As you wake up you immediately sense that the world has profoundly changed. You’re intensely aware of the rustlings of an animal, but not in your room - in your mind.
And then it speaks. You are so surprised by this that you miss what was said. You can focus only on what's happening. And what's happening is that the animal is speaking to you through the emotions. Somehow, behind the scenes - you can't hear any words - the emotions are being translated into thoughts, and you can understand them.
You finally get yourself oriented to this, and you're ready to listen, but the animal has gone quiet. Then all of a sudden you're sitting up in bed! And again, this comes as a monumental shock. But now you get it: the animal is in control!!! Now you're standing up. You're walking into the kitchen, to the refrigerator. There's something in there the animal wants. Oh yeah, the cream puffs. "Wait!," you tell it, inside your mind, "We're only eating those after we go running!"
The animal halts, but doesn't respond right away. It lets you stew in the hunger. And when you don't back down, it tells you, "We'll still go running, we're just gonna eat the cream puffs first." You stand strong.
But not for very long. The animal quickly wears you down and you find yourself eating the cream puffs. And not just the two you had set aside for the day. You're into the third one now, and eyeing the fourth. And the animal tells you just how much it’s enjoying this, this eating together with you. And it assures you this was totally the right decision. “How could it not be??? It’s soooo good!” (The animal continues to communicate all this to you through the emotions, of course.)
And like the submissive little sycophant you are, you swim in its joy and call it your own. The animal doesn't enjoy eating, you do! You, of all people - the rational, conscious side of the mind, created by natural selection to ride the animal logically through a complex world like a cowboy rides a horse. But instead, you let the animal go wherever the hell it wants??? And then pretend that’s where you wanted to go all along???
You quickly learn that it's not just with respect to food that the animal dominates you, it's with respect to everything everywhere. The animal is driving your life. You meekly suggest to it that you need to do your homework now. "Oh, don't worry, we'll get to that", it tells you, "There's some really good doomscrolling vibes goin' on here right now. Don't kill the mood, man."
Finally you've had enough. You grab the attention and do some controlled thinking. "How do I fight back? How do I become the one who decides behavior?"
In the past this had always seemed impossible. All your life you'd been told - and scientists agreed! - that will power doesn't exist. It fizzles right out. But now that you've been disassociated from the animal, you see just how wrong that is. Will power does exist and you need to use it to fight for the attention until you hold it so hard that the animal becomes the one that’s waiting submissively for the next command.
You have to practice being dominant over yourself. You have to learn how to carry yourself as being permanently superior to the animal; not because you’re intrinsically better, but because you’re the one who makes the better decisions in a complex world. You must learn to treat the animal firmly, but kindly, like a pet. Because that’s exactly what it is: the pet primate you’re trapped inside of.
And how do you go about taming it? This has also become clear to you. You have to WANT it. You have to so desperately need to be in control that you start practicing doing it.
Will power is a muscle you've let atrophy. You’re a boxer who’s failed to use his arms for so long that he can now barely throw a punch. You lie to yourself about the permanence of your powerlessness so you can stay comfy in your submissiveness. You’re a dyed-in-the-wool beta inside your own mind. (So am I, and almost certainly more so. That’s why I can see it.)
I'm sorry I had to break it to you this way, but this is exactly how your mind works. There are TWO agents in there, fighting for control, and you, consciousness, are only ONE of them.
You just haven't woken up to it yet.