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Recall Recall
#354: The crew talks about learning new habits and skills, but sliding back into repeating old ones. What’s the deal with that??
Transcript
Josué Cardona 0:11
Welcome to GT radio on the Geek Therapy network. Here at Geek Therapy we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about. My name is Josué Cardona. And I’m joined today by Lara Taylor.
Lara Taylor 0:22
Hey,
Josué Cardona 0:23
Link Keller.
Link Keller 0:25
Yo,
Josué Cardona 0:26
And Marc Cuiriz
Marc Cuiriz 0:28
Hello.
Josué Cardona 0:29
Hello, Team. It’s my turn again, is it? is it my turn again?.
Lara Taylor 0:34
It is, because you decided to give us a topic.
Josué Cardona 0:38
Because nobody else came up with a topic. So my, my, my topic came to me when we when I was playing, small little, little indie game called Legend of Zelda tears at the kingdom. never and never heard of it. Yeah, no, it’s good. It’s good. So there will be no spoilers here. But I had to kind of what I call this not a, I had a realization. So I’m playing this game. So for context, this is the sequel to breath of the wild and I played, I played about 150 hours a Breath of the Wild through two playthroughs. I liked the game a lot. And one thing that I liked about the game was how you kind of had this very open world and you weren’t sure if you could climb that mountain, or if you could get this far and get to a particular thing. And so I’m playing tears of the kingdom. And I’m doing exactly that, again. It’s like, oh, my god, can I climb the mountain? Can I do this? Can I make it this way, I’m gonna try this. And I’m enjoying it. And after a play session, I stopped. And I thought, wait a minute. This is a sequel. There’s like 100 different ways that I could have done this. Because there there are all these new tools that weren’t available in the first game. And even though the game is teaching me to use them, and sometimes even requiring me to use them, to get from point A to point B, I’m so used to the way I used to do it, that I just did not actually use any of those things. So of course, it got me thinking how, how we do that in real life. That’s like, oh, I go to therapy, or I go to the gym, or I want to go to school, do trainings at work, and you don’t remember the things that you just learned. And you keep doing things. Like you were doing them before. Like you go back to old habits and you start like, why does that happen? What has happened to him? Why am I not using all the new features and Zelda? Why am I not using all of the amazing things that I’ve learned in therapy over the years?
Lara Taylor 2:57
Because new habits are hard to build.
Josué Cardona 3:00
get out of here
Lara Taylor 3:00
And we’d like to be in our comfort zone and do things the way we know.
Josué Cardona 3:05
Oh, explain that to me. I don’t like it. I don’t get it.
Lara Taylor 3:12
I don’t like it either. I can explain it, but I don’t like it. I also I do like some new things in games. I like new games and things like that. And I will get to the real life piece of it. But like I’m playing Jedi survivor and I keep getting new stances and new outfits and things like that. Nope, I want Cal to look the way he was on. Like the first cutscene I changed the color of his outfit to be more colors I like but like I don’t I don’t mess around with all the hair and stuff. I like the the two lightsabers and the double bladed lightsaber. I don’t use the new stances. Yeah, I like to use the things I’m used to. Partially because I know I’m more efficient at it and I know what I’m doing.
Josué Cardona 4:03
But these new tools are we’re more powerful and we can do more.
Lara Taylor 4:07
They are sometimes they are sometimes they’re not right. Like if I were to try and teach myself to type on a keyboard the way you’re supposed to at school. I would be way slower than I am right now with my master typing skills.
Josué Cardona 4:21
but wait, how do you type?
Link Keller 4:25
elaborate,
Lara Taylor 4:26
elaborate, my hands go that place where you’re the starting position you’re supposed to with your pointer finger on the little dots right on the F and the J But my fingers don’t go to the ones that exactly the way that they say whatever. Like I don’t know. I can’t tell you exactly which ones go where but I just type and it’s not the way that they teach you in school. Exactly.
Josué Cardona 4:51
Well this was backwards that this one is like if you learn the right if you the way that you do
Lara Taylor 4:57
the new way is faster.
Josué Cardona 4:58
Yeah, and then you stopped.
Lara Taylor 5:00
they stopped teaching it.
Josué Cardona 5:01
No, but then you stopped. It just started doing the old way. That’s my life.
Lara Taylor 5:07
Okay, I guess that makes sense. But yeah, we like to do the things that we are used to, because we are creatures of habit. And it is really hard to build routines and do new things. Because it’s not what we know, and not what we’re used to. And our brains fall back on those old patterns, because that’s the neural pathways that have been firing, right, and it takes a long time to switch to new pathways. I think I have to say that at least once a day, at my work sometimes five times a day
Josué Cardona 5:39
to yourself?
Lara Taylor 5:40
to clients
Link Keller 5:41
three to clients, two to yourself.
Lara Taylor 5:43
And to remind myself both that I also need, I take time to change that my habits, but also that my clients take time to change their habits, and that it is a process.
Josué Cardona 5:56
So even, like that makes sense to me. From a behavioral standpoint, right, for certain things, but what about, Does the same apply to your thoughts? Like to to thinking? Does it does the same? revolve around traumatic responses to, you know, all these things? Does the same apply?
Lara Taylor 6:23
I mean, I feel like it does. I mean, we’re talking behaviorally, but thoughts and thoughts and traumatic responses and all those like anxiety pathways, that’s all going through your brain too. So.
Josué Cardona 6:38
So but so. But what why do we so we develop the new habit?
Lara Taylor 6:47
And it takes time
Josué Cardona 6:49
why doesn’t it stick around? Why does it go away?
Lara Taylor 6:50
it doesn’t stick around because you have to keep doing it to get it to stick around. But then that means you have to keep doing it, even though you want to do the old ones
Josué Cardona 6:58
What if you don’t want to do the old one? That’s the problem. You don’t want to do the old one, you want to do the new one? Why don’t we Why don’t we go back to the old?
Lara Taylor 7:03
See, I want to do the old one.
Link Keller 7:09
It comes down to it’s like neurological resources, right? It costs more energy to do the new thing. Not necessarily because it is more difficult, but because it is new, your brain needs to pay more attention to it.
Lara Taylor 7:25
Right
Link Keller 7:26
I think a great example would be like when you are driving a route to work or school or whatever. And you’re driving the same route all the time, like there comes a point where your brain is not engaging in the drive above the very baseline bottom level, and you just appear in the parking lot where you’re going, you’re like, wow, I don’t remember actually ...
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By Geek Therapy Network#354: The crew talks about learning new habits and skills, but sliding back into repeating old ones. What’s the deal with that??
Transcript
Josué Cardona 0:11
Welcome to GT radio on the Geek Therapy network. Here at Geek Therapy we believe that the best way to understand each other and ourselves is through the media we care about. My name is Josué Cardona. And I’m joined today by Lara Taylor.
Lara Taylor 0:22
Hey,
Josué Cardona 0:23
Link Keller.
Link Keller 0:25
Yo,
Josué Cardona 0:26
And Marc Cuiriz
Marc Cuiriz 0:28
Hello.
Josué Cardona 0:29
Hello, Team. It’s my turn again, is it? is it my turn again?.
Lara Taylor 0:34
It is, because you decided to give us a topic.
Josué Cardona 0:38
Because nobody else came up with a topic. So my, my, my topic came to me when we when I was playing, small little, little indie game called Legend of Zelda tears at the kingdom. never and never heard of it. Yeah, no, it’s good. It’s good. So there will be no spoilers here. But I had to kind of what I call this not a, I had a realization. So I’m playing this game. So for context, this is the sequel to breath of the wild and I played, I played about 150 hours a Breath of the Wild through two playthroughs. I liked the game a lot. And one thing that I liked about the game was how you kind of had this very open world and you weren’t sure if you could climb that mountain, or if you could get this far and get to a particular thing. And so I’m playing tears of the kingdom. And I’m doing exactly that, again. It’s like, oh, my god, can I climb the mountain? Can I do this? Can I make it this way, I’m gonna try this. And I’m enjoying it. And after a play session, I stopped. And I thought, wait a minute. This is a sequel. There’s like 100 different ways that I could have done this. Because there there are all these new tools that weren’t available in the first game. And even though the game is teaching me to use them, and sometimes even requiring me to use them, to get from point A to point B, I’m so used to the way I used to do it, that I just did not actually use any of those things. So of course, it got me thinking how, how we do that in real life. That’s like, oh, I go to therapy, or I go to the gym, or I want to go to school, do trainings at work, and you don’t remember the things that you just learned. And you keep doing things. Like you were doing them before. Like you go back to old habits and you start like, why does that happen? What has happened to him? Why am I not using all the new features and Zelda? Why am I not using all of the amazing things that I’ve learned in therapy over the years?
Lara Taylor 2:57
Because new habits are hard to build.
Josué Cardona 3:00
get out of here
Lara Taylor 3:00
And we’d like to be in our comfort zone and do things the way we know.
Josué Cardona 3:05
Oh, explain that to me. I don’t like it. I don’t get it.
Lara Taylor 3:12
I don’t like it either. I can explain it, but I don’t like it. I also I do like some new things in games. I like new games and things like that. And I will get to the real life piece of it. But like I’m playing Jedi survivor and I keep getting new stances and new outfits and things like that. Nope, I want Cal to look the way he was on. Like the first cutscene I changed the color of his outfit to be more colors I like but like I don’t I don’t mess around with all the hair and stuff. I like the the two lightsabers and the double bladed lightsaber. I don’t use the new stances. Yeah, I like to use the things I’m used to. Partially because I know I’m more efficient at it and I know what I’m doing.
Josué Cardona 4:03
But these new tools are we’re more powerful and we can do more.
Lara Taylor 4:07
They are sometimes they are sometimes they’re not right. Like if I were to try and teach myself to type on a keyboard the way you’re supposed to at school. I would be way slower than I am right now with my master typing skills.
Josué Cardona 4:21
but wait, how do you type?
Link Keller 4:25
elaborate,
Lara Taylor 4:26
elaborate, my hands go that place where you’re the starting position you’re supposed to with your pointer finger on the little dots right on the F and the J But my fingers don’t go to the ones that exactly the way that they say whatever. Like I don’t know. I can’t tell you exactly which ones go where but I just type and it’s not the way that they teach you in school. Exactly.
Josué Cardona 4:51
Well this was backwards that this one is like if you learn the right if you the way that you do
Lara Taylor 4:57
the new way is faster.
Josué Cardona 4:58
Yeah, and then you stopped.
Lara Taylor 5:00
they stopped teaching it.
Josué Cardona 5:01
No, but then you stopped. It just started doing the old way. That’s my life.
Lara Taylor 5:07
Okay, I guess that makes sense. But yeah, we like to do the things that we are used to, because we are creatures of habit. And it is really hard to build routines and do new things. Because it’s not what we know, and not what we’re used to. And our brains fall back on those old patterns, because that’s the neural pathways that have been firing, right, and it takes a long time to switch to new pathways. I think I have to say that at least once a day, at my work sometimes five times a day
Josué Cardona 5:39
to yourself?
Lara Taylor 5:40
to clients
Link Keller 5:41
three to clients, two to yourself.
Lara Taylor 5:43
And to remind myself both that I also need, I take time to change that my habits, but also that my clients take time to change their habits, and that it is a process.
Josué Cardona 5:56
So even, like that makes sense to me. From a behavioral standpoint, right, for certain things, but what about, Does the same apply to your thoughts? Like to to thinking? Does it does the same? revolve around traumatic responses to, you know, all these things? Does the same apply?
Lara Taylor 6:23
I mean, I feel like it does. I mean, we’re talking behaviorally, but thoughts and thoughts and traumatic responses and all those like anxiety pathways, that’s all going through your brain too. So.
Josué Cardona 6:38
So but so. But what why do we so we develop the new habit?
Lara Taylor 6:47
And it takes time
Josué Cardona 6:49
why doesn’t it stick around? Why does it go away?
Lara Taylor 6:50
it doesn’t stick around because you have to keep doing it to get it to stick around. But then that means you have to keep doing it, even though you want to do the old ones
Josué Cardona 6:58
What if you don’t want to do the old one? That’s the problem. You don’t want to do the old one, you want to do the new one? Why don’t we Why don’t we go back to the old?
Lara Taylor 7:03
See, I want to do the old one.
Link Keller 7:09
It comes down to it’s like neurological resources, right? It costs more energy to do the new thing. Not necessarily because it is more difficult, but because it is new, your brain needs to pay more attention to it.
Lara Taylor 7:25
Right
Link Keller 7:26
I think a great example would be like when you are driving a route to work or school or whatever. And you’re driving the same route all the time, like there comes a point where your brain is not engaging in the drive above the very baseline bottom level, and you just appear in the parking lot where you’re going, you’re like, wow, I don’t remember actually ...