Think Before You Act

February 14th, 2021

For to be wise is only one thing - to fix our attention on our intelligence, which guides all things everywhere.

- Heraclitus, Quoted in Diogenes Laertius, Lives of the Eminent Philosophers, 9.1

Regret. The follow-up question. What was I thinking?

The obvious answer is no thought was involved. Raw emotion trumped reasoned thought. Our brain is left out of our response as our muscles tense and hormones surge.

Conclusion

Our ability to reason through difficult events is great. Faced with difficulty we would do well to not let all other parts of our body respond before our mind.