Circle with in A Circle thinking
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Life’s challenges often feel like an endless cycle, much like the imagery evoked in “The Windmills of Your Mind”:
“Round like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within a wheel
Never ending or beginning on an ever-spinning reel.” (Windmill of your mind)
This perpetual motion mirrors the repetitive patterns of stress, anxiety, and self-doubt that many experience. Events such as sudden illness, loss of a loved one, personal trauma, or feelings of rejection can trap us in these cycles. These experiences may lead to thoughts like “I am not enough” or “I don’t belong,” creating a mental loop that’s hard to escape. It just doesn’t seem to stop….
The circular thinking for many if us creates restlessness a sense of never being able to stop. This thinking can interrupt our sleep, our peace and our ability to feel loved, or enough or wanted. And it can be changed. Quickly.
M. Scott Peck, in his seminal work The Road Less Traveled, begins with a profound truth:
“Life is difficult. This is a great truth, one of the greatest truths. It is a great truth because once we truly see this truth, we transcend it.”
By acknowledging and accepting life’s inherent difficulties, we can begin to break free from these cycles.
Strategies to Break the Cycle:
- Release the Need for Answers: Not all events have clear explanations. Accepting that some situations are beyond our understanding can alleviate the pressure to find meaning in every hardship.
- Extract Positive Learnings: Every challenge presents an opportunity for growth. For instance, feelings of isolation can teach resilience and the importance of seeking supportive communities.
- Align Expectations with Reality: Unrealistic expectations can lead to disappointment. Recognizing that life is unpredictable helps in developing resilience. As Peck notes, accepting life’s difficulties means they no longer hold power over us.
- Recognize Life’s challenges do not limit you. They empower you. You can create more, develop a wider range of thinking. More possibilities and then more discernment, more clarity and most important less freezing up.
One way to move from the circular thinking that seems to rage in your head is to try this exercise. Get a feeling or vision of the thoughts racing in a circle in your mind. Then speed them up. After they are moving fast an it seems nothing else can get in. Change the circle to a square, where you have to slow down at the corners to make the turn. Focus on the square. Most find their thoughts slow down and answers and positive actions can arise. Try it and let me know in the comments how it worked.
By embracing these thoughts and approach we can transform our perspective, turning life’s windmills from obstacles into opportunities for growth and self-discovery.
If you look at this and still have the circular thinking the never ending race in your mind. You can find help with the right coach. How to release the unreleasable it a hall mark of what we do. The challenge is not the thinking it is the “how” . Want to explore this in more depth scheduled a free coaching introduction.
Jack Stanley B.C.C.
Coaching Life Change tools
