2 - Why Mindless Repetition Works

Toye Oyelese

All right, let's get started. If you've been following along since our first episode, you’ll remember last time we went over the SW+A+T equals D model—how it pulls together stuff like self-affirmation, behavioral activation, and a little bit of that “WILL” linguistic twist. Today, though, let’s dig into why, when it comes to therapy, we lean so heavily on spoken words rather than just thoughts or actions. And, I know, the metaphors get a bit thick here, but bear with me—it's worth it.

Toye Oyelese

So, think of thoughts as, well, gas—just floating around everywhere, right? They expand to fill any available space, and I mean, if you’ve ever told someone “don’t worry,” you know it usually... well, it never works. The more you try to squash a thought, the more it puffs up. Wegner’s “white bear” experiment is the classic: the moment you’re told not to think of a white bear, suddenly, your mind is wall-to-wall polar bears. It’s like your imagination is on its own mission—far ahead of your rational mind. Clinical bottom line: thoughts are basically the least controllable lever.

Toye Oyelese

Actions, on the other hand, are more like a solid—concrete, right? Once you’ve done something, it’s done. Actions are stable, have that sense of “momentum”—but, here's the rub, you often need willpower, and not everyone has spare willpower just lying around, especially in a crisis. Plus, actions are really tied to context. I mean, you can’t practice public speaking if it’s three in the morning and you’re in your pajamas. That’s not happening. So, actions are controllable, but not always accessible.

Toye Oyelese

Now, words—this is where things get interesting. I’ve always thought of them as liquid. They just flow, you know? The word itself has meaning to us and when it is spoken out loud, it now combines that meaning with action, SW +A. You could be panicking at two in the morning, in a tiny cabin somewhere in the north of B.C. with snow hitting the windows, and—look, I’ve seen this!—you might not be able to control your thoughts or muster the energy for action, but you can say something out loud. “I will be calm.” Even if you don’t believe it, even if you’re shaking. Words require no internal permission to exist and by speaking them out loud you are also engaging in action. The moment you speak, your brain’s doing different work: you’ve got the motor cortex, auditory feedback loops, the works. So, in this situation, the spoken word combined with the meaning of the word gives you the SW + A and invariably our thoughts move in the direction of calmness.

Toye Oyelese

I’ve seen this land with my most anxious patients, especially in those remote settings where reflection feels useless and action isn’t possible. Words—they were always right there, a way to steady the ship. So that’s our starting point. All right, now, let’s talk about why the number of times we say those words—the repetition—matters so much.

Toye Oyelese

Here’s the real engine behind this approach: if you can get two of the big three—thoughts, actions, or words—lined up in a direction, you actually create a pressure cooker for the third. Most of the time, it’s words and maybe a couple of actions, and then, over time, your thoughts kinda—reluctantly—shift to match. This is pure cognitive dissonance reduction; Festinger’s old “forced compliance” work nails it. If you keep saying something, or acting in line with it, even if your head’s grumbling in protest, eventually the brain goes, “Okay, fine, I’ll adjust.”

Toye Oyelese

Now, people always ask: Why so many repetitions? Two hundred times, isn’t that overkill? And, you know, I get it. I say this as someone who can’t even get through some of those jawbreaker medication names three times without tripping up. But it’s absolutely central: you want to hit “critical mass.” Every repetition is like adding a pebble to a bucket—one pebble is nothing, but keep at it and eventually, the bucket tips. A handful of repetitions is background noise; a couple hundred, though, and you’ve got real pressure for change.

Toye Oyelese

But there’s another angle here—what we sometimes call the “critical factor.” You know, the part of your mind that fact-checks every idea for whether it matches reality. If you just say “I am confident,” the critical factor pipes up right away: “No, you’re not! Look at your sweaty palms!” But if you say “I will be confident,” suddenly the critical factor relaxes. The brain tends to accept future intentions rather than reject present claims. Neuroimaging even shows different activation—less of that internal referee when you use “I will.” So, always, always guide your patients toward “I will” constructions. It’s not a technicality; it genuinely makes a difference in how the mind processes spoken statements.

Toye Oyelese

And then, working memory—don’t get me started. The brain can really only juggle a few things at once. Bombard it with 200 quick statements and, honestly, it gets overloaded; it can’t reject each one on a case-by-case basis. That’s why we move so fast, sometimes even a bit garbled—I mean, have you heard me trying to say “pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis”? By the fifth try I just give up and let it roll off my tongue. That’s the state we want: repetition so quick and effortless the critical brain gives up fighting.

Toye Oyelese

So, align two out of thoughts, actions, or words, repeat with enough volume using “I will,” and you open up this loophole where change sneaks in almost sideways—without the patient needing to believe it or even pay attention. All right—so, now, let’s talk about why we don’t want to reflect too much, and why positive direction, not just any old affirmation, matters.

Toye Oyelese

Here’s the ironic truth: when a patient tries hard to believe what they’re saying, the process slows—and sometimes even backfires. Reflection engages the very “referee” in the brain that you’re trying to slip past. It’s like the difference between brushing your teeth on autopilot and pausing to check if every bristle is pointing the right way. Just say it. Don’t try to mean it. The mindless, mechanical repetition is, bizarrely, more effective than passionate intent.

Toye Oyelese

Why the focus on positive, future-oriented language? It’s not just feel-good fluff. When you ask someone to repeat, “I will not fail,” their mind has to load “failure” just to process the sentence. Worse, in the rush of rapid repetition, the “not” can get lost, and suddenly they’re embedding the word “fail” over and over again. It’s just less efficient and loads up the brain for nothing. So, we lean into articulations like, “I will be calm,” or “I will trust,” or “I will adapt.” What you’re moving toward, rather than what you’re moving away from.

Toye Oyelese

And, look, the direction matters more than outcome. Had a patient, not so long ago, in the middle of a financial crisis—he was so locked up with anxiety that stopping “negative thoughts” was futile, and action was impossible. But he could still say, over and over—even quietly, even if he rolled his eyes, “I will survive, I will thrive.” Did that predict exactly how he’d dig out? No. But it pointed him forward. It’s not about locking in a path—it’s about setting the compass heading. And sometimes, giving chaos a little room helps what needs to unfold, unfold.

Toye Oyelese

So, to sum all that up—spoken word is always available, repetition builds “critical mass” pressure, the “I will” lets you sneak past the mind’s gatekeeper, mindless delivery avoids resistance, positive framing reduces extra cognitive drag, and being a bit open-ended in your direction gives patients space to land somewhere new. Not saying it’s a magic bullet, but I’ve seen it shift the terrain for plenty of patients who were stuck, despite knowing all the “whys” in the world.

Toye Oyelese

And that’s where we’ll leave it for this episode. Next time, we’ll get super practical—walking through the step-by-step protocol, how to guide patients from framework to actual prescription. If you’ve got questions about articulation design, like how specific is too specific, or how much is enough, hang tight. There’s more to come. Thanks for joining me. I’m Dr. Toye Oyelese, and I’ll see you in Episode 3.