The Psychology Behind Reiteration
Reiteration can occur through words or actions. It is synonymous to repetition, which is the act of repeating words or actions over and over again either because we simply need to be able to remember or to reinforce what we already know and portray that to the next person or because we don’t believe in ourselves enough to trust that one word is enough — or simply because we are just comfortable with it.
Reiteration or repetition helps in learning through the act of memorization and hence, assimilation.
When we have assimilated information through incessant repetition, it gets solidified in our brain and enables us to retrieve them for future purposes — such as in education, decision-making, persuasion, and other emphatic reasons.
Repeating our words incessantly tells bad on our self-esteem and confidence. It paints the picture than we aren’t sure of our thoughts and beliefs, otherwise, why would we repeat something we know and are sure about that we’ve initially mentioned if it’s not to reassure ourselves of our truths as though we doubted it in the first place.
This is not to say that as human beings, we aren’t bound to have self-doubts, but we need to get to the roots of why that may be so and tackle it so that it doesn’t portray in our everyday lives in the form of reiteration.
We need to get in touch with ourselves from time to time to check on our belief systems; what needs to be changed, uprooted, or improved on. This can be done in several ways, mostly by spending lone time where there’s no noise or distractions of any kind and reflecting. Find out what led you to believe in what you believe in today that formed your principles and analyze ways it will guide and continue to guide your everyday interactions with other people in such a way you don’t have to be unnecessarily reiterative.
In general life happenings, we don’t need to convince ourselves or anyone else of what we think or believe repeatedly with our words or actions as that can neutralize the intentions and thus, outcome.
This is excluding cases where you need to influence positive decision-making let’s say in the corporate world, or lay emphasis on words to trigger a positive change as stated initially — if need be. Like I just did.
And if this is as a result of healing from hurt or anything else for that matter, that causes you to be unnecessarily reiterative, borrow and ingrain this statement from “Stop Trying To Be Who You Were Before You Got Hurt” by Brianna Wiest
If you don’t radically transform yourself, you’re not healing, you’re simply recovering, which means mending the hurt without learning the lesson. It might mean you’re over what happened but also that you have not fundamentally changed the beliefs and behaviors that got you where you were.
Repeating actions, on the other hand, is similar to words only that you repeat a previously lived experience again either due to its pleasantness, due-corrections to be made, or simply because you’re comfortable in it and can predict the outcomes.
When it’s to do with pleasantness, it’s not always a bad thing as that’s a form of repetition that brings good rewards. Repeating a pleasant experience is pleasing. But reenacting a bad one for the sake of implementing corrections or proving a point you couldn’t do previously is self-sabotaging and will stunt your growth.
Reiteration due to the comfort of knowing what the odds and outcomes are stunts growth as well because as stipulated by many psychologists, it’s only when you step out of your comfort zone and take necessary risks that growth is triggered. It is in the pain of not knowing that we know.
If you can’t repeat your past, what then are mistakes, which become habitual. Are they not of the past? Isn’t it repetition? — Merlana Krishna Raymond
The repetition of actions is mostly but not entirely relatively done in relationships. This is when we repeat old behaviors that didn’t serve us well in our old relationships with our current ones because it’s something we’re used to. We’re afraid to change because the discomfort of uncertainty won’t let us and so we continue indulging in old, self-sabotaging acts despite so.
This is what Sigmund Freud referred to as compulsive repetition, which is the desire to return to an earlier state of things.
And again, Brianna Wiest countered such act in “Stop Trying To Be Who You Were Before You Got Hurt” where she postulated that attempting to relive your hurt to heal is one of the effective ways to stomp growth.
In her words; “as long as you keep trying to to return to the person you were before you got hurt, you’re missing the point. You’re setting yourself up to fail, again, and again”.
Another reason to be reiterative is when you’re concluding what had already been said, believed in, and/or stamped, or not.
A word is enough is a figurative term we should all bear in mind when we seem to be getting carried away with reiteration — whether with actions or words.
This does not mean we can’t repeat our words once or twice after, to lay emphasis on something important we need our parents, bosses, friends, and other people to be aware of or to influence decision-making, persuasion to effect a positive change and so on. But doing so sparingly is where wisdom lies. You don’t want to keep repeating your actions or words every single day assuming that it would change the next person or influence something as that waters down the intention (if you’re being honest with yourself) and also futilizes the outcome. Another reason to be reiterative is when you’re concluding what had already been said, believed in, and/or stamped, or not.
It’s insanity to keep repeating the same thing and expect a different result — Albert Einstein.
A word, likewise a hurt, is enough for the wise.
