop one day and decide, I will no longer do that. Changing a negative habit is replacing it with a positive habit to stay away from it. To see the root of the negative habit and remove its validation completely.

In fact, it's part of what we would call an "identity".

When we build habits with other people, we form a "common identity" - but it's also part of your role in this world.

If it's this deeply ingrained, the only way is to acknowledge this negative habit and actively try to replace it with a more positive change.