What is Cognitive Dissonance?

Internal Battles Are Painful

When we don’t protect ourselves and each other enough during this pandemic we can experience inner conflict.

One side of us wants freedom and connection while the other side desires safety and care.

Cognitive dissonance is the experience of discomfort when our actions are in contradiction to our values or beliefs.

It also happens when we have seemingly conflicting and inconsistent values, attitudes or beliefs.

To minimize this internal tension we’re more motivated to change our beliefs or behavior so they’re in better alignment.

We can also do so by rejecting, explaining away, or avoiding new information.

Signs of Dissonance:

1.  Feeling uncomfortable before taking action or making a decision

2.  Trying to justify or rationalize a decision that we’ve made or an action we’ve taken

3.  Feeling embarrassed or ashamed about something we’ve done and trying to hide our actions from other people

4.  Experiencing guilt or regret about something we’ve done in the past

5.  Doing things because of social pressure or a fear of missing out (FOMO), even if it wasn’t something we wanted to do

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