Thought loops

Thought loops

Thought loops, or mental ruminations, are unproductive chains of ideas. Our brain loves to think, and our mind never wants to stop, even if it ends up tormenting us. Why this feeling of mental torture? Because the mind’s role is to stay active: it avoids boredom at all costs and feeds on these repetitive thoughts. Anxiety, meant to alert us to danger, then becomes additional fuel for catastrophic scenarios that never happen. The harder we try to stop these loops, the more we reinforce them. Only awareness of this mechanism, followed by a moment of calm without struggle, can finally break the spiral. For these ruminations always revolve around the same insecurities: identifying these recurring themes gradually reduces their hold.

Bringing the mind back to the present

Anxiety often arises from projecting ourselves into a future perceived as threatening. Our “anxious self” accumulates past traumas and anticipates a hostile world. Each of us carries scars and insecurities that must first be acknowledged before they can be processed.

To step outside the ego and return to a more peaceful “self”, we can draw inspiration from the concept of **ahaṃkāra*¹: it refers to the ego, that sense of individuality attached to our fears and pride.

¹ Ahaṃkāra (Sanskrit, अहंकार): the notion of the ego as an obstacle to inner freedom.

Imprints of the past: samskaras²

Every experience leaves unprocessed emotional traces in our unconscious, called samskaras. When they reawaken, they cause suffering and anxiety in the present.

² Saṃskāra: in Patañjali’s Yoga Sūtras, these are the subtle mental imprints of our past actions that condition thoughts (vṛttis).