Hello and welcome to the Mindful Kind podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Cable, author of the

Mindfulkind book, Mindfulness Teacher and blogger at Rachelcable.com. Each week this podcast will bring

meaningful tips, tools and strategies so you can manage stress and live more mindfully in the modern world.

Hello and welcome to episode 323 of the Mindful Kind podcast. I'm excited to talk about something

interesting and a bit relevant to my own experience right now called the status quo bias. So back in 1988, two researchers

called William Samuelson and Richard Deccauser found that people tend to have a very strong

preference for things to stay the same. When faced with an important choice, people were more

likely to choose the option that allowed for things to stay the same.

And I think in many cases, this bias can actually be helpful.

When you develop positive and meaningful routines and maintain those routines, you can save time and mental energy.

Sometimes the status quo bias can encourage you to stick with options that

you know you like or that you know work well, which can lead to less stress and good experiences.

But sometimes the status quo bias or our preference for things to stay the same can hold us

back from making changes and taking on new opportunities.

And so far in 2022, I personally have been challenged a lot to let go of the status quo bias,

and it's been pretty great. My partner, actually now my husband, Deck and I move to a new town,

and a lot of things changed really quickly.

Our routines got shaken up and we had the opportunity to rebuild them and prioritise things that are important to us and there have been lots of little chances to

try new things and challenge the status quo.

Instead of going to one cafe that we know we like, we've been visiting different places and eating new foods.

We've been trying new types of exercise and making new friends.

And a few weeks ago, I applied for a new full-time job and even though I was really nervous about changing the way I work and being in a new place and having completely different routines, it was also kind of exciting.

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