The Ladder of Looping Thoughts: How They Work and How to Use Your Power Wisely
A Practical Guide to Rewiring Your Thinking and Building Resilience
Looping thoughts are the unspoken cycles that play out in our minds—repetitive thought patterns that can either propel us forward or keep us stuck. Based on Marisa Peer's RTT framework, looping thoughts follow a clear structure: thoughts create feelings, feelings create behaviours, and behaviours reinforce beliefs. Then the loop starts again, as beliefs impact our thoughts. This cycle continues unless we trip the wiring.
Two of the core Rules of the Mind are that your mind believes what you tell it, and what you focus on, you get more of. When we become conscious of our thought loops, we gain the power to shift them. This understanding applies to everyday life, relationships, teaching moments, and personal growth. It's how you shape your reality. The ability to change these loops is rooted in the principles of Growth Mindset (Dweck, 2006), which tells us that intelligence and abilities are not fixed—they can grow and adapt with the right mindset.
When you change your thoughts, you change your world.
The Ladder of Thought Loops
To better understand how these looping thoughts work, imagine a ladder. Each rung represents a step in the thought cycle. The loop is the same for negative or positive thoughts, leading to reinforced negative or positive beliefs and habits. But the good news? You have control over your thoughts.
Negative Loop Example:
• Thought: I don't feel good enough
• Feeling: I feel sad and helpless
• Behaviour: I stop trying at things
• Belief: I am not good enough
This cycle often goes unnoticed, repeating daily and reinforcing feelings of inadequacy (Seligman, 2011).
Positive Loop Example:
• Thought: I am capable of learning and growing
• Feeling: I feel motivated and empowered
• Behaviour: I take action and give things a go
• Belief: I am capable and getting better every day
This aligns with Growth Mindset principles, where belief in one's ability to improve triggers positive cycles of action and confidence.
Making it Practical: How Thought Loops Influence Everyday Life
The ladder framework is an easy and effective tool for adults and children alike. It simplifies the understanding of how our thoughts shape our behaviours and beliefs, making it accessible for classrooms and personal reflection. The simplicity of the ladder visual helps both young minds and adults grasp the concept that they have the power to shift their mindset and experience.
The power of understanding thought loops is that they're applicable to everyday challenges, moments of self-doubt, interactions with others, and even the expectations we set for ourselves. It's how we set the scene for our experience. If you wake up and think, "I'm dreading today," your mind focuses on that expectation and begins to filter your experience to prove it true. Conversely, starting with "I'm capable of handling what comes my way" sets a different cycle in motion.
Cognitive restructuring, the act of changing how we perceive situations, has been shown to reduce stress, improve personal outcomes, and shift habitual thinking (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2015). It's about consciously creating better experiences through intentional thought loops. This is the essence of a Growth Mindset—the belief that change is possible with practice and intentionality.
Ladders:
THOUGHT / FEELING / BEHAVIOUR / BELIEF
NEGATIVE LOOP: I don't feel good enough / I feel sad and helpless / I stop trying at things
POSITIVE LOOP: I am capable of learning and growing / I feel motivated / I am capable and resilient
Climbing the Ladder to Better Thoughts
• Create the Ladder: Draw a simple ladder with four steps—Thought → Feeling → Behaviour → Belief.
• Identify the Loop: Think about a negative thought you've had or one that pops up frequently. Write down the thought that started the cycle, how it made you feel, what action it led to, and what belief it reinforced.
• Flip the Thought: Complete the ladder again using a more empowering thought. For example, "I can do hard things," or "I'm learning from this experience."
• Reflect: Observe the changes in your feelings and behaviour and how it impacts your experiences.
This exercise is powerful because it aligns with the Rules of the Mind. Practising these intentional shifts can reshape your day-to-day experiences and your underlying programming.
Looping thoughts are powerful, and knowing how they work is the first step toward change. Shifting thought loops is about enhancing everyday life, improving relationships, and building resilience. When you change your thoughts, you change your world. And if you find there are looping thoughts that are particularly stubborn or difficult to shift, it may be that they are connected to deeper underlying beliefs or past programming. This is where Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT) can be a powerful tool. RTT works to identify and rewire the subconscious patterns that keep those looping thoughts in place, offering the opportunity for real, lasting change.
The ladder framework provides an easy tool to break free from negative loops and intentionally climb towards more empowering beliefs. With practice, you can guide your mind to focus on what serves you, creating more of the experiences you want and less of the ones you don't.
Michelle Domenghini
Michelle Domenghini is a passionate RTT practitioner and the founder of Mind Your Mind, where she helps clients overcome stress, anxiety, and sleep challenges through Rapid Transformational Therapy (RTT). Specialising in stress, anxiety, and sleep symptoms, Michelle empowers individuals to debug and upgrade their programming, breaking free from limiting beliefs and creating lasting change.
Through RTT, Michelle guides clients towards lasting mindset transformation, helping them achieve healthier, more fulfilling lives. She is dedicated to helping people feel seen, valued, and equipped to make meaningful changes that positively impact their lives.
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